Fengshui or fiction?

To clear the confusion, Bryant Chan chats with Grand Master Vincent Koh, founder of the Singapore Feng Shui Centre

Bryant Chan

FENGSHUI — a system of laws thought to govern spatial arrangement for favourable flow of energy (qi) — is a matter of consideration for many property buyers.

But with your family telling you one thing, and the Internet so many others, it’s hard to know what to believe.

Grand Master Vincent Koh, founder of the Singapore Feng Shui Centre, separates fengshui principles from fiction. Mr Koh taught fengshui courses at Singapore Polytechnic, and was awarded the title “Grand Master” by the International Feng Shui Association in 2009.

Q: A window opposite the main entrance will cause all entering qi to go straight through the window, and out of the house. True or false?

A: False. If we follow that logic, one shouldn’t have any windows in his house, to keep all the good qi inside, right? Qi does not travel only in straight lines, like light does. Rather, it has an ebb and flow, and behaves more like air or water. What you need to do is get some form of water feature to disperse the qi throughout all the rooms and corridors of your house, so it doesn’t just accumulate in one area.

Q: The stove and tap should be as far apart as possible, so fire and water are not in conflict. Is this true?

A: False. A lot of people tend to hold this belief because according to fengshui principles, fire and water are often considered incompatible — water extinguishes fire, after all.

In fengshui, the guiding principle is all about balance. After all, without fire, how can you boil water? So one has to consider the logic behind a specific design choice, instead of blindly following principles.

Sometimes, for more practical reasons, it makes sense to have the sink and stove as Fengshui or fiction?

To clear the confusion, Bryant Chan chats with Grand Master Vincent Koh, founder of the Singapore Feng Shui Centre close to each other as possible — because it makes cooking more convenient.

In Singapore, when space is often a constraint, sometimes you really have no

choice. Fengshui should always be applied in a practical manner.

Q: Red is an auspicious colour, so the house should be filled with as much red as possible … right?

A: False. The association of red with prosperity and good fortune is largely cultural, rather than a basis in fengshui principles. The ideal colour of your house depends on a number of factors. You should refer to your birth month, element and colour chart, and if possible, consult a fengshui master before painting. In particular, you should pay special attention to what colour you paint your bedroom. Because you spend so much time there — six, seven hours a night — it’s important to have good qi in the bedroom.

Is red an auspicious colour? Photo: Thinkstock

Q: How about, when moving into a new home, one should open all the windows and doors?

A: True. However, this also has its roots in practical reasons. After the initial renovations are done, in a house or apartment, the doors and windows are left closed for an extended period of time, sometimes more than a week.

Opening the windows and doors provides important ventilation, while dispelling stale qi. If opening the windows and doors is not an option, such as if you are moving into a hotel that has stale qi, flush the toilet to stimulate the flow.

Q: Toilet doors should be kept closed at all times, so wealth will not flow out of the house when the toilet is flushed — true or false?

A: It depends. This is really more of a courtesy than anything based on fengshui — after all, flushing the toilet can help encourage the flow of qi. But when you do your business, don’t you generate your own “bad qi”? If you don’t want your “bad qi” to spread to the rest of the house, it’s probably best to close the toilet door.