Discuss the following reports from residents of Hong Kong (taken from “Hong Kong’s Feng Shui: Popular Magic in a Modern Urban Setting,” by Charles F. Emmons, Journal of Popular Culture, Summer 1992).

a. I have a little restaurant in Aberdeen, a seafood place facing the sea. I used to be on the other side of the street and had very bad business. The feng shui man told me that it should face the sea. Now I have very good business.

b. I am a guard at a dockyard. The Westerners there believe in feng shui. They changed the entrance to the place because the old one was unlucky. They also put out a [shiny] wok to deflect the bad luck, and a fok dzi [the Chinese Script character for good luck] upside down to bring luck in rather than out. All the workers there feel a lot better now and are in better health.

c. There were a lot of car accidents on the slope we faced, and even a murder upstairs from there, so we put up a fork and mirror to eliminate the killing atmosphere. The mirror faced east and reflected the morning sun. A guy across from us came over and said he had been sick since we had put the mirror up, and asked us to take it down. We did, and then he said he hadbeen well after that. But we moved to another place then.

d. Feng shui is what causes radios to work better facing one way than another.