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A 21-year-old reads people on the face

The Young Reporter (2000, December), 33(04), pp. 10, 11.
Author: Chandra Wong. Editor: Elsa Au.
Permanent URL - https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/bujspa/purl.php?&did=bujspa0007300

Chandra Wong

WHEN it comes to our personal health and future, it is common for the Chinese to ask a fung shui (traditional geomancy) master for advice and help. Then would it be more credible if this fung shui master is also a qualified Chinese medical doctor? If your answer is “yes”, you might want to meet Nathan Wong Sai-kit, a fung shui master and a qualified Chinese medicine practitioner. Yet he is only a 21-year-old sophomore at the University of Hong Kong.

Nathan might just be a young fellow who happened to have read his father’s Chinese medicine book collection in his early teen. However, it was surely not a short-lived pastime. After a search through the Yellow Pages, he started to learn Chinese medicine at the age of 15, through attending regular courses and learning as interns. “I also wandered around the streets in school uniform, checking out advertisements and brochures to find a way to begin learning Chinese medicine,” he recalled. He had interned at Chinese medicine clinics in mainland China with his teacher and classmates. He then got a certificate from the China Guangdong Examination Authority as a qualified Chinese medicine practitioner, and another diploma in acupuncture.

Nathan has particular fondness in acupuncture. He is “amazed by its magic outcome” . “The result of curing a disease with acupuncture is simultaneous,” he said, as inserting a metal needle into an acupoint of our body is a more direct treatment than taking any herbal medicines. “It is just cool and magic,” he said with excitement.

“I had a stomachache one time after dinner, so I inserted a needle into an acupoint around my knee that reacted to stomach,” Nathan said, “but my mom was totally shocked when she saw it.” He felt better afterwards, only psychologically, as he said needles should be inserted coordinately with the help of both hands. Slight electricity should also be conducted to the needles to stimulate acupoints.

Nathan had once worked with the Democratic Party during the 1998 Legislative Council election. He toured around public estates with the party to give the elderly free medical examination. “Within three hours, I have to examine up to 100 elderly,” he said. Though he has been an experienced Chinese medicine practitioner for five years, some of his patients were biased against his childish look and young age. During the tour, an elderly lined up his counter unwillingly, however she was amazed by his accurate diagnosis at such a young age afterwards. “I don’t mind the scepticism among my patients, as my diagnoses will be the best proof itself,” he said confidently.

“In Chinese medicine, it always relates diseases and human internal organs to the theory of Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements. These theories and concepts apply in fung shui as well,” he said. Nathan then began to learn BatDzi (the characters that signify the date and time of birth) and later study palm reading and face analysis. Once again, he found himself amazed by the magic of this ancient Chinese divination. At first, he thought palm reading and face analysis were rather superstitious. After three years of formal classes, he found them very believable indeed. “Palm reading and face analysis are scientific in a sense that they have some formulas to make a person’s past, presence and future foreseeable,” he said. “According to some friends and aunts I know, they conclude him a rather accurate fung shui master,” his mother said with a laugh.

Over a year and a half, Nathan concentrates his interest mainly on fung shui. With clients from friends to businessmen, his three-year experience allows him possible to read a person literally like a book when only reading the face. Then, will he still befriend with those he reads and categorizes as non-click and harmful group? Or will he not be spending time on a friend he has already “seen” clearly? “I don’t think there is anyone that is unworthy to befriend,” he said, “I’ve learnt from everyone I met and every friendship I encounter, even the ugliest one.” His extraordinary “reading skill” brings him a lot of friends but at the same time scares away many. After all, unveiling your inner self by a stranger on the first encounter could be frightening and could be an act of privacy intrusion. Though Nathan may not be doing it intentionally, he hopes to change people and lead them to do good in life.

Many friends of Nathan’s are Puzzled why he takes an Account and Finance major. “Fung shui and Chinese medicine are only my interest as a mean to help others, my real goal in life is to be a businessman and get into politics in my 50’s, I hope,” he said, “to really help to improve society rather than just my clients and patients.” His interest in Politics can well be illustrated by his early participation in Democratic Party campaign in 1998 and 1999. Potting poster of Karl Max, Lenin around his living room when he was Form Two. To be a businessman is what he thinks as a stepping stone towards his political career.

No wonder his friend Josephine Ng Wing-chee described the 21-year-old as “Legendary” because of his extraordinary interests, experience and his goal in life at this age. Nathan however, labelled himself as a normal kid with special interests, “I’m just trying to do things and develop my interests that are different from others of my age group.” He said, “It is how life should be, play hard and try anything you can in life.”

Other than hanging around the stock market for an internship of his major at the moment, what is his next uncommon interest-project? “Trying to get into jail without a criminal record,” he said with a robust laugh.

Edited by Elsa Au

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