Meshing fengshui with Western values

Growing up with a famous fengshui master for a father, Mark Tan never quite understood why people had such respect for what he did for a living.

This was despite the numerous poems and lessons about fengshui concepts and philosophies the elder fengshui Grand Master Tan Khoon Yong imbued in his son.

"I knew he went to people's houses, he gave advice, and people were happy with his service," said Mr Tan, now the CEO of Way Fengshui Group which grew from his father's fengshui consultancy established in 1984.

"But it was a very detached part of me."

Mr Tan began to appreciate Chinese culture when he was studying in an American university, and listened to schoolmates from Taiwan and China discuss the differences between Western and Chinese cultures.

In 2014, he convinced his father to let him take over the business and began incorporating a modern approach to fengshui in their company.

After persevering through a difficult first year that saw half of their staff leave, his hard work paid off, with revenue for the company of 25 staff increasing by 20 per cent each year since 2015.

Fengshui remains relevant even in a modern society like Singapore, said Mr Tan.

Singaporeans still consult fengshui masters for wedding dates and baby names, and more friends in his age group have been contacting him recently to learn more about fengshui.

Regular customers know to avoid Way Fengshui's peak periods from September each year until Chinese New Year of the next, when back-to-back consultations often leave Mr Tan and the consultancy's four fengshui masters with barely enough time for lunch.

Learning Chinese culture in a Western world

Mr Tan's interest in Chinese culture began through conversations with university schoolmates about their shared history and geopolitics, and differences between Chinese and Western cultures.

"They expanded my horizons and made me realise that in order for us to really understand the world, we need to first understand who we are and where our place is," he said.

Struck with a new zeal, he started reading books on Chinese culture and spent his summer holidays in Singapore absorbing his father's knowledge and contrasting it with his own Western education.

He understands that fengshui can seem abstract and dubious.

"(People think) it's religious, and that fengshui tends to sell itself a bit like Chinese medicine used to sell snake oil - as a panacea to everything. Fengshui is not like that, neither is Chinese medicine," said Mr Tan.

"It has to do with the culture and the way you think about life."

To explain how Chinese philosophy can be confusing in a Western context, he drew a parallel between the English and Chinese languages and how a patient could visit two traditional Chinese doctors and receive different diagnoses.

English words have precise definitions, while Chinese words can have multiple meanings in different contexts, he said.

Similarly, Western medicine requires a precise diagnosis and solution, but because Chinese medicine uses a philosophy that seeks a balance of energies, the problem can be approached in a number of ways.

"There's value in both systems. We need precision, but at the same time we need to think about how we can do things differently."

Modernising fengshui

One way to increase precision in fengshui is through transparency and better explanations of its deliverables.

Instead of using vague words such as "prosperity" and "auspiciousness," Way Fengshui's masters speak in terms such as "peace of mind" and "relaxation" - concepts more accessible and familiar to their clients.

While studying in the United States, Mr Tan also found parallels in modern science to concepts he had learnt in fengshui.

One such example was of why houses should be built inside the curve of a river, instead of on the outer edge.

Water rushing along would move faster on the outside of the curve, eroding away soil from property on that side of the river.

"In fengshui, this is called the Jade Belt," said Mr Tan.

"But in geography, it is just good common sense."

Communicating through examples like these is essential in helping customers understand the reasoning behind the fengshui masters' advice, he said.

Incorporating such new thinking into a traditional business did not come easily.

His first hurdle and proudest accomplishment was convincing his father to let him run the company, which was already doing well before he took over.

"If you've been successful all your life, and someone tells you, you're doing it wrong, how would you feel?" said Mr Tan.

"But the truth is, in order for the business to continue growing in the next 20 to 30 years, things need to change and they need to change now, because things don't just happen overnight."

He also had to deal with pushback from both staff and clients, who were not used to his new way of doing things.

More than half of their staff left within the first year of his taking over in 2014, and Mr Tan learnt that he had to ensure his staff knew their input was still valued and essential to the success of the business.

Clients were displeased with the new, more business-like way of running the company, and wanted the old style where they could have long, personal talks with his father.

However, Mr Tan would not be deterred.

"You need to be dedicated to your cause.

You need to truly feel that there's something you want to do for your industry or for your business," said Mr Tan. "I grew up in this industry.

I want to do something for it."

Challenges facing the fengshui industry

Like any other industry lacking transparency, fengshui faces what is often called the lemon problem, said Mr Tan.

Because it is difficult to tell the good companies from the bad (the lemons), customers are unwilling to pay more than their expected value of the service.

In time, the good companies are forced out of the market because they cannot obtain the revenue needed to bankroll the quality of their services.

Mr Tan has identified five values of transparency, integrity, professionalism, responsibility and practical solutions, which he feels are lacking in the fengshui industry.

His hope is that his company's commitment to these values will help them stand out from the rest of the market.

His company also runs Way Fengshui Academy, founded in 2005.

In July 2016, the curriculum was revamped to provide more rigorous training for aspiring fengshui masters.

The new course, which lasts two years, includes a compulsory morals and ethics module, in which students are given a professional code of conduct.

They undergo regular examinations to test their business acumen, fengshui knowledge and ethics before they become fully certified fengshui masters.

"I think I don't even work as hard as they do," said Mr Tan.

"That's ultimately the kind of fengshui master I want to see in the market: people who are hardworking, have the right values and are responsible to their clients and their craft."

"No more lemons in the market from my company!" quipped Mr Tan.

This article was first published on January 31, 2017.
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