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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