Hong Kong’s Covid restrictions throw feng shui masters off balance

Hong Kong’s feng shui masters are reeling from a double blow dealt by the city’s tough zero-Covid regime and its growing work-from-home culture.

Specialists in the ancient Chinese practice said the territory’s stringent quarantine restrictions on incoming passengers had cost them lucrative opportunities overseas.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, feng shui masters said they used to travel about a dozen times a year outside the territory, especially to mainland Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen to offer consultations to wealthy businesspeople at their homes and offices.

Feng shui, which means “wind” and “water” in Chinese, is a traditional practice that aims to arrange buildings, objects and space in an environment to achieve harmony and balance.

Commercial feng shui can involve studying office views, floor plans, the location of departments and even staff seating to determine whether the arrangement can attract prosperity and good health. Many local and international companies in greater China have sought feng shui consultations to create auspicious workplaces.

But it is not just overseas work that has dropped off. Some practitioners complain that the switch to working from home in Hong Kong has led to a precipitous fall in demand for their services from financiers and executives in some of the city’s prime office buildings.

“With many people working remotely, the demand has naturally been lower,” said Kelvin Poon, a former banker at Citi and DBS who began pursuing a career in feng shui in 2015.

Many of Poon’s clients work in the city’s Central financial district, including investment firms, banks and hedge funds. Consultations cost about HK$15-HK$25 (US$1.90-US$3.10) per sq foot, which means practitioners can charge tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars for each office visit.

But when a fifth wave of infections struck Hong Kong during the lunar new year holiday in February, which is typically the peak season for commercial feng shui consultations, demand fell by more than 20 per cent, said Poon.

“Many big corporations did not allow many staff to come into the office during the outbreak. If you are not going back to the office for most of the time, then you are basically physically detached from the energy and chi flow there,” said Poon, referring to the flow of energy.

Jacky Wong, another feng shui master with more than two decades of experience, said consultations for small and medium businesses, particularly those in the retail industry and restaurants, had fallen by up to 50 per cent this year.

“The outlook for us is unclear. Who knows when the tough social distancing measures may come back? Many businesses are already not making money,” said Wong.

Authorities have responded to past surges of Covid cases by banning in-house dining or restricting the number of people allowed to dine together.

Omicron cases are rising again in the city as the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants spread in China. On Thursday, the territory reported more than 3,600 infections.

Local and foreign businesses in Hong Kong have repeatedly urged the government to drop quarantine requirements and ease restrictions to revive the economy, which suffered a 4 per cent contraction in gross domestic product in the first quarter of the year.

Dixon Dai, a former creative director at a big global advertising agency before switching industries in 2009, said “significantly more” of his commercial feng shui clients had asked for discounts this year.

The economic squeeze has prompted feng shui masters to add their voices to the pleas to relax Covid measures. “If the feng shui sector is to return to its booming days,” said ex-banker Poon, “border [reopening] will be very important”.