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Star Radio Broadcast
The Fortune Teller
Wherever you walk in Yiwu, you may pass by this scene. A man – mostly dressing like a Buddhist monk – is sitting in the streets, holding the hand of a man or a woman, looking closely at their forehead or their palm and speaking in a mysterious way!
Let me introduce to you one side of the Chinese culture; the fortune teller!
I have heard these words many times, words like: (Bagua) I’m not even sure I spell it right or wrong, fortune teller’s sticks, how to tell the personality from the face, the Chinese Zodiac circle, and finally; whether it’s good to marry this man or not!!!
I remember a student of mine, from Yong Kang, she once told me sadly that her parents refused to let her marry her boy-friend, just because they don’t have matched Zodiac! Oh my … To that extend the fortune teller and fortune telling can affect people’s life in China!
One more thing; I noticed many small shops that nearly are selling nothing, when I asked my wife, she told me that these shops sell names!!! What???!!! I didn’t get it. “Ok, wait you Laowai”, she shouted, “These shops sell names, meaning; a father or a mother, someone who is expecting a baby, or going to open a new shop goes to these shops to help him determining when is the best time he should have a kid, and what is the best name he could name his future kid after, or what is the best name he could choose for his future business.”
What do I think? It is not that easy to tell; but still will not be hard at all.
I don’t believe in fortune telling, I don’t believe that I can go to someone and he will tell me that I’ll live for another 20 years or something, or it’s better for me not to marry this girl, that this job will not suit me, or whatever nonsense he will say, I can’t never ever believe in something like this.
However in the matter of personalities, I believe that there could be matching, good matching and bad matching. But still I find it hard to simply go to someone that can tell me that Dog doesn’t match with Dragon, and that Rabbit’s best match is Pig!
Will he propose to me?
Shall I marry her?
Shall I accept this job?
You will have a long life.
You will not have much money.
You will buy this house.
These questions and phrases give me such a great headache. I believe that all is just a pure nonsense, just a total waste of money and time.
What about you?!
Comments
Wed, 04/27/2011 - 19:32
In my opinion ,nobody can control our fate, destiny is in our hands.once i had ever met a fortune teller when i was a middle school student Accidently a fortune teller came to our village .At that time ,i think that what he said was pretty right ,because he has the ability to judge a stranger(..of..i am sorry ,i do not know to type ..of ..) personality and experience percisely .so i was eager to calculate sticks by the fortune teller because of curiosity .but my mother stopped it and said to me ："if you calculate sticks ,i promise that you will regret sooner or later .after that ,you may live your life according to his words .More seriously ,you may be trapped on your way to your dream .you must rember that nobody can predict future and nobody can control our fate ,destiny is in our own hands ." .so until now ,i still belive my mother(of) words . but tell you the truth ,i am really admire those fortune tellers who can estimate a person (of) personality and eaperience accurately through their look and behavior .they are really clever .
Wed, 04/27/2011 - 17:32
I never believer the fortune teller, because I believe fate is in my own hand, no one can predict it. Maybe, the fortune teller can tell me something right according to my face and palm, but, if a person has a lot of interpersonal experience and konw behavioural science or psychology etc. it's easy for him to tell something matching about me according to my behaviour and what I said not my face and palm.
Wed, 04/27/2011 - 16:25
Nobody can control our fate, destiny in our hands.
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 21:40
I had an expierence that my unlce told me something about my future ,job,marigge etc according to my face and my palm. To some extent, I belive some phylosophy from Taoism,or the eight diagrams used in divination, however,for my future,i'm more believe that it's in my hand even though it had been predicted,whether it is good or not.
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 17:48
Okay, I have to "set the scene"...many years ago I took my family on a vacation to my hometown. One day we had lunch at McDonalds. When we were very close to the front of our line my wife asked me "Is there anything you need to tell me before we get to the front of the line?" I looked up and the young man at the cash register was a "dead-ringer" for me when I was 16 or 17 years old! (Dead-ringer means he looked just like I used to look!) Of course, I told her that I had no idea why he looked like a duplicate of my High School yearbook photo - because I really did not!
Fast forward ten years...My wife and I are on vacation at the beach and she wants to go to an "palm reader". We go...and when this woman is reading my palm she tells me I have two sons - but I only know of one! Was the "dead-ringer" in my hometown actually my son? I will never know!
