Joey Yap, expert on the ancient art of feng shui, on wealth, sex, forces of nature and animals...

What ‘s all this feng shui business about?
Feng shui is the art of harnessing the energies of the environment, known as Qi, to better our lives. Classical feng shui, which is what I practice refers to ancient texts, and has more to do with location, direction and how you use your space. I calculate what sort of feng shui energies affect certain places and the outcomes to be expected, so you can locate your building and position your doors, pathways, room etc. to maximize potential.

Do feng shui masters have a specific uniform?
No! Most of the time in Malaysia and even Singapore , a lot of feng shui masters are also spiritual masters. These two subjects are entirely different. As these feng shui masters do charms and wear those yellow robes, people get the idea that a feng shui master should be able to do all that. The reality is: feng shui is a science that has nothing to do with religion.

What's the quickest feng shui fix for getting rich?
There's none. If there were, all the feng shui masters would billionaires, right? We are governed by a thing called destiny. We cannot change this life path.

None? We're disappointed!
Well, you can use water. Water is supposed to be the positive source of energy. Locate an area where the good energies will converge in your house and place water in that location to stimulate the energies.

Some people use fishes in fish tanks. Does this help?
The fishes are there to keep the water moving. Otherwise, if you put an empty tank, it's a bit boring lah. A lot of people think “if my fishes died, they will solve all bad luck for me.” That's wrong concept!

What about the supposedly luck flower horn fish?
Fish are just aquatic animals, what sort of energies can they emit? People think that if you have a flower horn, you can become rich and stuff like that. From the feng shui aspect, the fish itself does not have those sorts of energies. Otherwise, when you eat a fish, you'll be worried – what sort of energy are you eating?

Is there a feng shui fix to having a great sex life?
Ha ha! It depends on the star forms we can use in certain areas of the house to help in this aspect. Like next year, it's in the north and changes every year – we call it the romance sector.

So we should center our bedroom in the north?
Yeah, or you put slow-moving water in the north.

Is it possible to use a combination of the elements to take revenge on someone you don't like?
This is all like the movies in HK! The real feng shui that can kill people is through the mountain and water formation. Let's say you discover that his ancestor is buried in that sector, you can go there and destroy the tomb's vein: the backbone of the mountain. You dig the ground there – that means you take off the vein, the energy flow. It'll take about five to ten years time, then slowly their fortunes will dissipate.

What's your biggest achievement?
I've done consulting for a hotel in South-East Asia . Positioning the hotel, reallocating the doors and so forth helped it increase its business by two to three times. I've also done work for big factories in Sabah and Sarawak .

What's the weirdest thing you've been asked to perform or advise on?
It's someone asking me to help them divorce their wife, ha!ha! May ask me to help them get a wife so this is rare request. I didn't help him get divorced; I helped him better his relationship with his spouse.

What if he actually wanted to get rid of the wife?
I will decline! When I first started I needed clients and was banking on not getting strange like this lah! Nowadays I'm in the position to say no to outrageous requests like this! Another outrageous request is helping to get staff fired without firing them, that is, making them leave lah. Feng shui is not supposed to be used this way!

What's an unreasonable request?
A lot of time it's people who want things to come to them easy for doing nothing. You know, like winning lotteries. Their human effort is still needed. It's unreasonable to say, “I won't do this,” and expect to get rich. Even if you want to get healthy after practicing feng shui, you still need to see the doctor; we cannot work miracles, though we are “nutritionists of the living space.”

Are the principles of feng shui the same for each individual or does race, gender, background etc. affect the outcone?
Race does not, but gender does. Different calculations for male and female. Culture affect as well. Also, different land forms as these produce different types of people.

What is the biggest misconception about feng shui?
That it has a lot to do with the interior, as opposed to the exterior. Feng Shui involves two parts: the exterior and the interior. You must first have the energies of the environment before you can tap it. People think that they can do anything they want – that every house is created the same. Every house is not created the same! Different areas have different types of energies! You have to know what you have first, before you know what to do inside your house.

Does feng shui just affect human beings? What if a person wanted to use feng shui to help his pet live longer?

That depends on how long the pet ca live! You can't make a dog live 20 years! Animals themselves don't emit energies.

Can't you enhance the living conditions to help pets?
Feng shui has only to do with human beings; it's got nothing to do with horses, dogs, and cats!

So, animals will not benefit at all?
No, because in the study of Chinese metaphysics, animals are considered the sixth category of living things. When I ay this in the West, they get annoyed because dogs are treated like their children; they start to debate. But in our culture, a dog is a dog. A dog is not your son. It's a dog! These formulas are for human being with two legs, two arms, you know?

What about the Darwin 's theory of evolution? If human beings were evolved from the apes, wouldn't the apes benefit too?
Well, the apes have not evolved to that point yet. They don't have thumbs; notice that? In the study of palmistry, what makes a human different is that they have thumbs. The thumb is the wisdom element. Humans can differentiate between right and wrong, animals can't.

What's the weirdest or most unusual question you've ever been asked?
This would be this interview! Feng shui for animals is a first, ha ha!

Interview by Damian Tan