Chapter 3 The cultural phenomenon

3-1 The fortune-telling in Taiwan
Fortune-telling has been very popular in Asian countries, especially in Taiwan. Following the advances of technology, such devotional behaviour is superficially labeled by people as “superstitious”. In reality, there are indeed many so-called “modern people” who still aspire to predict the future through these pseudo-religious ceremonies. With the development of computer technology, a host of religious rituals have started to flourish on the Internet. Using an input instruction on the keyboard, one can predict one’s own future. The fortune-teller has turned into a program package. For example, clicking a mouse with a random computerized probability, one could toss the sticks and ask for his or her prediction. Anyone who wishes to switch on a Blessing Light could simply click on a few buttons from a temple webpage and the blessing could last for the whole year. The phenomenon here seems to illustrate an interesting relativity in that, faith is in fact an expectation for oneself and one’s future; and rituals are a kind of confession of one’s innermost being. Differences in cultural background also affect religious rituals. In Taiwan, there are various fortune-telling practices, including birds, turtles, date of birth and eight characters of the horoscope, face profiles and palm reading, not to mention heaps of other unrecorded rituals.

Youth Want, a local questionnaire centre in Taiwan has commissioned an academic questionnaire to study “The social behaviour and system of trust based on the usage of online fortune-telling in year 2005”. According to the questionnaire, 62% of interviewees think that what is predicted as going to happen, will happen in the end (YouthWant 2005a). The result that has emerged is that a great number of Taiwanese are believers in fatalism. In the same year, Youth Want carried out another survey titled “Untie the mystic veil of fortune-telling, research on social behaviours of fortune-telling”. In this survey, 57% of the interviewees admitted that their behaviours would be affected by the fortune-teller if the prediction were negative (YouthWant 2005b). They would feel sad or depressed, or even experience a psychological pressure and burden. Simultaneously, a great number of the interviewees think that fortune-telling can be deemed a kind of psychotherapy, which can help people to find comfort for their soul and spirit.

Everyone seems to have doubts about their unpredictable future. Even if people cannot justify whether future telling is a reliable science or an occult practice, they are still affected and depressed by negative predictions in fortune-telling. In the course of the interviews with 12 fortune-tellers from Taiwan, it is probably no coincidence that they all indicated that during the process of telling fortunes, they always highlight the good things to their clients. If they see any bad sign about the client’s fate, the fortune-teller will convey the message indirectly to their client. Based on the above mentioned surveys and my own analysis of interviews, the conclusion is that: Regardless of the degree of accuracy in fortune-telling, most people believe that fortune-telling is a kind of psychotherapy which also includes finding comfort for one’s anxieties and hopes.

The Federal Government of Australian has announced that The Future Prediction Association of Australia will regulate the industry by requiring any person or organization purporting to predict the future to undergo a year-long process of accreditation during which their ability to predict the future will be tested. Some predictions by fortune-tellers have had devastating effects on the lives of the people they are supposed to help. For example: when an Adelaide grandmother visited a psychic in late April she received ominous news of a death or serious illness to an immediate family member. After three weeks of sleepless nights worrying about the health of her family, she won first prize in a lottery and her family continue to be in good health (Chica Loca 2006, 29 May). The message emerging from this news is that predictions by fortune-teller indeed affect their clients.

There is a strong correlation between the enormous vogue of fortune-telling and the unique political structure of Taiwan. The notions of time and space are the main ideas in Chinese cosmology, interacting with folk culture and religion, such as destiny, feng shui or the Chinese horoscope. The extension of fortune-telling culture spreads through all Chinese society, particularly in Taiwan, which not only shows the increasing impact of religions permeating Taiwanese society, but serves as a symbol of the real society. Owing to the essence of the economic society, the system of hierarchy and changes to the political structure have made a great change for the religious faiths of Taiwanese. In Taiwan, in the face of national anxiety, many people believe in the efficacy of prediction. No matter what their professed religion, the folk faith of Taiwanese is in a benevolent God who grants what people pray for. Because social change has caused a sense of uncertainty in Taiwan’s people, the belief in an efficacious God turns into a kind of force, driving the relations between folk faith and social change toward each other (Wu Hui Giao 2005, p. 32). In a research article titled “the observation of religious society in Taiwan” Wu hui giao has analysed three important attitudes of religious faith among the Taiwanese:
A).People rely on a broad practice system, emphasizing the doctrinal notion.
B).People put their hope for various realistic desires on their religion, thus enhancing the social base of the worship of several Gods.
C).Both the folk religion and social life have had an impact on every kind of association, driving the social function of the religion to be fully embodied. (Wu Hui Giao 2005, p. 37)

