1 July 2001
Cherise Fong

After the controversy over the Muslim veil in public schools and the tolerance of Sikh turbans on motorbikes, feng shui was finally denied credibility last month in the battle between 4 and 6 on London Chinatown's famous Gerrard Street.

The Times was sympathetic to local shop owner Tak Ping Yeung's appeal to a feng shui expert to oppose his relocation from his current number 6 to the potentially fatal number 4, ordered by his landlords in early May. Unfortunately two weeks later the court of Westminster granted British Waller Investment Trust the right to challenge their ruling in Yeung's favour.

Social acceptance of this municipal decision regarding Yeung's sincerity has at least two possible and harmful consequences: to the British public who gives him the benefit of the doubt, the image of a cluttered shop of knick-knacks overreacting to superstition; to the Chinese community who doesn't, the bitter sound of the shop owner who cried wolf.

Do you think he should be allowed to stay put?

Or is this another superstition that needs busting?

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