Suntec city, Grand Hyatt Singapore and the Singapore Flyer all share a common aspect where feng shui (风水) or geomancy was applied in ensuring continued prosperity or profitability of their businesses. More than just an application to property location and architecture, fengshui is more popularly employed in interior design and décor of homes, where various water features (and aquariums), wind chimes, sculptures (of auspicious mythic creatures and/or historical characters) and plants are carefully situated to ensure the continued prosperity and peace within the home. This helpfully explains the popularity of aquarium fish such as the (golden) arowanas and the lucky louhans (flowerhorn cichlids) as well as the quintessential “lucky bamboo”, which is referenced as 富贵竹 (prosperity bamboo) or 开运竹 (lucky bamboo).1
Feng shui consultations have been increasingly popular and there are Christians who are uncritically drawn into its appeal because feng shui is perceived as a quasi-scientific practice based on specific observations of the natural order. It is also promoted as a neutral (or amoral) practice, grounded in Chinese cosmogony. Furthermore, many uncritically acquiesce to the practicality of fengshui solutions— such as the inclusion of plant and aquatic lifeforms to add to home aesthetics. This is further fueled by our Singaporean “kiasu” and “kiasi” mentality in adopting a “better to be safe than to be sorry” approach. While there have been some Christian responses to the practice of feng shui (most of which adopt a hermeneutic of suspicion, often without a balanced appreciation of the Chinese worldview), the ubiquity of these feng shui practices especially even among Christians is perhaps indicative of the pragmatism of Christians in Singapore.
The concept of feng shui originated in China and has its roots in Chinese cosmology. Not unlike the Greeks and other early civilisations (such as those of the magi of the east in Jesus’ time) who looked to the heavens, the ancient Chinese developed similarly sophisticated methods of astronomy in seeking to better their understanding of the order of the universe. What was “out there” in the heavens was regarded as having a correlation with all that in this world. In his research on feng shui, Mah Yeow Beng, quoting Stephen Field of Trinity University, noted that:
“The earliest textual reference to the practice of site selection occurs in various similar passages on oracle bones dating from the middle of the Shang dynasty (1766–1046 B.C.E.). Royal diviners (fortune-tellers) queried Shang Di, the High God, by interpreting cracks appearing in heated animal bones.”2
From the above, it is well attested that fengshui clearly predates the triad of Chinese religions, namely Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. While it is often presumed to have originated from Daoist praxes, various scholars posit that such a claim is hard to be determined, though it is undisputed that Daoism evidently employed such practices in concert with the premise of “learning from nature and observing the natural.”3 Yeow Beng noted also that “feng shui cannot be attributed to any particular faith but is really a product of the ancient Chinese religious worldview”4 and further embellished by the Chinese religions, most prominently religious Daoism. The employment of the 五行 (wuxing or five elements—the Chinese perspective of the elemental structure of all things), together with the concept of 气 (qi—the vital force that pervades all living matter) helps to articulate the principle of living in harmony with one’s environment so that the positive qi or energy surrounding a person can work for, rather than against, him or her.
Increasingly, historians are of the view that feng shui was first utilised to provide the orientation of burial sites as a means of fulfilling the aspirations of the departed, which included the continued prosperity of the progeny.5 Not unlike formal religion in early Chinese dynasties, fengshui was thus employed specifically within the imperial context. It was during the Han Dynasty that fengshui became formally integrated into Chinese imperial governance, with court officials conducting geomantic assessments in order to ascertain the auspicious siting of the capital cities, imperial palaces and imperial tombs.
The practice was further interpreted through Daoist texts (most significantly through the I-Ching, the Book of Changes) and influenced by Daoist masters. Amidst dynastic changes, feng shui came to be utilised in the siting of not only burial places of the dead but also the houses of the living.
The Christian faith we hold on to is based largely on Western categories and it is oftentimes suspicious of worldviews and cultural perspectives that does not align with the Judeo-Chrisitan or Western worldview. There is hence a tendency to be dismissive of anything and everything that seems somewhat at odds with what we regard as “biblical truth”.
