Feng Shui, Fortune, and Fraud in Hong Kong

Introduction: Feng Shui in Colonial Hong Kong

Feng shui in Hong Kong was first documented for a Western audience by E.J. Eitel in 1873, in the first book on the subject ever written for non-Chinese readers. Eitel was a German missionary and inspector of Hong Kong schools who reported a number of instances in which Western construction projects had angered the Chinese community and provoked riots and disturbances, because they had supposedly upset the gods and the spirits of the ancestors. A new road to the Happy Valley was being built, and the "Chinese community was thrown into a state of abject terror and fright, on account of the disturbance this amputation of the Dragon's limb would cause to the Feng Shui of Hong Kong" (Bruun, 2003, p. 56). When Western engineers and workers began to die of fever and the new houses in the Happy Valley had to be abandoned because of malaria, "the Chinese triumphantly declared it was an act of retributory justice on the part of Feng Shui" (Bruun, p. 57).

Like most Westerners, Eitel regarded feng shui as mysticism, superstition, and mumbo jumbo rather than real science, but he recognized that the Chinese certainly took it very seriously. He argued that with the advance of education, progress, and modernity, such beliefs would eventually disappear — though this has not happened in Hong Kong, as the case of Nina Wang clearly demonstrates.

Feng Shui as Resistance to Western Imperialism

For the Chinese faced with Western imperialism and unequal treaties, feng shui even became a symbol of nationalism and opposition to Western cultural encroachment. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Chinese crowds frequently attacked Western buildings, railroads, and telegraph and power lines on the grounds that they had not been constructed according to feng shui principles and were therefore causing natural disasters, epidemics, and other misfortunes. This led to riots against railroads, tramways, and Western buildings, and increasingly the builders of these projects were often forced to relocate or redesign them so as not to disturb the spirits and graves of the ancestors (Bruun, p. 60).

The Chinese also commonly believed that the noise and smoke of locomotives, factory chimneys, and machinery caused similar spiritual disturbances. Popular movements such as the Boxer Rebellion of 1897–1900 used this belief as justification for driving foreigners out entirely. Particularly in Hong Kong, feng shui was "further stimulated by the continued presence of foreigners and the willingness of the British government to take it seriously" (Bruun, p. 65). For this reason, popular belief in divination and geomancy continued there into the present day, even though the official position of the Chinese government since the 1949 Revolution has always been that such beliefs and practices hinder the nation's modernization and economic development.

Nina Wang: From Property Empire to Probate Battle

In retrospect, it seems highly peculiar and ironic that feng shui could figure into the case of Nina Wang's fortune and the battle over her will, given that she was, on the surface at least, the epitome of modernization and one of the wealthiest property developers in the world. Teddy Wang's family had always disapproved of Nina, but the childhood sweethearts married in 1955 when she was eighteen. They never had children of their own and built their wealth by buying cheap properties and simply waiting years as Hong Kong expanded. Both were notorious for their miserly habits and even attended lavish banquets with Tupperware containers so they could take home leftovers. Nina was also quite eccentric, walking around Hong Kong in plaid miniskirts and pigtails dyed electric blue. She reportedly lived on a salary of $400 a month and ate regularly at McDonald's, even though she was the richest woman in Hong Kong.

Teddy Wang was too frugal to pay for bodyguards, which is why he was kidnapped by Taiwanese gangsters in 1983. When Nina secured his release, she paid a ransom of $11 million, but Teddy berated her for failing to bargain down the price. In his 1990 kidnapping, she paid only half of the $60 million demanded, and Teddy was never seen again. Instead, the kidnappers took him out on a sampan and "dumped him, gagged and bound, into the sea" (Donovan, 2002).

Nina Wang took over Chinachem after Teddy's disappearance and became its chief executive officially when he was declared legally dead in 1999. In the court battles over his estate, only the 1960 will — which divided everything equally between Nina and her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin — was uncontested. Wang Din-shin also produced a 1968 will naming him the sole heir, and claimed that Teddy had cut Nina out because she had had an affair with a warehouse manager. Nina countered that Wang Din-shin "smoked opium and had a mistress," while Teddy had also been unfaithful, and that pictures of various women were found in his safe deposit box after his 1990 kidnapping (Donovan, 2002). She claimed that they had later reconciled and produced a 1990 will leaving the entire estate to her. In November 2002, the High Court of Hong Kong ruled this will to be a forgery and upheld Wang Din-shin's claims, but the Court of Final Appeal reversed this decision in 2005 and awarded the entire estate to Nina (Fishkind, 2011). By this time, however, she was terminally ill with ovarian cancer and died two years later, which led to further court battles over the estate and additional charges of forgery — in this case against the self-described feng shui guru Tony Chan Chun-chuen (Tony Chan).

Conclusion: Fraud, Fortune, and Persistent Belief

The Chinachem Charitable Foundation held a 2002 will whose validity was never disputed, in which Nina Wang left all her money to charity. Included in this will were "plans for an Asian version of the Nobel Prize and a range of other charitable works, the funds being administered by the UN secretary general, the Chinese government, and the chief executive of Hong Kong's administration" (Blackman, 2008, p. 178). Chinachem's lawyers asserted that if the 2006 will was valid at all, she had only made it for "feng shui purposes so that she would receive eternal life" (Fishkind, 2011).

After a very careful examination, the Hong Kong probate court ruled in 2010 that the signature on the so-called Feng Shui Will was a forgery and awarded her estate to the Charitable Foundation. Tony Chan was later arrested on suspicion of fraud and forgery. The evidence indicates that he was simply a fraudster and con artist rather than a feng shui guru with genuine spiritual powers — a fitting conclusion to a case that illustrates just how deeply embedded feng shui beliefs remain in modern Hong Kong, even at the highest levels of wealth and commerce.

References

Blackman, M. (2008). Asia Future Shock: Business Crisis and Opportunity in the Coming Years. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bruun, O. (2003). Fengshui in China: Geomantic Divination between State Orthodoxy and Popular Religion. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

Burnham, S. (2011). The Art of Intuition: Cultivating Your Inner Wisdom. Penguin.

Donovan, D. (2002). "Wang's Legacy: Sex, Lies and Litigation." Forbes.com, November 22, 2002.

Fishkind, R. K. (2011). Probate Wars of the Rich and Famous: An Insider's Guide to Estate Planning. John Wiley & Sons.