As the Chinese zodiac switches into the Year of the Dog tomorrow, Hong Kong feng shui experts predict anything but a walk in the park for global leaders.
Born in another dog year, 1946, US President Donald Trump faces a run of bad luck, according to soothsayers, as his zodiac animal clashes with this year’s canine theme.
Feng shui is influential in many parts of Asia, where people adjust their lives and carefully position items, such as a cup of wine or pieces of crystal in offices and homes to maximize their luck and wealth.
Photo: AP
The philosophy says that all events are dictated by the varying balances in the five elements that make up the universe: metal, wood, water, fire and earth.
Trump’s birth date makes him a “fire dog,” but this year is an “earth dog” year, a mismatch of elements.
The fire in Trump’s own birth chart will foment and affect his health, feng shui master Thierry Chow (周亦彤) said, while his words — the fire element also represents speech — might bring about “real problems” and tangible consequences.
“The elements are too much fire and too much earth, so that’s going to be causing him imbalance in his fortune,” Chow said.
Chow uses the “flying star” system to make her predictions based on constellation positions, foreseeing more tensions between the US and North Korea, which is afflicted by the most malevolent number five star.
She also warned of the risk of crossed wires between Trump and China on the thorny issues of trade and the economy.
“The seventh star is falling onto the east side — the star affects communication, it causes gossip and misunderstanding,” Chow said.
Feng shui runs through life in Hong Kong, with many people seeking advice from masters before making important life decisions, from picking a wedding date to choosing a new home.
Major companies also employ their own feng shui consultants to dictate interior designs and give investment advice.
Each year, brokerage firm CLSA comes out with its own Feng Shui Index, predicting what the next 12 months holds for the business world.
For this year, it divined that the Internet, utilities and technology sectors would perform with flying colors.
All are categorized as “fire-
related” industries and would do particularly well between May and July, feng shui experts said.
However, with the territory’s bourse going through a rollercoaster of highs and lows, CLSA advised a cool head to navigate the earth dog market.
“The dog represents duty and loyalty and is a sign of defense and protection,” the company said in its public predictions.
“Entrepreneurs should stick with their most loyal clients, and investors are advised not to bite off more than they can chew,” the brokerage said.
Away from politics and finance, Chow predicted a happy wedding for Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who are to tie the knot in May. The earth element represents royalty in the Chinese calendar and combined with the image of a candle associated with May in the traditional almanac the elements are aligned for a day of celebration.
“I think it will be very smooth — it will bring very good things to the country and good energy to the world,” Chow said of the marriage.
The rivalry between Asia’s two biggest countries has extended into outer space. After India’s landing of its Chandrayaan-3 rover on the moon last month — becoming the first country to put a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and breaking China’s record for the southernmost lunar landing — a top Chinese scientist has said claims about the accomplishment are overstated. Ouyang Ziyuan (歐陽自遠), lauded as the father of China’s lunar exploration program, told the Chinese-language Science Times newspaper that the Chandrayaan-3 landing site, at 69 degrees south latitude, was nowhere close to the pole, defined as between 88.5 and 90 degrees. On Earth,
SCIENTIFIC TREASURE: Preserved building blocks from the dawn of our solar system, the samples would help scientists better understand how the Earth and life formed NASA’s first asteroid samples fetched from deep space on Sunday parachuted into the Utah desert to cap a seven-year journey. In a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 100,000km out. The small capsule landed four hours later on a remote expanse of military land, as the ship set off after another asteroid. “We have touchdown,” mission recovery operations announced, immediately repeating the news since the landing occurred three minutes early. Officials later said the orange striped parachute opened four times higher than anticipated — at about 6,100m — basing it on the deceleration rate. To everyone’s relief, the
Venezuela’s Tocoron prison was like a town all unto itself, boasting restaurants, a pool, a zoo, a playground for inmates’ kids and so much more as a powerful gang ruled the roost, using the facility as a criminal operations center. “Steak House. Enjoy,” read a sign on the wall of one of the restaurants in the prison, which thousands of soldiers and police stormed this week. Tocoron is empty of the 1,600 prisoners who lived here and have been moved elsewhere. Gone is the gang that controlled it — Tren de Aragua, which has tentacles in various Latin American countries. “Life was nicer
A little-known former shipping executive and ex-Goldman Sachs trader on Sunday pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Greek political history after winning the leadership of SYRIZA, the main opposition party. Stefanos Kasselakis, 35, is a self-styled self-made entrepreneur who says he wants to promote transparency, boost labor and social rights, speed up justice, and eliminate perks for bankers and politicians. Picking up more than 56 percent of the vote based on preliminary results, he defeated four other candidates — three of them prominent SYRIZA former ministers — after a whirlwind campaign mostly waged on social media. “We want a Greece where
RSS