Since the 16th century, Taiwan had been colonized by many different nations continually until the 20th century. Even if Taiwan has now its own government, it is still unable to stand at an international level due to the sensitive relationship between mainland China and Taiwan. These political factors have caused a lack of security and the fear of a puzzling future for Taiwanese, so people base their hopes and wishes on their religious faith. Since people believe that fortune-telling has the supernatural power to predict the future and answer doubts perhaps fortune-telling is a kind of religious therapy that helps free people from their worries.

Fortune-telling seem to be a kind of marginal knowledge, as an extension of the extreme materialism of early forms of contemporary science, practices that traded in the invisible were marginalized, relegated to the position of superstitions or amusements(Ken Feingold 1995, p. 399). But fortune-telling qualifies as a major stream in Taiwan still, for example in the naming of a newborn baby, the Feng Shui of buying a new house or office, marriage, education etc. From upper class to common people in Taiwan, it seems impossible for all Taiwanese to leave the major stream of doing fortune-telling. The following photos show the emerging of fortune-telling in Taiwan.

(This is a fortune-teller who sets his business in a night market street every night.)

(This is an underground passage in Taipei, where one can find every kind of fortune-telling service. Many Japanese visit this place and approach the fortune-tellers to seek their fortune. Thus, most of the shops here provide Japanese interpretation services.)

(A Lonely Planet program broadcast on Australian SBS Channel on 11th August 2006, showed how fortune-telling has become popular in Taiwan. )

(In Taiwan, there are many different kind of TV programs showing the daily forecast of constellations. )

(One TV program broadcasts the methods of palm reading, leading audiences to compare with their own palm prints while watching the program.)

(This TV program leads its audiences to participate in psychometric activities, such as Tarot or Mandala predictions.)

(A Japanese TV program introducing the culture of fortune-telling in Taiwan.)

3-2 Fortune-telling practices in Taiwan
I have researched the most popular fortune-telling practices and rituals in Taiwan, shown as following:

3-2.1 The eight characters(八字)

The eight characters are used in a similar way to how western astrologers calculate a client’s horoscope according to planets’ positions at their time of birth. Pairs of characters (from the list of heavenly stems and earthly branches-天干地支) are ascribed to the time, day, month and year of birth, which shows the “Eight characters.” The eight characters prediction is the most popular form of fortune-telling used by Taiwanese people, especially for senior fortune-tellers. The eight characters are like a kit of passwords, every one has got their own numbers, and they can be formulated into a table to predict one’s fortune and analyse one’s personality according to their position on the table. With reference to ancient Chinese astrology, each year, month, date and time has its own special numbers as its weight or value. Therefore, a birthday tells the destiny of one’s whole life through adding the year, month, date and the time of the birth.

In general, people will send a copy of their eight characters to their future in-laws before getting married. In earlier times, if problems were found when the characters of the prospective bride and groom were “unmatched”, this could be taken as a reasonable ground for breaking off the engagement. In current practice, eight characters prediction has been used as part of the pre-wedding ritual. If there appears to be some incompatibility of characters, the marriage ceremony will be made as simple as possible.

3-2.2 Nameology

Generally speaking, Chinese people have three characters for their full name: the first character follows the family name, and the other two characters named by their parents serve as a given name. For prediction purposes, the surname is designated “ innate”(先天) while the given name is “acquired”(後天). In telling one’s fortune by names, there is always an unseen meaning behind these three characters. To read the meaning of the name, we have to consider the calculation of the number of strokes used in writing the character, and to discover the characters of the five elements within the name, such as Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, which are ascribed to concepts of I Ching. In fortune-telling, the name represents the character of its owner, and has an impact on their future. Thus, nowadays in Taiwan, there are many people have changed their names in order to have a good fate for the rest of their life.

