The nation's rapid development has been based on the modern, the scientific and the technological, with the youthful population of this "green silicon island" more at home with mobile phones, computers and other gadgets than many of their Western counterparts.
But old traditions die hard, and even young Taiwanese will seek out the practitioners of an ancient technique to give them advice on love, their career and investments.
While Western culture has come to look suspiciously on the crystal balls, Ouija boards and tea-leaves reading of fortune-telling, in Taiwan, divining the future is more popular than ever. Putting a figure on how much Taiwanese spend on fortune-telling is difficult, but one survey estimated the industry to be worth more than NT$5 billion in 2002.
So why, in a society that has so warmly embraced technological development, do so many people place their faith in a craft that is so difficult to explain scientifically?
One reason is that maybe it works, or at least people believe it might work. Chen Sung-yun (陳松筠) is perhaps typical of Taiwan's modernity. She studied in the West, speaks English and works for a mobile-phone company. But when the 25-year-old seeks help for a personal problem, she prefers the anonymity of a fortune-teller to the personal advice of friends or family.
The first time she went to a fortune-teller was after she broke up with her first boyfriend. The fortune-teller told her the guy was unsuitable for her and that she would do better without him. She found the words comforting and moved on.
"After I broke up with another guy, I went back to the same fortune-teller and he told me the same thing, but eventually I got back together with my boyfriend again," she said. "So I can use the words or not. It's just a tool for me."
Love and relationships form the bulk of questions to fortune-tellers, followed by work problems.
Fortune-tellers estimate that about 70 percent of their clients are women, who may also ask them about how many children they will have and whether their spouse is cheating on them. Men tend to seek investment advice.
The methods employed to explain the present and future are almost as varied as the people who use them. While some methods, such as mi gua, which involves dropping grains of rice into wooden dishes, appear to cynics as too simple to possibly be useful, other methods are complex and take years to learn.
Fortune-tellers emphasize that their work is based on science, usually astrology, rather than any special ability on their part to see into the future.
Cici Fu (傅瀚瑤) has been a fortune-teller for more than three years and uses an astrological technique called zi wei dou shu, which requires the client provide details of their birth, including the hour and place. The information is used to produce a chart, which Fu then interprets.
The chart can be produced by a computer, which is what usually happens at the Web site that Fu works for, but the interpretation requires skill and practice, an art Fu says can be very accurate.
"Because zi wei dou shu builds upon details of your birth, we can produce a map of your life, identify the point you are at now, and see why you are doing what your are doing," Fu said. "We can help people understand the mysteries in their life and future."
Fortune-telling's purported accuracy is perhaps one of the reasons it has been so ingrained in Chinese culture. As well as the Gregorian calendar, Taiwanese have been brought up using the lunar, or farmer's calendar, which indicates what days are good to get married, move house or install a stove.
Most people are also aware of, even if they cannot understand it, the I-Ching, or the Book of Changes, which employs cosmology and philosophy to explain the process of life and the cultural basis of ancient China, giving fortune-telling a spiritual dimension some sociologists compare to religion.
"Fortune-telling can provide people with a world view, in the same way that Western religion can," says professor Lee Lichang (李力昌) at the Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences. "But unlike Westerners, who care more about salvation or fortune in the next world, Chinese care more about fortune or salvation in this world."
In Taiwan, the distinction between fortune-telling and religion is quite blurred, and fortune-tellers can frequently be found near temples, such as those in "Fortune-Telling Street," in the underpass at Xingtian Temple.
Like many people, Huang Ching-wen, a 36-year-old marketing manager at a Taipei hotel, tries to get the best of both worlds. Huang was recently promoted, but has to attract a certain number of new customers to keep her new title. So last week, she visited the Longshan Temple to pray that everything will go OK, then went to her fortune-teller to find out how she might meet her target and deal with the added pressure.
She consults her fortune-teller an average of twice a week, and says he has been quite accurate about her future so far, including the promotion. Although his usual advice is, "Don't think about things too much," this time he said she might struggle to meet the requirements of her new job, so she has to try harder.
Although temples usually frown on mixing up religion and folklore, Huang sees them as complementary. "Fortune-telling is pretty much the same thing as getting a reading at the temple, they just give you a hint," she said. "But I don't normally ask for a hint from Buddha, because he can't talk and the monks can't say exactly what's going to happen. The fortune-teller can explain in more detail how you can work your problems out."
While Huang and Chen said they would ignore the advice of their fortune-tellers if it didn't seem reasonable, many are willing to let themselves believe that their fate can be divined, if only as a form of counseling, a function most fortune-tellers are willing to acknowledge.
A survey by the John Tung Foundation found that 13 percent of people living in Kaohsiung have problems with depression, and that 65 percent of those tried to address their problems by visiting fortune-tellers.
Fu acknowledges that people in Taiwan will visit fortune-tellers like herself in the same kind of situations that people in the US would visit a psychiatrist.
"In Taiwan, people see psychology as an imported idea practiced by foreign doctors," she said. "People have a bad impression of it from the movies, so they feel more comfortable seeing a fortune-teller, because then people won't think they are sick in the head."
Sometimes it can be the fortune-teller who seems to have gone crazy. Several years ago, Taiwanese newspapers reported the story of a movie star who sought a Cesarean section 35 weeks into her pregnancy because her fortune-teller had advised her to have the baby as soon as possible.
Professor Lee sees the benefits of fortune-telling for those with problems, but nonetheless regards excessive reliance on the practice as potentially damaging.
"If you do not believe it, then it can surprise you. If you believe it whole-heartedly, you certainly will be disappointed," he said. "It provides people with a `stability,' for they have something to believe, or to refer to, in a time of uncertainty.
"The bad thing is that people lack the courage to be responsible for their own lives and make their own decisions. Fortune-telling usually becomes an excuse," he said.
Those who visit fortune-tellers say that they don't necessarily believe everything they are told, but that they just want some advice or suggestions. Like Huang, people will become repeat customers of the same fortune-teller, evidence the fortune-tellers say, that their forecasts are accurate.
But as Lee says, fortune-tellers also have to be "customer oriented," and if they cannot make their custo-mers feel better about the world, they may lose out. Chen says if she feels really down, she'll go to several fortune-tellers until she finds one that tells her everything will work out.
"I won't really follow their guidance. I just want to know things will get better," she said. "A modern person like me shouldn't visit a fortune-teller too often."
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