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Explainer | What is villain hitting? Voodoo-like Chinese practice is not as sinister as it sounds
- Villain hitting, a Chinese ritual to wish ill on another person, is popular in Hong Kong – fortune-tellers break down the practice’s history
Reading Time:3 minutes
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Learn the ins and outs of feng shui, villain hitting, and fortunetelling as well as the dos and don’ts for cultivating good luck in our series on Chinese superstitions.
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Ceremonial candles. Names and dates on a piece of paper. Hitting that paper with a shoe before burning it.
This is the Chinese practice of da siu yan, or “villain hitting”, to wish ill upon another person – which we promise is not as sinister as it looks and sounds.
Siu yan literally translates to “little person”, and its use here to denote a “villain” is something of a misnomer. The first indication of this is the period in the Chinese lunisolar calendar based on the 24 solar terms that villain hitting usually takes place.
Jingzhe, or the “awakening of insects”, is the third solar term and it falls about a month after the beginning of spring. Old Chinese sayings such as “once the awakening of insects comes, spring ploughing never rests” reveal jingzhe to be an important time for farmers.
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