Generally, the Chinese name consists of three characters: the first character is the family name, representing the relationship between the individual and his parents. The second character represents the personal characteristics of the person who owns the name, and the last character represents the relationship between a person and his or her offspring.

3-2.3 Feng Shui

Feng Shui is the location of a person's house and (or) ancestral grave, supposed to have an influence on the fortune of a family and his or her offspring. It is a traditional Chinese method of connecting the human and social worlds in an auspicious alignment with the forces of the cosmos, including “Qi”(氣) and yin-yang. Specialists, who are also called diviners, use a compass as an instrument to determine the exact cosmic forces affecting a site. An appropriate site will be chosen particularly in relation to bodies of water and mountains. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online, Feng Shui affects the interior design of a house, a building or an office.

The Feng Shui compass is used to indicate the right direction and ideal position to place things belonging to a person. This special compass does not merely show the direction of east, west, north and south, but also encompasses factors of the five elements, which is ascribable to the concept of I Ching. The I Ching provides each hexagram with a name, activity, state, situation, quality, emotion or relationship, as well as a “judgment” and a “prediction”. According to a newspaper article, on the average, 70% of bosses have spent about $NT 920,000 (A$32,800) to change their Feng Shui conditions. (Chen Su Ling 2004).

3-2.4 Chinese Horoscope:

The manner of prediction using the Chinese horoscope is based on the “eight characters”, which are arranged in a table (命盤) and used to fathom other characters are added in the “mansions”(宮) around the central table. These mansions cover such aspects as basic fate, health, occupation, family, and moving home. The constellations and planets play an important part in each of the mansions (Caltonhill Mark 2002b, p. 31). There are 14 main planets and 94 auxiliary planets, so 108 planets in total influence people’s destiny. Each planet has its own character. Some planets represent good luck and auspicious fortune. Simultaneously, there are some planets representing bad luck and misfortune(Yisuan). Therefore, the arrangement of these planets classifies people’s fortunes by distributing both auspicious and unlucky planets into the position of each mansion. Chinese Horoscope prediction can predict very tiny things relating to people’s fate, for example, the skin color of one’s husband, the number of children one could have, the figure of one’s future wife, etc.

There are 12 mansions in the Chinese horoscope table. The 108 planets may be distributed into 12 mansions ascribable to a person’s name and to his or her eight characters. Because each planet has its own character, and each mansion represents the variable aspects of person’s destiny, the interpretation of prediction by Chinese horoscope will therefore be read according to the position of these 108 planets in the table of mansions.

3-2.5 Body features(人相)

There are many classifications which branch from body features, such as facial feature interpretation, palmistry, prediction by voice, or even making a prediction by touching one’s body in order to read a figure of bone. Reading body features can reveal one’s past, present and future, concerning all matters related to one’s life. For instance, diagnosing one’s personality, predicting fortune, reading relationships between family and friends, describing one’s career development and so on. This kind of prediction focuses on the observation of people’s complexion. Its sounds easy, but in actual fact, it is the most difficult part of prediction. The reason is that the prediction needs to consider every matter related to a person’s complexion, and to do this, the practitioner needs time to accumulate experience to be able to make a sound and accurate prediction.

Prediction fortunes by facial features is common in Taiwan. The use of facial reading depends on the size or proportions of the facial features. There are many features that can be read as a message of a person’s destiny. For example, the size of the mouth is a metaphor of a person’s emotion. If the mouth is big and the lips are thick, it means the person has a strong susceptibility. On the contrary, if the lips are thin, it means the person maybe heartless. Besides, each portion of the facial features represents the age of the person. The reading starts from the forehead, and ends at the chin. The forehead represents the age before 30, and the portion between eyebrows to the end of the nose means the age from 30 to 50, from the philtrum to the chin stands for the age after 50.

The position and the colour of the moles on a person’s face represent different aspects of a person’s fate. Moles located in an auspicious position can bring good fortune to the person. Similarly, the wrong position of moles can bring bad luck to the person as well.

