China | For good or ill Hong Kong is super superstitious Why** prophetic artists** and feng-shui masters hold such sway Aug 14th 2025|Hong Kong|3 min read TATSUKI RYO is the finest diviner since Nostradamus, in the view of many Hong Kongers. In 1999 the Japanese manga artist published a collection of supposedly prophetic dreams warning of a “great disaster, year 2011, month 3.” In March 2011 Japan suffered from an earthquake, tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown; perhaps 18,000 people died. So when her manga predicted that a mega-tsunami would strike Japan on July 5th 2025, it caused alarm. Luckily, like her 16th-century antecedent (who thought the world would end in 2012), Ms Tatsuki often gets things wrong. She thought Mount Fuji would erupt in August 2021. And July 5th came and went. But on July 30th there was a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s eastern coast, which prompted tsunami warnings around the Pacific. Fortunately no one died and the tallest tsunami waves to reach Japanese shores were only 1.3m high. (In 2011 they reached almost 40m.) Yet fans and anxious theorists saw the event on July 30th as another confirmation of her powers. The prophecy sent tremors of fear across Asian social media in June. But Hong Kongers took it particularly seriously. Several prominent feng-shui masters, experts in ancient Chinese geomancy, warned locals to heed Ms Tatsuki’s advice not to visit Japan ahead of July 5th. The number of Hong Kongers who did so plunged by more than a third in June compared with a year earlier, while visitor numbers from almost all other places rose. Local carriers, such as Hong Kong Airlines, suspended flight routes to Japan because of the drop in demand. Japan will sting from all this. Though only home to 7.5m people, Hong Kong was the fifth-largest source of international visitors to Japan last year and its holidaymakers spent HK$33bn ($4bn) there. Even hard-nosed types stayed away. One Hong Kong-based financial consultant reports that his boss has refused to take in-person meetings in Japan all summer; she made him attend them in her stead. This is all a reminder of how pervasive superstition is in Hong Kong, even compared with the rest of Asia. Tower blocks frequently skip all floors with the number “four” because its Cantonese pronunciation is similar to the word for “death”. Properties thought to be inhabited by ghosts lose a fifth of their value on average, according to a paper in 2020 by Utpal Bhattacharya of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. And feng shui guides the design of even the most sober organisations’ offices. HSBC’s headquarters has escalators reportedly angled to ward off evil spirits. The Economist’s offices contain old coins for prosperity and a dragon image for good luck, left by a visiting feng-shui master in recent years. There is little harm in any of this. But superstition shouldn’t supersede science. The Hong Kong Observatory, a public body, was forced to release numerous statements in recent months reminding locals that it is impossible to predict an earthquake. Seismologists and disaster experts also weighed in. Even Ms Tatsuki cautioned her fans to heed scientific advice. But their urgings did little to quell the disquiet. Something similar happened during the SARS outbreak in 2003: many Hong Kongers spurned official disease-prevention steps, instead turning to herbs to **ward off **the virus. You don’t need to be a soothsayer to see that sometimes superstition can have rather frightening consequences. ■ 香港極度迷信 為何預言藝術家與風水師能掌握如此大的影響力 2025年8月14日 | 香港 | 閱讀時間 3 分鐘 在許多香港人眼中，**龍樹徹（Tatsuki Ryo）**堪稱繼諾查丹瑪斯之後最優秀的預言家。1999年，這位日本漫畫家出版了一本收錄所謂「預知夢」的漫畫集，當中警告「2011年3月將有大災難」。果然在2011年3月，日本遭遇大地震、海嘯與福島核災，或許多達1.8萬人喪生。因此，當她的漫畫預言「2025年7月5日將有超級海嘯襲擊日本」時，引發了極大的恐慌。 幸運的是，和16世紀的前輩（他曾斷言世界將在2012年終結）一樣，龍樹女士的預言往往錯誤百出。她認為富士山會在2021年8月噴發，但並未成真。而7月5日也平安無事。不過在7月30日，俄羅斯遠東海域發生規模8.8的強震，並一度引發太平洋沿岸的海嘯警報。幸好並無人員傷亡，日本沿岸最高的海嘯浪高僅1.3公尺（2011年時則接近40公尺）。然而，許多粉絲與焦慮的論者仍將7月30日的事件視為她「靈驗」的又一證據。 這項預言早在6月便在亞洲社群媒體掀起恐慌，香港人尤其當真。幾位著名的風水師——古老中國堪輿學的專家——警告大眾要遵循龍樹女士的建議，不要在7月5日前往日本。結果，6月香港赴日人數較去年同期銳減逾三分之一，而幾乎所有其他國家的訪日人數卻上升。由於需求驟降，香港航空等當地航空公司被迫暫停部分日本航線。 對日本而言，這無疑是一大打擊。雖然香港僅有750萬人口，但去年卻是日本第五大國際旅客來源地，港人旅日消費達330億港元（約40億美元）。就連精於算計的專業人士也不例外。一名在港的金融顧問透露，他的上司整個夏天都拒絕赴日開會，最後只能派他代為出席。 這再一次提醒世人，香港的迷信氛圍之濃厚，即便與亞洲其他地方相比亦不遑多讓。許多大樓乾脆跳過所有帶有「四」的樓層，因為「四」的廣東話發音近似「死」。據香港科技大學的巴塔查里亞（Utpal Bhattacharya）2020年的研究，傳聞鬧鬼的房產平均會跌價兩成。就連最嚴肅的機構辦公室設計也遵循風水之道。滙豐銀行總部的自動扶梯據說是以特殊角度安裝，用以驅邪避煞。《經濟學人》的香港辦公室內則留有幾枚古錢幣與一幅龍圖騰，據說是近年一位風水師來訪時留下的吉祥佈局。 這些做法大致無傷大雅。但迷信卻不該凌駕科學。近月來，香港天文台不得不多次發表聲明，提醒市民地震無法預測。地震學家與防災專家也紛紛表態。甚至龍樹本人也勸告粉絲要聽從科學建議。 然而，這些呼籲對平息不安收效甚微。2003年SARS爆發時，情況亦曾類似：許多香港人不遵循官方防疫措施，反而轉向草藥以求避疫。不需要做預言家也能看出，迷信有時會帶來相當可怕的後果。■ -- Hosting provided by SoundOn