When Wong Tai Sin becomes the final solution

Keith Ip*Academic Records Officer (Research field: History of Christianity in China), School of Christian Studies, USJ.

It is the fickle nature of our 21st Century that everything is unpredictable. Honorable companies like Lehman Brothers can sell deceptive bonds, and reliable products like Toyota’s cars can become unstoppable. There are so many similar examples that make the world complicated. Any false investment will certainly devastate your future.
No matter what troubles you are facing, it is also natural that one may wish to better foresee and avoid difficulties as much as possible. Therefore, every New Year offers an opportunity to discard the past errors, and ideally to start anew with luck and fortune.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting what the best approach and strategy is in order to get the good fortune. It is a free society and the choice is up to you. During the Chinese New Year, there are many astrologists and fortune tellers on TV to foretell and shape your future path. Other methods like consulting a traditional Chinese Almanac or digital astrological services may interest you too. But for those who want to express religious piety and receive the fortune message at the same time, to queue up and join the adoration of Wong Tai Sin (黃大仙) and Che Kung (車公) will be the choice.
The fame of the temples can be revealed by the number of people who participate. This year it is estimated that Wong Tai Sin Temple will receive eight hundred thousand faithful to express gratitude during Chinese New Year. In Che Kung temple, there are even officials and youngsters as “representatives” to get fortune messages for the future of the society by begging a stick (kau cim, 求籤). It is not surprising to see this phenomenon when the Hong Kong government and global economy do not give confidence to people.
Wong Tai Sin is well-known for his ability to grant whatever is requested. But actually, this deity first became popular because of much of his medical predictions. In late Qing Dynasty, Wong Tai Sin foretold a set of prescriptions by planchette writing (fu ji, 扶箕). The disciples then collected the divine poems and created the medical sticks. In Hong Kong, Wong Tai Sin temple still offers a total of 500 medical sticks in the area of gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, etc. But the 100 fortune sticks seem more popular than the medical sticks. Statistically, there are 82 good sticks and 18 bad sticks. It seems the optimistic Wong Tai Sin tends to foretell good messages to his believers.
To believe in Wong Tai Sin is not simple, for it requires you to first expose your vulnerability, and then ask for his solution. Anyway, the future is unknown until the time comes. Therefore, do not become perplexed when dreams and wishes are so difficult to achieve. In the course of life, that is the moment when people believe and seek an almighty god’s help, which can realize any wish for us.
I wish you good luck and a prosperous Year of the Tiger.

©MDTimes/ University of Saint Joseph