Palmistry is the reading of character and telling the future through the interpretation of lines and undulations on the palm of the hand. In palm reading, there are four kinds of shapes which guide palm readers to interpret people’s personality: the earth-shaped hand, the wind-shaped hand, the fire-shaped hand and the water-shaped hand. Besides these four shapes, there are four main palmistry lines to indicate people’s features, such as life line, head line, heart line and fate line. Palmistry has existed for thousands of years. Due to an increase in the knowledge of genetics and advancement of the scientific recognition system, many people now believe in lines emerging from both hands as representing the psychology of oneself. Palm lines are interpreted to reveal behaviour, emotion, life direction, health, intelligence, and profession. In addition, these lines change gradually due to time and changes in one’s personality. Therefore, when people have an optimistic and positive mindset, they will think that they hold their fate in their own hands. In contrast, there are also many people who do not have an optimistic view. They believe in fatalism and they think that destiny controls everything in their life.


3-2.6 Practicing prediction by the I Ching:
There are sixty four kinds of changes based on the basic prediction of I Ching, also known as The Book of Changes. This is a complex calculation, using methods of an ancient science by bringing the basic elements into a variable application which cannot be explained in modern scientific terms. The Book of Changes is, according to one noted scholar, “an assorted and jumbled compilation of omens, rhymed proverbs, riddles and paradoxes, snatches of song and story, drawn from popular lore and archaic traditions of prediction. “The Chinese character “易” means “change,” and the annotated hexagrams are said to represent the images or structures of change in the universe. Their interpretation therefore provides an understanding of these changes, future as well as past (Caltonhill Mark 2002a, pp. 30-31). However, the ancient science is sufficient to explain the rhythms of the universe, of the past, present and future.

There are many kinds of prediction using different instruments such as birds, tortoises, ancient coins, leaves, etc to predict answers for people. In fact, almost everything can be used as an instrument for making a prediction (Chen Yu Wen 2001, pp. 12-13; Xie Da Hui 2006). The practice of prediction by tortoise or bird is a basic prediction method for asking a single question at one time (Chen Yu Wen 2001, pp. 12-13). This method is useful when the client has a doubt in their mind, and has difficulty making a decision. For example, moving home, changing their jobs, getting married, or making an investment decision. Following is a video shows a great diversity of practicing prediction by the I Ching.

3-2.7 Chinese Graphology:
Chinese Graphology is a form of fortune-telling through studying a Chinese character written or chosen by the client. To predict a question by Chinese graphology, the client has to write down one word as a clue for the prediction. At the same time, the predictor tries to say what is the person’s doubt and to navigate a direction for the client. In practice, Chinese graphology will ask the seeker to give the first and foremost impression of that word during the process of prediction. The concept of this action can be interpreted thus: while the thought of asking for prediction emerges, the mystic power is being switched on, and somehow there is a muse who delivers a message from a mystic power.

3-3 Fortune-telling vs. the digital age
Nowadays, in a highly developed digital era, face to face is not the only way for doing fortune-telling; digital technology is often used instead. For examples, inputting the key word “fortune-telling” in the Google search engine results in about 1,500,000 relevant pages. Inputting the Chinese characters of fortune-telling “算命”( pronounced “suan ming”) in the Google search engine, about 6,950,000 results appear for this key word, not to mention heaps of other relevant key words.Owing to the convenience of access to internet media, and its advantages over individual ability, online fortune-telling has emerged as a great marketplace for high-tech people. It may sounds strange in a so-called scientific society, but it is a real phenomenon in Chinese society, particularly in Taiwan. According to a report on the investigation of contemporary superstitions, there are approximately 30% of students who believe in fortune-telling and psychometrics, considering it as a supernatural phenomenon with rational scientific validity. Furthermore, 38% of students have used fortune-telling services, and about 40% of students deemed that using fortune-telling in the manner of I Ching is a constructive part of Chinese traditional culture, regarding it as an unknown science. According to this report, investigators named this behavior as “hi tech superstition” (Shan Chun Gang & Chen Xiao Hu 2005).

