Prosperity predicted in Year of Tiger

Press, 11 February 1986, Page 32

Prosperity predicted in Year of Tiger

WILLIAM KAZER of Reuters through NZPA Hong Kong Don’t buy stock in February, beware of foul weather in August and don’t even think of risky investments in October. Observe these simple precautions and the Year of the Tiger, which began on February 9, should be a prosperous one for you. So say the astrologers as Chinese communities throughout the world prepare for their most important festival of all — the lunar new year. The astrological calendar, a cycle of 12 years each represented by an animal, turns to the tiger this year after chasing out the ox. The tiger symbolises power and energy and many astrologers believe its ferocity will drive out any evil spirits and bring prosperity.

“This should be a more stable year,” says a Hong Kong fortune teller, Lam Chan. “The good times are getting a little closer,” he said. The holiday preparations seem to bear out his view. In Hong Kong, normally frenetic-paced business comes to a weeklong halt in honour of the new year — be it a tiger or even a less worthy snake. Stock and gold traders pause and shopkeepers shut their doors. The central business district is dotted with elaborate signboards wishing an outsized “Kung Hei Fat Choy” — “A Happy and Prosperous New Year.” Other symbols of good fortune abound from the forest of loquat plants and chrysanthemums in the market place to the “laisee,” or red packets of money given to youngsters.

Even McDonald’s, the American fast-food chain, feels compelled to join in the spirit with its seasonal offering to customers — the McLai-see.

Though each region has given its own twist to the festival, there is much in common.

In predominantly Chinese Singapore, shops close for a week and the old Chinatown is festooned with colourful lanterns and banners.

Multi-racial Malaysia, where nearly a third of the 14 million people are Chinese, observes a twoday public holiday. Wealthy Chinese families hire traditional lion dancers to perform at their homes.

In Taiwan the holiday is punctuated with exploding fire-crackers and even in Communist China, where these folk customs were once banned as feudal, the tradition is slowly

coming back. Australia’s 150,000 Chinese will greet their new year with lion dances, banquets and performances by a visiting opera group from Canton. The tiger already has taken on special meaning for some. In Taiwan, Buddhist leaders are raising a collection to save 12 Bengal tigers that might become a meal for villagers who believe tiger meat will boost virility. The year, according to the soothsayers, has something for everyone.

A fortune teller, Kam Wan, aims her forecasts at politics.

“East-West tension will be reduced,” she says. In a reference to Hong Kong’s neighbour, China, she says: “There could be trouble from the north.” Lam Chan tailors his predictions to Hong Kong’s merchants, saying that “there will be difficulties in March, especially for those factories relying on import quotas” in their overseas markets.

He says that crime will rise in the same month though many criminals will be caught. If you find pessimistic predictions unsettling, all is not lost. Heed the advice of Singapore’s Minister of Finance, Mr Richard Hu, a man who has tired of forecasts of economic disaster, and says: ignore them.