Fortune Tellers Are Taiwan Politicians’ Most Favored Advisors

Source: Dateline Zero

While American politicians are sometimes all-too-willing to listen to lobbyists (much to the consternation of many voters) it seems that fortune tellers have the ear of many of Taiwan’s politicians.

The Taiwanese public doesn’t seem to mind, according to The Asia Times. Yet when stories arise accusing politicians of being superstitious, they tend to deny it.

Taiwanese politicians are known for oft-reported brawls over the slightest disagreement with opponents. (See video below.) Another thing they are known for is turning to fortune tellers and other soothsayers for political advice. According to The Asia Times, “even President Ma Ying-jeou apparently puts more trust in occultism than in his army of supposedly superbly educated political advisers.”

Stewart Brently writes at Weird Asia News that Taiwanese politicians “have earned the title ‘chair-throwing legislators’ for those in the island’s Legislative Yuan.” While many outside of Taiwan might not be aware of it, Brently continues, “the country’s leaders are also extremely superstitious, relying on fortune tellers for scholarly, even political, advice.”

The Asia Times relates an intriguing incident when vandals cut some trees around former premier Su Tseng-chang’s family grave, to unbalance his groove feng shui: “Taiwan still ruled by the occult.”

[A] spooky incident that made it plain that the connection between politics and occultism in Taiwan is nothing out of the ordinary. After after night in June when persons unknown cut trees around former premier Su Tseng-chang’s family grave, after Su just a day before had been appointed to lead the presidential and legislative campaigns of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the media was quick speculating that the trees were cut in order to hurt Su’s feng shui and ruin the DPP’s electoral chances.

Chen In-Chin, a professor at the National Central University’s Graduate Institute of Law and Government, told Asia Times Online that fortune telling and feng shui have always played an important role in the decision-making processes of the island’s political class.

“Every time Chiang Kai-shek promoted one of his subordinates, he would have made a fortune teller looking at that person’s name and birth date as the Generalissimo believed that the data reveals an individual’s destiny. It is also said that in the Chinese Civil War, Chiang sent agents to Mao Zedong’ family grave to destroy it in order to mess up Mao’s feng shui,” Chen said.
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It has to be understood that the concepts of Western and Taiwanese fortune telling differ, said Chen. The separation between sacred and secular spheres isn’t strict in Taiwan, while the same goes for the separation between gods and ordinary people, he said. “Unlike in the West, it is the common perception in Taiwan that fortune tellers can indeed strike deals between the two spheres.”

He pointed out that in terms of choosing a fortune teller, every pot has its lid. “Their personal backgrounds differ. There are normal fortune tellers for normal citizens just as there are illustrious fortune tellers for illustrious citizens, and even many university professors take on this role,” Chen said.

Another political scholar agreed that being caught visiting a fortune teller will hardly court disaster for a politician in Taiwan.

“[Seen from a public relation perspective], it isn’t risky behavior for officials to make decisions with help of fortune tellers. After all, soothsaying is a Taiwanese tradition”, said Chen Yaw-shyang, an assistant professor of public policy at National Taipei University.

“But it is possible that Politician X bribes the fortune teller of Politician Y to give his client bad advice. That has happened in the past.”

Want more? A recent Wikileaks dump of embassy cables contains interesting evidence of Taiwanese politicians turning to fortune tellers and other occultists. You can read details at Taipei Times:“No fortune teller needed to tell Eric Chu’s future.”