An academic questionnaire from YouthWant shows that 96% of the interviewees have used online fortune-telling services, and that most of them have used a fortune-telling service once a year at the least. However, that questionnaire also shows that even if the numbers of those using online fortune-telling service are rising, interviewees are still in doubt about its validity. (YouthWant 2005a). Furthermore, the questionnaire that I have constructed for this research shows more or less the same result as the foregoing; nevertheless, most of my interviewees indicated that they do not believe in fortune-telling completely, but have respect for it, no matter if it is online or face to face. According to the results of my questionnaire, 60% of the interviewees will do rituals that the online fortune-telling program requests them to do, even if most of the interviewees think that the motivation of searching help from fortune-telling is for fun only. In addition, 80% of the interviewees strongly agree that going to fortune-tellers is a private matter, and the less people know about it the better (Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng 2006). As we can see from the research outcomes, fortune-telling online has considerably more advantages than traditional face to face fortune-telling, because it is easy to reach and ensures privacy for internet users.

Following are three case studies on fortune-telling websites which are all located in Taiwan. They are not only famous and running well, they are doing a real business online and gaining big money from internet users. As we can see, the fortune-telling culture in Taiwan has established its incredibly successful marketplace in both the traditional and the internet market. Here I am looking at two perspectives from each case study in order to analyze the special manner of online fortune-telling practice, such as the type of fortune-telling, and the nature of its interface design; I will then analyse and integrate these two perspectives into a conclusion.

◆Fortune-telling practice: a brief introduction to each website, and a list of every kind of fortune-telling practice from that site.

◆Interface design: the study of the visual design of each website, together with its interaction between users and each of its fortune-telling practices.

◆Conclusion: Analysing the practice of fortune-telling and the interface design of each project, compounding and integrating from the perspective of my creative project, I will then find out the features and advantages of each project to draw on the development of my creative project.

A). Website title: Fateasia dot com http://fateasia.apol.com.tw/

◆Fortune-telling practice: This website is considered one of the biggest online fortune-telling services in Chinese society. It contains many kinds of fortune-telling practice, such as star signs, Tarot, Numerology, Body features, The I Ching, The Eight Trigrams, Feng Shui, Nameology, Transforming fate, Alternative prediction, prediction by foreign practice, prediction by Short Message Service (SMS), and prediction by phone numbers.

◆Interface design: Relaxed and graceful is the first impression from Fateasia dot com; it consists of a pellucid structure together with a mild color strategy, such as light blue, mauve, rose pink and light green etc. Perhaps this is because the majority of its customers are female. However, the visual design creates a harmonious virtual environment for its internet users. Moreover, most of the fortune-telling practices on this website are creative and contain good interaction with its users, in terms of interface design, such as icons, items and a game perspective to induce users’ motivation to participate. Following are some screenshots from Fateasia dot com, interpreting the quality interface and interactive design of its online fortune-telling.

◆Conclusion: Being stylish and creative seems important for an online fortune-telling practice, hence being a successful online fortune-telling agency is not merely about the accuracy of its predictions, it is also relevant to its interface and creative manner of fortune-telling; in the case of Fateasia dot com, such as Alternative prediction, prediction by foreign practice, prediction by Short Message Service (SMS), and prediction by phone numbers. Furthermore, based on my observation, due to defects of internet media, such as its distance from its users, there are some fortune-telling practices which are not perfect for use on the Internet, such as Feng Shui and body features. On the other hand, prediction by the I Ching has unexceptionable features for use online, in the sense of its natural characteristics of mature interaction with its user.

B). Website title: HeroIT http://www.click108.com.tw/index.php

◆Fortune-telling practice: HeroIT is a website which emphasizes a scientific approach to its fortune-telling through high tech media, such as computers and the internet. Chen cheng shu, the director of HeroIT, has a lifelong interest in researching on the scientific perspectives of Chinese Horoscope, and he is famous for this concept, particularly in this digital era. There are seven kinds of fortune-telling practices utilized in this website: Chinese horoscope, Numerology, Tarot, Numbers, the I Ching, pre-existence and Chinese graphology.

◆Interface design: The major colors used by HeroIt web pages are purple and blue, creating a sense of high technology for its users, which may be attributed to Chen cheng shu’s practice of emphasizing fortune-telling in a hi-tech manner. However, the visual design in this website is not particularly creative or visionary in terms of its interaction and interface design. Most of its interaction with its users merely requests users to input information to the website, such as names and keywords.