The Christian faith we hold on to is based largely on Western categories and it is oftentimes suspicious of worldviews and cultural perspectives that does not align with the Judeo-Chrisitan or Western worldview. There is hence a tendency to be dismissive of anything and everything that seems somewhat at odds with what we regard as “biblical truth”. Examples include our perception of the Chinese dragon, the Christian view of traditional Chinese medicine or such controversial practices as Qing Ming and Chinese funerary rites. It often seems that to be Christian is synonymous to renouncing one’s ethnic or culture. Yet the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 has made it clear that Gentiles do not need to become Jews (or adhere to Jewish customs) in order to follow Jesus. Thank God for Acts 15, that we are not prohibited from eating our char kway teow, bak chor mee, char siew rice and sambal stingray! The importance of a contextual Christianity where one can continue to be a Christian and also retain one’s racial distinctiveness, needs to be emphasised. It was the Bishop Daniel T Niles, who wrote:
“It is inevitable that the missionary should bring a pot plant, the Christianity of his own culture; it is essential that he allow the pot to be broken and the plant to be rooted in the soil of the country to which he goes.”6
There has been commendable effort at better appreciating some of these contextual issues, through the works of Kua Wee Seng, Lai Pak Wah as well as Mah Yeow Beng.7 More needs to be done. In his dissertation, Yeow Beng noted that “understanding of the Bible and Christian theology together with understanding of the culture and folk practice and its theology seem to be common factors in enhancing contextualisation.”8
It is important to note that both meteorology and topography are two important factors that in different ways do influence all humans in their living and working. The Bible does not deny this. A better contextual understanding of feng shui may perhaps “lead to breakthroughs in theological thinking such as a critical and closer connection between creation and redemption theologies.”9 As Christians, we perhaps need not be too dismissive of the logical aspects of feng shui practices (such as having a plant in the home or ensuring that your apartment does not face an east-west orientation).
We need, however, to be cognisant that the practice of feng shui privileges self-autonomy in seeking to meet our existential needs in place of our reliance on God. It presents a one-time quick fix for the maintenance or attainment of health and wealth and is interested more in self-promotion and self-preservation than in the biblical teaching of contentment and loving God and loving our neighbours.
We need, however, to be cognisant that the practice of feng shui privileges self-autonomy in seeking to meet our existential needs in place of our reliance on God. It presents a one-time quick fix for the maintenance or attainment of health and wealth and is interested more in self-promotion and self-preservation than in the biblical teaching of contentment and loving God and loving our neighbours. Furthermore, the divination praxes employed by the feng shui masters are also directly contradictory to biblical teachings.
In the gospel accounts (Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:36–41; Luke 8:22–25), we have a record of Jesus calming the winds and the waves—an act that underscored that He is the Lord of the universes. More than even, as Christians we need to place our trust in the One who has absolute control over the winds (风) and the waves (水)—it is in Jesus, that we have the true feng shui Master!
Rev Dr Andrew Peh is a lecturer in mission and world religions at Trinity Theological College (TTC). He is an alumnus of TTC as well as Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, USA. He is ordained as a diaconal minister in the Chinese Annual Conference of The Methodist Church in Singapore and is attached to Bukit Panjang Methodist Church.
1 Botanically known as dracaena sanderana, it is categorically not a bamboo.
2 Mah Yeow Beng, “Critical Contextualization of Chinese Folk Beliefs and Practices: Fengshui as a Case Study” (PhD diss., Asbury Theological Seminary, 2004), 53.
3 One of these scholars include such as Julia Ching, Chinese Religions, (New York: Orbis, 1993), p154ff.
4 Mah, “Critical Contextualization,” 54.
5 Stephen L. Field, An Overview of Ancient Fengshui, 2011, https://fengshuigate.com/overview.html.
6 Daniel T Niles, That They May Have Life (Harper and Brothers, 1951), 80–81.
7 Kua Wee Seng, “The Dragon of Revelation and the Dragon of Chinese Culture,” IMPACT Magazine, October 2025 and Lai Pak Wah, The Dao of Healing: Christian Perspectives on Chinese Medicine (Graceworks, 2018).
8 Mah, “Critical Contextualization,” 158.
9 Mah, “Critical Contextualization,” 86.
