The fate of a fortuneteller

By Kelvin, Leong Ka Hoi

Settling himself down on a small chair in his own booth near a noisy street, Cheong begins his 4-hours of work in the San Ma Lu area. Being a fortuneteller, it has always been a delightful and relaxing job for him.

It may be a misperception that fortunetellers can foresee everything. However, there is no doubt that they have more experience and understanding of life than most of us because they encounter human stories almost every day. Cheong, who has been working for 38 years in this field in Macao, shared his own story with us.
"I was so interested in metaphysics when I first came across with this stuff," said Cheong. "I began to read books about it, and later, I became a student of a master, who taught me different ways of fortune telling, and then I began to find
this job enjoyable."
"It's your fate that determines your life," a common saying in metaphysics, a study that investigates people's fate through metaphysical elements like the four pillars (a Chinese conceptual term that describes the four components which create a person's destiny. The four components within the moment of birth are year, month, day, and time), physiognomy (face reading), etc. Cheong is a metaphysician who
mainly works on fengsui (wind-water), palm reading and physiognomy. "We can indeed change a lot, I think. It's our character that makes our words worthy."

Some people may consider fortunetelling as a superstition. However, every person has his/her own difficulties in life. The reason that people visit a fortuneteller is that they want to have a secure feeling towards the future, no matter whether they are going to have weal or woe. As a fortuneteller, the interpretation of a client's future can affect him/her in either a positive or negative way.

"My master told me everyone had his/her fate, we made people get to know about it but we couldn't change much," said Cheong. "We can indeed change a lot, I think. It's our character that makes our words worthy."
People who receive positive comments should not be overjoyed, on the other hand, people who receive negative comments should be reflective and improve their shortcomings, explained Cheong. He revealed that although some people did not want to hear negative comments about themselves, it is fortunetellers' responsibility to alert them of the risks ahead and also instruct them on how to solve the problems.

"I once met a client who claimed that he was always unlucky in casinos, the existing problem for him was not his fate, but his habit that was killing him," said Cheong. "He was out of control in gambling. I told him about the consequences of continuing gambling and warned him to stay away from casinos. Afterwards, I learned from him that he did not dare to gamble again."

Having interpreted so many clients' fortunes, how would a fortuneteller interpret his own fortune?

"My life is always going smoothly," said Cheong, "but as I am growing older, I cannot guarantee much on my life. I can just promise to help more people and do more charity."
Cheong believed that fortunetellers should lead people to the right path, just like what religion does. One should not do nothing with his/her life and just let his/her fate determine it. He also revealed that fortunetellers should be responsible for what they say because they can change peoples' lives.
Nowadays there are many new versions of fortunetelling, such as horoscope, tarot, etc. Their ways of foreseeing are contradicting the traditional ones. Cheong was glad that more and more people are participating in various types of fortunetelling and he hoped that the new ways still benefit people in the way that they alert and instruct them for the troubles ahead of them. After all, if one is so much in trust with you, you should try your best to help them and don't let them down, revealed Cheong.

Chinese fortunetelling, better known as suan ming (Chinese:算命, literally "fate calculating") has utilized many varying divination techniques throughout the dynastic periods. Common methods are face reading, palm reading, Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗數), four pillars, and so on.