For Vietnamese companies, a good fortune teller is an investment Business and Economics

Hanoi, Vietnam – Nguyen Duy Cuong, the owner of a building materials company in Ho Chi Minh City, can almost wait for his fortune-teller to ask him to study his business plans for the Year of the Tiger, which begins on February 1.

Cuong’s fortune-teller, who has been advising for the past 12 years, has been particularly busy with the pandemic because of the growing customer base that is attracted by the convenience of online services.

Like many Vietnamese, when talking about a fortune teller, a spirit medium, or a geomancer, Cuong refers to his guide as a “Master”.

“In the coming weeks, the Master’s schedule will be very busy, so I have to book in advance,” Cuong, born in 1955, told Al Jazeera.

Cuong will rely on his fortune-teller’s advice to organize his office furniture and hire staff until the next lunar year for his business travel hours.

“I’m doing pretty well this year despite the pandemic. It seems to have given my thanks to the spirits,” said Cuong, who typically pays a million Vietnamese dong ($ 45) for a two-hour consultation. “I must thank my Master very much.”

Although based on superstitions, Cuong insists that in addition to being fraudulent and opportunistic, he can tell a real fortune teller.

“I trust science and my intuition,” he said. “For things that cannot be explained in life, I must turn to the Master. I am spiritual, but not superstitious. ”

In Vietnam, many business owners, large and small, or private or state-owned, consult their predecessors for guidance on business decisions.

While about 14 percent of the officially communist Vietnamese population practices a formal religion, usually Catholicism or Buddhism, spirituality is embedded in every corner of society.

For many Vietnamese, consulting a fortune teller is not only a way to gain peace of mind, but also to show respect for supernatural forces. In Vietnamese culture, life and death are decided by fate, while prosperity and privilege are based in heaven. Success requires not only talent and hard work, but also supernatural good fortune, known as loc. To cultivate such good luck, the Vietnamese perform rituals to express gratitude to heaven and their ancestors.

Cuong’s business, like that of many Vietnamese people, has an altar to the Chinese God of Wealth and the God of the Earth, where he prepares fruit offerings on the 1st of the month and the 15th day of the Moon.

Master Dung, a 28-year-old horoscope writer from Hanoi, told Al Jazeera that his clients are mostly looking for readings about their health or business plans.

“The bigger and riskier their investment is, the more often customers look for the prediction,” said Dung, who was asked to refer only to the name of his business.

According to the knowledge of its customers, Dung offers different packages ranging from $ 9 to $ 36 per hour session.

Dung said that while fortune-tellers based their advice on the horoscope, his focus was on practical problem-solving.

“I always tell my clients that fate can change with their better moral behavior, and my messages are often positive, otherwise they will always feel bad and will never come back,” Dung said.

In officially secular Vietnam, a clear distinction is made between formal religions and ritual practices, such as palm reading and ancestor worship.

After economic liberalization in the 1980s, Communist government It calmed the implementation of anti-war superstition laws, according to which many popular practices were reactionary and contrary to the social order.

In 2006, the U.S. State Department removed Vietnam from its list of “countries of particular concern” regarding religious freedom.

However, the country’s Religious Affairs Committee remains not to control religious institutions and not to promote the spread of “heterodox superstitions”.

Practitioners of intelligence, intelligence, convocation of spirits, and other forms of mysticism may be fined for profiting from their activities, even if the law is vague about the parameters of what is allowed and what is not.

The gray legal area has not prevented members of the Communist Party from using the services.

Of the 15,101 members of the disciplined party between 2016 and 2020, 7,692 were charged with gambling, reckless drinking, superstition or involvement or involvement in an illegal religious organization.

‘Age and Fate’

For companies, paying attention to supernatural concerns has been a matter of making sure things work well.

Tran Thanh Hoa, a young freelance designer from Da Nang, always brings “spiritual” factors with his clients after an experience that a client changed his mind about the color of a logo after consulting with a fortune teller.

The client was told that blue would not be compatible with his year of birth and “fate.” After a few back and forths, Hoak and his client chose purple to better suit them.

“Since then, I’ve always asked my clients if their logo’s compatibility matters with age and fate,” Hoak told Al Jazeera. “I don’t think it’s superstition. It’s a valid concern because logos tell people what brands really mean. “