China's booming economy has made its citizens dizzy at the prospect of striking it rich. The Chinese can barely wait to get their share of lucrative deals. Gone is the communist era austerity - people are unashamedly pursuing wealth. This year particularly, Chinese optimism is at an all time high in anticipation of the coming "year of the pig," traditionally associated with wealth and prosperity. 2007 is not just any ordinary porcine year. It is the "Year of the Golden Pig" which comes about once every sixty years according to the Chinese zodiac calendar.
BEIJING - Forget duck; Peking has been overrun by pigs.
As the Chinese New Year approaches, heralding the auspicious Year of the Pig, porkers are everywhere. Fifteen-foot-high inflatable pigs beckon shoppers into electronics stores; fluffy pink pig snouts enliven winter ear-muffs; corkscrew tails and round piggy faces decorate Ikea kitchen aprons
Wherever you look, happy hogs are rearing up on their hind trotters advertising this or that, or simply waving banners emblazoned with the new Chinese credo, for which the coming year is believed to be especially favorable: "Get Rich."
Pigs are especially popular in the Chinese mind, summoning images of good-natured generosity and good fortune. So closely are the animals linked to human life here that the Chinese character for "home" includes the symbols for both roof and pig – all you need for a traditional Chinese household.
This year, moreover, is being proclaimed the Year of the Golden Pig, a doubly propitious period thanks to a combination of animals and elements in the Chinese zodiac that matches pigs and gold only once every 60 years.
It is said that 2007 is the year to have a baby; anyone born under the coming year's sign is bound to be lucky.
Having jettisoned the fifty year old no-nonsense, communist utilitarian culture in favor of giddy capitalistic materialism, the Chinese are also enthusiastically reviving some long dormant traditions of the past. Ancient superstitions, frowned upon by the communist regime, are once again beginning to capture the Chinese imagination. Material success of the middle class has fueled the lucrative and brisk business of astrology, feng shui and fortune telling. Religion too is making a come back. 31.4% of China's population - nearly 300 million people express their faith in Buddhism,Taoism and traditional folk gods like the Dragon King and the God of Fortune.
Fortune telling, an ancient Chinese art officially frowned upon by the country's Communist authorities, is a booming industry in modern China. People's belief in divination, life charts, geomancy, and simple lucky numbers is on the rise, say practitioners, followers, and sociologists.
The mania for making money that is sweeping the country offers lucrative opportunities for charlatans of all kinds.
Although no studies have been carried out, there is no doubt, says Zhou Xiaozheng an outspoken skeptic and sociology professor at Beijing's Renmin University that "more and more people are becoming interested in traditional Chinese fortunetelling culture."
That drives him mad.
"It is totally absurd, absolutely ludicrous, that buildings should not have a fourth floor," he fulminates, simply because the Mandarin word for "four" sounds like the word meaning "death."
Prof. Zhou attributes the trend to helplessness. "In a dictatorship ... people do not have the power to decide things for themselves, so they let fortune tellers forecast their destiny," he argues. "They turn to superstition for emotional consolation."
The story in the Christian Science Monitor here.
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