Foong Woei Wan

Opinion | The year of being water – a Chinese astrological reading of Hong Kong in a challenging hour

It has been a turbulent Year of the Pig for Hong Kong. But believe it or not, an era of tender loving governance may be just round the corner

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Protesters on the march during a rally in Hong Kong on August 18. The water represented by a Pig year could have been a boon for Hong Kong, a Wood Dragon, but there is such a thing as too much water. Photo: AFP

Foong Woei Wan

Published: 10:30am, 24 Aug 2019Updated: 10:30am, 24 Aug 2019

A violent storm blows through Hong Kong with an unprecedented intensity, leaving a trail of broken glass, blocked roads and traffic disruptions, and the government comes under fire for failing to manage the situation.

That would be Super Typhoon Mangkhut, which hit the city on September 16 last year – a Pig day with an unusually forceful element of water, according to the Chinese almanac. But it could as easily be the protest actions that have engulfed Hong Kong this year, which happens to be a Pig year with an underlying element of water.

I am neither a fortune-teller nor a feng shui expert. I’m just a civilian who takes a geeky interest in Chinese cosmology, its poetic possibilities and its understanding of the interconnection of all things. Much ink has been spilled on how Hong Kong should move forward, but perhaps it would be useful to start from the beginning and see the city through the prism of ba zi, the age-old practice of analysing the eight characters denoting a birth time.

In Chinese astrology, hours, days, months, years and even decades follow the zodiac cycle. Hong Kong was reborn as a special administrative region of China on July 1, 1997, a Wood Dragon day, which makes it a wood sign. More precisely, it is a tree growing in wet, fertile earth, and its birth chart is a picture of a thriving forest: trees, a little stream, soil, sparks, starlight, sunshine.

When you are a wood sign, a suitable amount of water makes your world go round – it is mother’s milk, love and luck. Wood fuels fire or light, which is your productivity, and fire produces ash or earth, which is your money.

For a tree planted in the withering heat of summer, Hong Kong is in an enviable position. Although this Wood Dragon is flanked in the ba zi chart by a Wood Rat, a lucky tree that is even closer to the stream, there is enough water to go around and keep everyone fairly happy. (Could the other tree be Singapore or some other city? Your guess is as good as mine.) Besides, Hong Kong is capable. It keeps a little ecosystem running by tapping into water, radiating heat and producing earth to sink roots into. So far so viable, right?