Stéphanie Homola, The Art of Fate Calculation

Stéphanie Homola, The Art of Fate Calculation – Practicing Divination in Taipei, Beijing and Kaifeng.
Asian Anthropologies, vol. 14, New York: Berghahn Books, 2023

From housewives to students and high-ranking officials, people from all social backgrounds in China and Taiwan visit fate calculation masters to learn about their destiny. How do clients assess the diviner’s skills? How does one become a fortune-teller? How is a person’s fate calculated? The Art of Fate Calculation explores how conceptions of fate circulate in Chinese and Taiwanese societies while resisting uniformization and institutionalization. This is not only due to the stigma of “superstition” but also to the internal dynamic of fate calculation practice and learning.