But I became a little less skeptical about "fortune tellers" that night!
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 14:35
This is a really good topic. I am sitting here eating lunch and I think I passed a few fortune tellers on my way. There are always people around them. Some people really do believe this stuff.
The question I have always had is this...
Even if you CAN know your future, do you really WANT to know your future? Why even try to know? Isn't it better just to let life happen? Life is full of surprises...sometimes this is good..sometimes this is bad...but this 'mystery' about the future is what adds passion and intrigue to our lives!
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 17:07
Thanks Star, your words inspired me for a debate topic for the site zoon.
If someone offers you to know your future, would you accept this
And yet another idea just came to my mind
If there is a Time Machine, what would you use if for?!
Please start these two debates, I'm very excited to read the comments
Sun, 04/24/2011 - 22:28
In my opinion,Chinese lack of belief,so we have to find something to rely on about the future or the things happened around us. We are not like other counties people who have their strong Religious Belief. ....You know,sometimes,the predictions from the fortune teller are dramatically true,then that will actually strenghen that "belief".
Mon, 04/25/2011 - 07:56
I totally agree with you. It's hard to live without a believe, without faith.
Some neglect that we aren't just bodies, we are bodies and souls. We need to feed the body and keep it clean. And we also need to feed the soul, keep it strong and pure.
Chinese ever tell you that "I believe in ME", it seems that it's not enough.
Mon, 04/25/2011 - 22:41
I really like the word "pure" that you used to describe soul. As you kown,in nowadays of china,there are more and more Bad Things happened about food,just because of the profits and then neglect moral conscience ,so many people sell their soul to money,we can hardly find the so-called "pure"soul.
As a result of lacking of belief,we didn't have a standard to guide our beheviors,then disaster happened.
Can share with me your belifef or your standard to do and comment on things~~~~I am really looking foward for that~~~~
Sun, 04/24/2011 - 21:40
Well, honestly, I have been encountered two fortune teller in my life. One is a Hk man, who is a friend of my cousin, help people change the name. He told a lot of fates of one's life. My cousins believe what he said about the past and future. He is mainly talking about one's personality and can tell your character from your name. Actually I am tired of the superstition and I do not pay any interests to him. But, once he talked with me, just konwing my name, what he told was quite matching about me. I did not know why it was so magic.He advised me to change my name but did not force me to do it. And I was not going to change cause I did not really believe him. The second time just happened one year ago. A lady, who is my association ,famous for telling fortune. That experience quite impressed me, cause she "invited" a supernature being into her and predicted my future.Before she "hex", I need to paid her 20 or 30 yuan which is up to me and bring some fruits. All in all, she told me my life was prosperous and had a good fortune in the future. I did not feel very happy cause I had decieded no matter what she said, my life still going on. To sum up, I do not want to be a superstitionist, I belive myself and I believe my life is grasped in my own hand.
Mon, 04/25/2011 - 07:46
I'm a little confused.
If he and she told you many things that were right , why you couldn't believe in them?
What makes you still not beleive in these matters?
I think if I were you I'll just try to see how they know to prove whether it's worthy or not.
Mon, 04/25/2011 - 19:58
Why I do not believe maybe simply because I do not want to be a superstitionist and I just believe my fate is grasped on my hand. They can not prove it , they predict it just from your name and birth. Maybe our name and the time we born do relate to our fate. BuT I do not want to listen to them about my unknown future. If one tell your future, it seems, your life is settled, that maybe nonsense. So no matter what they predict, I just listen and let them go, continue my life.
Wed, 04/27/2011 - 17:15
Fate is in my own hand. I don't believe the Fortune Teller.
Definitely, nowadays,there are many people especially old people superstitious .I maintain the reason why them believe fortune-telling is that they lack in confidence .
In my opinion, seccess and happiness is earned by myself by hard work continually,rather than what the fortune-teller said to me.
in a word , FATE is in MY own hand.
Sun, 04/24/2011 - 15:42
Whether before or now，there are still a lot of people will believe in fate.
Now many people think the fortune teller is also a kind of careers.
Mon, 04/25/2011 - 07:40
I also believe in fate.
But I don't believe that someone can predict my fate.
There is a fate for each one of us, but no human being can predict it just by looking on your hand or get it from your name. Don't you say?!