◆Conclusion: Seeking for efficacious beliefs is a popular custom for the majority of Taiwanese, therefore people believe in spiritual prediction, such as pre-existence, supernatural powers and ESP. However, the director of HeroIT website Chen cheng shu claims that his fortune-telling practices stand on scientific truth. However, he still uses the concept of pre-existence to induce users to pay for inquiring into their previous life and next life, even though we know that is not to up to date “science”. In this case, perhaps we can assume that online fortune-telling practice attempts to suit the needs of its users, due to its broad marketplace. Moreover, the interface design of HeroIT attempts to draw its reality from traditional fortune-telling practices, for instance, the turtle shell and the tai chi sign. There is also a similar style for the majority of online fortune-telling websites, which may be considered as online traditional fortune-telling.

C). Website title: VeryName http://www.veryname.com

◆Fortune-telling practice: The director of the VeryName website, David Lin, is the master fortune-teller of the particular specialty of Nameology, hence the majority of fortune-telling services offered on this site are based on the practices of Nameology. However, the VeryName website utilizes question types instead of fortune-telling types in its main page, such as marriage/ love affair, career/ wealth, yearly fate/ Chinese horoscope. Nevertheless, the foregoing fortune-telling practices are all combined with the basic manner of Nameology.

◆Interface design: the visual design of the VeryName website consists of cute versions of Chinese painting, utilizing red, blue and brown colors which are considered as the symbolic colors for traditional Chinese painting.

Regarding its interactive design, there is not much creative interaction with its users, perhaps due to its focus on Nameology practice, which is not like prediction by drawing lots or the I Ching, which require strong interactive tasks from their users.

◆Conclusion: the director of the VeryName website, David Lin, has two Master’s degrees in electric machinery and commerce. That seems the trend for fortune-tellers: they do not follow the old-fashioned practices for fortune-telling, but rather do fortune-telling with hi-tech and fashion. It is normal in Taiwanese society that highly educated people and company leaders seek help from fortune-tellers, thus fortune-tellers have to upgrade themselves in order to remain credible to their clients, especially in online fortune-telling services. Moreover there are three special sets of fortune-telling services offered by the VeryName website: Love affair, Marriage and Career. We may infer a conclusion from these offers, that love affairs, marriage and career must be the top popular questions that most users have inquired about on this website. In reality, this inference is in line with my interviews with fortune-tellers and internet users, love affairs and careers no doubt are the most popular questions for fortune-telling.

3-4 Conclusion and future work
The great development and massive common practice of fortune-telling culture in Taiwan has generated a great effect upon the operation of Taiwanese society, becoming a well known feature of Taiwan. To combine with the perspectives of both art and culture, I therefore chose this folk convention of fortune-telling as the theme for my creative project. According to the large numbers of participants who have ever sought for fortune-telling help, utilizing the theme of fortune-telling perhaps will enhance the motivation of internet users to participate in my creative project, at the same time pointing out such special phenomena of Taiwanese culture to an international audience, as a form of artistic creation.

With reference to the foregoing online fortune-telling case studies, there are variations in prediction practice which have been invented due to the development of the digital era, such as prediction by cell phone number or SMS. However, based on my investigation and analysis on the operations of doing fortune-telling behind the scenes, most of these creative prediction manners can be ascribed to the calculation of the I Ching. Perhaps the practices of online fortune-telling in the digital era can be a creative extension of traditional fortune-telling. For examples, the notion of feng shui inside one’s computer desk, such as locating icons on the desk, taboos about cataloging files in computers, rituals for managing finances through computers, and so on. In short, these possibilities of creative online fortune-telling practice will be taken into account for my creative project.

In sum, in terms of the characteristics of interaction and the rationality of prediction by computers and the internet, the manner of prediction by the I Ching applies better than other kind of fortune-telling practice. Thus I chose the I Ching as the concept for my creative project. According to the analysis of my interviews with twelve famous fortune-tellers, in prediction by the I Ching it does not matter what media or tools one uses. A strong faith in the efficaciousness of the I Ching is important for getting an accurate prediction. Therefore, all the rites before starting prediction are merely actions purposing to help users gain a peaceful mind and generating their faith in prediction. Thus, the research into all kinds of fortune-telling instruments and rites that I have written in the early section of this chapter will serve as reference materials for the interactive concept of my creative project.