Rooster heralds volatile year
2005-02-08 11:34
Hong Kong - According to the lunar calendar, Wednesday marks the start of the Year of the Rooster, a boastful and blunt but hard-working bird whose arrival presages better times for business but a bumpy ride for politicians, according to soothsayers.
Chinese fortune tellers are busy putting together personal profiles for the coming year and are being called upon to predict everything else from political events to economic trends and health developments to sports results.
A belief in fate is embedded in Chinese culture and fortune telling has been practised for thousands of years.
"Chinese believe many forces influence their lives. The West might see it as superstition, but who knows?" said Lau Chi-pang, history professor at Lingnan University.
The lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon and associates each year with one of 12 animals whose personalities dictate the characteristics of each 12-month period.
Economic volatility
The rooster is the tenth in the zodiac sequence that starts with the rat, followed by the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and ending with the pig.
As the rooster is considered both boastful and hard-working, soothsayers expect the year to be one of ups and downs.
Past rooster years have been bloody. In 1909 Japan invaded Korea, beginning a 36-year occupation. In 1933 Hitler came to power. And in 1945 the Second World War ended with the atomic bombing of Japan.
Worryingly, Feng Shui master Lee Sing-tong believes the coming year of the rooster will be no exception.
However, they also take into consideration the relative weights of forces that Chinese folklore believes emanate from all things, especially specific "elements" that are said to dominate different years.
Among the determining elements are earth, gold and fire, all of which will play their parts in the coming year.
Lee said there would be an excess of the element gold, which would result in wars.
"Gold means weapons, metal, and war. Competition of armaments and a repeat of catastrophes are inevitable," he said.
According to predictions by geomancers working for Hong Hong-based bank CLSA, the elements will also conspire to bring economic volatility.
Another master, Alion Yeo, said the rooster year will be full of sex scandals.
"Famous people will be caught drunk-driving and getting into car accidents. There will be more cases of couples getting together and splitting," Yeo said.
A word of advice for those aged between 24 and 36 born in previous years of the rooster: they will be fickle in love, rushing to get married but then suddenly pulling out of wedding plans, Yeo added.