Prince Charles has proposed using Feng Shui to make London’s Chinatown more authentically Oriental.
In a set of design proposals released today, the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment said Feng Shui, the ancient art of designing and arranging buildings to ensure a favourable flow of energy, and Chinese mythology will play a major role in Chinatown’s designs.
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A full report will be published in September.
http://www.propertyweek.com:80/story.asp?sectioncode=297&storycode=3119714&c=1
And HRH doesn’t seem to be the only one who's buying into those ancient Chinese "energies" – Feng Shui looks set to become Big Business:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/canons-report-how-use-feng/story.aspx?guid=%7BDEE394B2-2DBF-44CB-8110-FC09B9D8F754%7D&dist=hppr
HRH has surely got to the stage now where he is just humouring people? Surely?Originally Posted by Blue Wode
Well if Chuckie babes wnated to use feng Shui for it's stated purpose of "improving enrgy flows" or somesuch then we all know he's on a hiding to nothing. A little thought and common sense about ergonomics can be a good thing bt once you try to make hard and fast rules about it then you can find that your placing hurdles in the way of effective layouts:-
"Yes I would like to use that door but I need to put a bowl of water in the way in the sourtheatern corner to accentute the flow of elemental chi and attract money Which is all the more important now I can't leave the house to go to work."
However that's not what he's saying. He's saying that it would make it more "Chinese"
That raises the question of whether Feng Shui is really an integral part of contemporary chinese life or is it like curry and export larger - a totally british british corruption we attribute to foreigners for the sake of image.
I don't know but I do wonder where the Prince of Wales gets off telling a Chinese community how to be more Chinese. Surely if Feng Shui were an integral part of Chinese culture then we'd already see it's influence in Chinatown.
That's a really good point. I would say that the image we have and perpetuate of the Chinese is merely a cultural stereotype - and not a particularly flattering one at that!
I think it was members of CSICOP who went over there in the 90s (IIRC) and they found that the Chinese are no bigger (in fact slightly smaller) users of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) than we are! That may have been relevant to Chinese cities mind you but it does indicate that where the Chinese have access to scientific medicine that that is what they use. They use TCM in much the same way we use alternative medicines.
I suspect that it's the same for things like Feng Shui.
If I were Chinese, I doubt I'd be too impressed with being stereotyped as a user of herbs, acupuncture or feng shui. Like I said, it's not a very flattering picture.
Last edited by Admin; 1st August 2008 at 06:15 PM. Reason: Changed PSICOP to CSICOP - I bloody knew it didn't look right!
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The trouble is that people tend to humour him.
What a complete waste of DNA Charlie Windsor is. The only thing I like about his mum is the fact that by staying alive she's keeping him off the throne!
Is he telling them how they can be more Chinese, or is it just he wants them to know how inclusive and diverse society should be in the UK? Let everyone practice their cultural beliefs even if they are a load of nonsense. I'm maybe saying the same thing as you Matt.
Perhaps Charlie could ask his dad...
I was going to say that when I saw this mentioned on the JREF. I suspect it's some good old fashioned racism coming through. This actually reminds me of a relative. I have a great aunt in South Africa (or at least I did, I suspect she must be dead by now). She's one of the nicest people you could meet. Of course, being part of a fairly rich, white family in the apartheid era she had black slaves, or badly paid servants or whatever they chose to call them. And she was extremely nice to them. Proper houses, good food, enough money to live well and even have some luxuries. Even pensions and medical care after they stopped working for her. But there's one comment I'll always remember. She said how she's given them new carpets in their houses "because they don't think of these things themselves, you know.". Although she was as nice as anyone could be, she was by far the most racist person I've ever met, and it was clear that she really did believe that black people were less than human. She was nice to them, but in the same way other people are nice to pets.
The point is, I think this is what Charlie is doing here. He may mean it in the best possible way, but he almost certainly thinks that the Chinese quarter isn't feng shuied not because the people living there really don't care, but because he thinks they're not capable of doing it for themselves. What they need is for some generous white people to look after them. Admittedly it's better than Prince Phillip's attitude, but it's rather sad to see in anyone less than 100 years old.
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