Death throes of Feng Shui in Shanghai
Scholars say the ancient geomantic arts of Feng Shui were born in ancient times on China’s Loess Plateau. Their demise may be heralded in Shanghai today in a paroxysm of sprawling concrete.
I first began to understand feng shui when I visited old Buddhist temples and those rare places where a few old hanoks had somehow survived. The abiding impression I received was that the builders of those times took great trouble to nestle buildings harmoniously into their landscapes. Those were the days before bulldozers, earthmoving equipment, and ready mix concrete.
Today, it is routine to remove the landscape and replace it with a bed of concrete before erecting a forest of identical high-rise apartments and offices. An architect aquaintance once described Seoul as a city designed to drive people insane as we drove past a new apartment complex one day.
This picture from Shanghai captures this thought remarkably well and could apply equally to Seoul.
David Kilburn
Tags: Feng Shui, Gyeongbok, hanok, kahoi-dong, Seoul, shanghai