A feng shui designer’s light-filled rental studio balances all the elements and is filled with vintage furniture packed with meaning

Thierry Chow Yik-tung, daughter of feng shui master Chow Hon-ming, makes sure all five feng shui elements are always on display in her Chai Wan studio

A cubicle staircase leading to a mezzanine and office multitasks as a bookcase and canine passageway in a space where she works, creates and meditates

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Thierry Chow Yik-tung’s Chai Wan studio, where she works and meditates, is filled with all five feng shui elements. Styling: Flavia Markovitz. Photography: John Butlin. Photography assistant: Timothy Tsang

Lee Cobaj

Published: 9:30am, 9 Jun 2021Updated: 3:49pm, 9 Jun 2021

“When I was young, I never wanted to get into the feng shui industry,” says Thierry Chow Yik-tung, daughter of Chow Hon-ming, one of Hong Kong’s most esteemed feng shui masters. But after studying for an applied Bachelor’s of Illustration in Canada and then falling into an unfulfilling job back in Hong Kong, Chow concluded that perhaps feng shui was her fate after all.

“I realised there was a lot of potential to bring feng shui to younger audiences and make it more modern. Once I opened up that door to myself, it felt like it was meant to be.”

Now, Chow is one of Hong Kong’s most sought-after feng shui designers and consultants, working on homes and retail spaces with some of the city’s hottest names, including JJ Acuna and Nelson Chow Chi-wai. Trained by her father, she has filtered traditional feng shui through her own prism, adding a more holistic slant and making its practices more accessible to millennials and Gen Z (defined here as the “post-95” generation).

Signs of Chow’s youthful feng shui philosophy are apparent in her rented Chai Wan studio, where she works, creates and meditates, accompanied by her three rescue chihuahuas, Potato, Zoidberg and Bender.

Set in an industrial building overlooking the sea, the 1,600 sq ft (149 square metre) studio has large windows that flood the space with natural light, as well as a cubical staircase leading to a mezzanine room and a sunny, glass-encased office, both of which were added by Chow. Her ingenuity ensures that all five essential feng shui elements – wood, fire, earth, metal, water – are always on display.

In the entranceway, a large fish tank aswirl with colourful guppies stands beside framed calligraphy (reading “Fate and Destiny”) and a large Himalayan Buddhist thangka (scroll painting used for worship in Tibetan Buddhism) depicting Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion.