Practitioners are not only getting younger, they are also getting more clients ranging from students who want to know what life holds for them to property developers who want to add value to their new ventures.

THEY look like young executives, wear cool designer suits and carry iPads and smart phones.

A new breed of feng shui consultants has emerged with the Net generation, slowly replacing the stereotype of old masters in Chinese costumes poring over thick, ancient almanacs and huge compasses.

Practitioners are not the only ones getting younger, however, as many who consult feng shui experts these days are hip and happening Gen Y professionals.

Trend in lifestyle: Many who are interested in feng shui these days are hip and happening Gen Y professionals. - Filepic

Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics instructor Sherwin Ng muses over how a growing percentage of the academy's clients are newlyweds, young corporate executives, new business owners and property brokers below 30 years of age.

"In one of our recent feng shui classes, we had two students who were 21 and 22. That was a pleasant surprise," says Ng, who at 29 is already a feng shui author and consultant.

"A decade ago, feng shui was based on the if I don't adhere, I will have bad luck' scare factor. Now people actually think and ask whether something makes sense or not."

Feng shui awareness has spiked because of the Internet yes, Facebook included observes Ng, whose expertise is in Bazi and Yijing. "Online feng shui courses allow people across the globe to study in the comfort of their homes. Books, especially the mini' ones, are cute, attractive and very easy to read. Gone are the days of old tomes and textbook-style feng shui books."

Ng says relationships are a hot topic for both men and women but destiny is not something we sit and wait for. He tells his clients that destiny can be created with strategic use of tools like feng shui and Bazi.

"After re-educating them, most are willing to take action and responsibility towards their own life, career, wealth, relationships and health."

A feng shui consultation today does not go "do this, this and that, end of story". It has become a very goal-oriented and knowledge-driven discipline which, as Ng points out, "is the only way we can empirically measure results".

"If there's an easier way to get things done, why not? When I first started consulting, it wasn't always easy to tell older clients who had so much more money than me to move their main door or that their new RM8mil home has bad feng shui.

"But after I explain how qi flows and works and appeal to their common sense, they get it," he says, adding that busy months are usually the year-end till February, which coincide with the start of another lunar year.

Ng's love affair with feng shui started accidentally seven years ago. He was having a break just before going off to further his studies in Australia when a feng shui course changed everything.

He started consulting professionally a year later, and the rest is history.

"I taught my first feng shui class in Perth in early 2010," he says.

Ng: Taught his first feng shui class in Perth in 2010.

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