| <https://tinyurl.com/24ds5vm3> globaltimes.cn
| | Hubei releases four discipline enforcement cases .. As one of the
| four typical cases released by the discipline inspection and
| supervision organs in Central China's Hubei Province, a local former
| official appointed staff based on superstitious activities .. From
| 2008 to 2011, Qin invited "feng shui consultants" twice to his
| father's grave in order to "eliminate diseases, disasters and keep
| his official status." In the second half of 2014, Qin again invited
| "feng shui consultants" conducting superstitious activities .. Qin
| has been expelled from the CPC and removed from his post ..

It's curious that the punishment has happened about ten years after the
events. Also this approach seems to be somewhat contradictory to the
China's government policy towards the Traditional Chinese Medicine,
which many believe includes superstitious elements. I heard some people
explaining that the government promotion of the TCM seeks to strengthen
nationalist-patriotic sentiment among Chinese people, but if it is true
then the practices like Feng Shui might also contribute to this goal.

I myself am seeking to be balanced with regard to superstitions. Quite
many folk customs and omens have, actually, a rational basis. E.g. there
is a rational basis to the popular belief that it's not a good sign if a
cat, dog or other animal suddenly crosses your path. Or, say, the known
Russian custom to sit down for a moment before a journey, - it also has
a rational basis. And Feng Shui might keep some rational elements, but a
problem comes when some abuse it as vulgar magic.

This Russian commercial pop-music video is titled "Feng Shui"

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSHrzyaJHWw>

In fact, there's little about Feng Shui there, but the title brings a
double-figurative meaning. The hooliganist singer sings "it's up to [my]
Feng Shui" in the refrain, which is a resemblance to common Russian
obscene phrase, roughly equivalent to "I don't give a f*ck" in English,
which means "I don't care". Why Feng Shui? Because it's supposed that if
someone has turned to "oriental harmony" then this one must be in
balanced calm mood and no longer is driven by passions, and thus doesn't
care. The video also includes Catholic aesthetic elements, because it
was directed by a Latino girl living in the Ukraine.

Before 2022.02, some Russian commercial pop-music videos were made in
the Ukraine, involving local producers, videographers and other staff as
well as extras. The main reason for that was low costs, since the anti-
democratic coup in 2014 brought notable impoverishment to populace under
the Kiev regime. Russian showbiz was not the only in this regard. For
example, this <https://youtu.be/OsU0CGZoV8E> highly popular Indian pop-
music video shows a Russian imperial palace (built in the 18th century),
while the background actors with Slavic faces are playing English
characters, and this video was shot in the Ukraine as well, by the very
same reason. For movie makers who needed European-like environment, the
2014-2022 Ukraine was the most cheap and suitable choice.

By the way, the same above Feng Shui singer also performed female vocal
party in another pop-music video <https://youtu.be/RuHbs3306RI> related
to Chinese theme. The cartoon shows what Moscow, culturally influenced
by China, would look like in the cyberpunk future, according to labored
imagination of the St.Petersburg's pro-Western intelligentcia. It's a
pretty weird fantasy, as so far the Chinese cultural influence in Moscow
is close to zero, while Turkic (Central-Asian) influence is increasingly
noticeable: Turkic speech is what one can hear through an open window in
summer, and the hijabed girls and "Halal" on signboards are increasingly
everywhere. The last time Moscow came through significant Turkic-Islamic
influence was in 16th century, before and after incorporation of Volga
Tatar area into Russian state, which happened during the reign of Ivan
Grozny (whose tittle is usually incorrectly translated as "terrible").
The Grozny's reign was then followed by very painful Time of Troubles,
which turned Russia more "European" again, which will be another story.

On Tuesday, September 5, 2023 at 4:20:42 AM UTC-4, Oleg Smirnov wrote:
> | <https://tinyurl.com/24ds5vm3> globaltimes.cn
> |
> | Hubei releases four discipline enforcement cases .. As one of the
> | four typical cases released by the discipline inspection and
> | supervision organs in Central China's Hubei Province, a local former
> | official appointed staff based on superstitious activities .. From
> | 2008 to 2011, Qin invited "feng shui consultants" twice to his
> | father's grave in order to "eliminate diseases, disasters and keep
> | his official status." In the second half of 2014, Qin again invited
> | "feng shui consultants" conducting superstitious activities .. Qin
> | has been expelled from the CPC and removed from his post ..
>
Qin is not the first official turning to Feng shui.
Another official was punished for Feng Shui more than 3 years ago,
he was the first one punished but probably not the first resorting to
Fengshui.

https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2019_05_12_501198.shtml

Given the PRC's history of more than 70 years, these kind of anti-elites per Peter
Valentinovich Turchin is not unexpected. As China is becoming more successful,
power and benefit accorded to officials would be bigger. So is competitive pressure.

On Tuesday, September 5, 2023 at 4:20:42 AM UTC-4, Oleg Smirnov wrote:
> Also this approach seems to be somewhat contradictory to the
> China's government policy towards the Traditional Chinese Medicine,
> which many believe includes superstitious elements. I heard some people
> explaining that the government promotion of the TCM seeks to strengthen
> nationalist-patriotic sentiment among Chinese people, but if it is true
> then the practices like Feng Shui might also contribute to this goal.
>
Well, it common some non-Chinese and Western trained Chinese to see TCM through
a superstitious lens. I, however, will say that too many have put Western medicine on
too high a pedestal. Basically, we still know too little on how our mind-body works.

In term of diagnosis. Technological advancement such as X-ray, CT, ultrasound, and
NMR technology, as well as various blood and urine tests certainly greatly improve
diagnosis.

Curing the disease is a different story. While people can "boast of magnificient godlike
technologic advances, editing the genome efficiently". Yet "cancer treatment, for the
most part, still paleolithic in comparison". (quoted from "The First Cell by Azra Raza)

Many popular procedures show no benefit.
"Stents, bypass surgery show no benefit in heart disease mortality rates among stable patients"
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/11/invasive-heart-treatments-not-always-needed.html

And then it is the placebo effect of surgical procedures:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/study-suggests-common-kne/

The so called gold standard of minus the placebo effect from the treatment effect does not
make much sense because the assumption that human mind-body reacts to (treatment + placebo)
linearly.