Calculating Fate: Taiwan’s Fortune-Telling Fever of the ’90s – S5-E16
Some people bought Tamagotchis in the '90s. Others? They paid birds to predict their future. In this week’s episode, we take a glimpse into Taiwan’s wild obsession with fortune-telling — and what it reveals about culture, comfort, and even politics. From oracle bones to rose stones, the history of Taiwanese divination has been an unpredictable ride.
Cover: A fortune teller advises a woman on a street in Taichung circa 1990, via Wiki Commons.
Below: Two of the oldest-known photographs of fortune telling in China.
1."Li the half wizard" is telling fortune for a young man. Lai Afong - Getty Museum
2. Fortune teller "counting" a woman, in the late 19th century - by John Thomson - Through China with a camera
DEEP DIVE INTO THE ALMOST ALWAYS SOMETIMES ACCURATE METHODS OF CHINESE FORTUNE TELLING:
- Face reading (面相) – This is the interpretation of facial features of the nose, eyes, mouth and other criteria within one's face and the conversion of those criteria into predictions for the future. This usually covers one phase of the client's life, and reveals the type of luck associated with a certain age range. A positions map also refers to different points on the face. This represents the person's luck at different ages. The upper region of the face represents youth, the middle region of the face represents middle age, and the lower region of the face represents old age.
- Palm reading (手相) – This analyzes the positioning of palm lines for love, personality, and other traits. It somewhat resembles Western palmistry in technique.
- Kau Cim (求籤) – This requires the shaking of a bamboo cylinder, which results in at least one modified incense stick leaving the cylinder. The Chinese characters inscribed on the stick are analyzed by an interpreter. The prediction is short range, as it covers one Chinese calendar year. In the West, this method has been popularized under the trade-name "Chi-Chi sticks."
- Zi wei dou shu (紫微斗數) – This procedure, sometimes loosely called (Chinese: 批命, pik meng) or Purple Star Astrology or Emperor/Purple (Star) Astrology, involves the client seeking an advisor with a mastery of the Chinese calendar. Astrology is used in combination with the Chinese constellations, four pillars of destiny and the five elements methods of divination. The result is a translation of one's destiny path, an interpretation of a predetermined fate. The result of the details vary depending on the accuracy of the original four pillars information the client provides to the fortune-teller. This method can also verify unique events that have already happened in one's life.
- Bazi (八字) – This method is undoubtedly the most popular of Chinese Fortune Telling methods, and the most accessible one. It has many variants in practice the most simple one called: "Ziping Bazi" 子平八字, invented by Master Ziping. Generally it involves taking four components of time, the hour of birth, day, month and year. Each a pillar from the Sixty Jiazi and arranging them into Four Pillars. The Four Pillars are then analyzed against the Daymaster, the Heavenly Stem for the Day pillar. It is a form of Astrology as opposed to Fortune Telling or Divination, and tells one about his or her destiny in life, current situation and area for most successful occupation. Originally Bazi was read against the Year Earthly Branch, then focus shifted to the Month Pillar, then finally
Below: Remember Tamagotchis? Ha... you're OLD.
Below: Remember Kenny G? You probably lived in Taiwan in the 1990s.
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