Posted on 04/28/2005 7:56:11 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
The Walt Disney Company has unveiled its plans for its new theme park in Hong Kong —a perfect reproduction of Disneyland—well, not exactly “a perfect reproduction.” Changes had to be made after Disney consulted with a feng shui master. The front page of the New York Times business section reports that a specific redesign was necessary to form a perfect twelve-degree angle “to ensure prosperity.” Another walkway is being redesigned to create an angle that will keep positive chi, that is, “life energy,” from flowing into the sea. In addition, “Disney burns incense ritually as each building is finished,” and it “picked a lucky day” for the opening.
I don’t know how much of this is being done to placate the oriental mind—this is, after all, an Asian theme park. But I can’t imagine the local visitors asking if the park had been designed according to feng shui or if incense was being properly burned.
All of this, of course, is going on at a time when Christians are being blasted for being oppressive, bringing religion into public life, and making demands on the Congress. And the press is not very charitable to us. Columnist Gary Wills after the last election wondered what kind of a country this is where a majority of the people believes in such “myths” as the virgin birth.
But at the same time we find hard-headed, profit-conscious businessmen—the executives at Disney—spending hard-earned money for a feng shui expert to come in and tell them the way in which they ought to arrange the buildings to bring about good luck. This does not seem to bother Gary Wills or our cultural elite.
All of this would be comical if it were not so utterly absurd. Disney is catering to superstitions and the local, sensitive Buddhist culture.
By contrast, look at what happens in the United States . At the Epcot Center in Orlando, there is a dazzling display of how life came about, popping up from a single cell in the oceans—pure chance-plus-time evolution. Why does it go to Hong Kong and respect local religions and then hit Christians in the face back home? Disney has been resistant to all of the Christian protests about “Gay Days” at its so-called family parks. And it has produced movies that are blasphemous, so much so that Southern Baptists have boycotted Disney World.
So to Christians in this country Disney says, “In your face. We’re not going to pay any attention to you.” But for Disneyland in Hong Kong , it redesigns the whole theme park “to ensure prosperity” based on a kooky Eastern fad. I just can’t bring these two points of view together.
I know we’re supposed to be politically correct. And we are supposed to respect everybody’s ideas and preferences and beliefs and treat them all alike. Well, this kind of tolerance is causing Disney to embrace superstitions overseas, but when it comes to the majority religion here in America, we are oppressors—we are not entitled to anything.
“Heeding the advice of a feng shui consultant,” says the Times, “is one of many steps Disney executives have taken at the park to reflect the local culture—and to make sure they do not repeat some mistakes of the past.” Well, maybe it ought to take a good hard look at the mistakes it is continuing to make in Florida and California.
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Oh, some of it is good common sense.
Like facing the bed so you see the door when you sleep, etc. (Gives people the willies, otherwise).
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Great, now Disney has hired the Fab 5 to design its theme parks. This Queer Eye for the Straight Guy thing is getting out of hand. (No pun intended)
Also tends to have a lot to do with air-flow...
If you follow feng-shui, you tend to end up with a room that is nicely layed out, and easy to clean and move around in!
Old Chuck has a point about "feng shui" which is actually Chinese for "I can believe they're buying this BS."
I guess in China, you have to pay attention to this FS business because the culture in more monochromatic and oppressive. Whereas, in the US, one may say what one wishes, even if it's incorrect.
But then, who really cares what Disney is or is not doing? It ain't what it used to be, and never will be.
I can think of a hundred things Disney has done that are far worse. This doesn't really bother me. It's more a matter of good luck than religion, and I don't see any of this as seriously idolatrous or anything like that.
I do certainly agree on the other hand that our courts have acted unconstitutionally in forbidding freedom of religion to Christians in America. But I don't think this is the best way to make the argument. It can't be more than one time in a hundred that I disagree with Chuck Colson, but I guess this is one of them.
Well maybe, but the main point here is all the spiritual crap. Here's an example: My brother-in-law digs acupuncture. But he doesn't buy into any of the chi stuff, he just buys into the theory (which has some good scientific data backing it up) that the needle sticks release endorphins and cause other chemical changes.
So sure, a feng shui design might improve air flow, but if you also believe it affects "life energy" and luck (as Disney is pretending to believe) then you might as well get a voodoo blessing while you're at it. Mmmmmmm...chicken! [Homer Simpson noises here.]
Love Chuck Colson, but I thing they are wrong about Disney World.
WDW can do nothing about stopping gy days. It is not a WDW sanctioned event, the people who attend just state "we're going to show up during this week and wear a ___ colored shirt." Well, there is really nothing WDW can do. They can't ban them from coming just because they are gy; it would invite lawsuits that would destroy them. You could have a white supremacist day, and they could do nothing then either.
But what they leave out is that Disney does do a lot of things like "A night of praise" where they have contemporary Christian performers sing in the park. I believe that is a Disney sanctioned event. So, on the whole, I don't think Chuck has relayed the complete picture.
Willies hell, it just guarantees a clear shot. Don't want to get the powder burns on the missus when a bad guy comes a calling.
LOL!
Hey,, if it works and nobody is getting hurt...
No, you have it reversed. You don't want to NOT be facing the door(feet facing the door is best, but sideways is OK). Read the post again.
Exactly! Feng Shui neveer hurt anyone so let it be.
I knew a guy that couldn't possibly stand to have his back to any kind of door or entryway. He said it had to do with being in wrestling through high school and college. Apparently he developed instinctive reactions to peoples movements in order to be a good wrestler.
He said that having his back to a door would cause his instincts to fire off and it was really distracting to him. He was young, just out of college at the time, so may be it wore off after a time.
But what about the poor chicken? :-)
the chicken is over here!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392840/posts?page=45#45
And it's yummy, too!
"It's just that demon life has got me in feng shui" With appologies to Nanker Phelge
LOL. Thanks, I needed that.
Penn & Teller did a great show on Feng Shui. They had two "experts" come in to re-do a house, both claiming they were not just making stuff up, but following set rules of Feng Shui. Both rearranged everything completely differently, even stating diametrically opposed reasoning (like #1 "That should be over there because.." and #2 "That can't be over there because...").
Feng Shui is just interior decorating with a mystical component, and boy do they charge for that mystical component.
True, it doesn't hurt anyone. We have a lot of professions that don't technically hurt anyone, but do provide entertainment value although what they're doing is complete bunk. Examples are those that communicate with dead loved ones (known as cold reading in con circles), palm readers, etc.
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