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Book Review -
December 1999 by Saul Goodman
R.D. Chin is an
architect and interior designer who has been a
Feng Shui practitioner for about a decade and
has become a very popular teacher and consultant
both in Europe and the USA. He resides and works
in both his home town New York City and
Amsterdam and has traveled to China and the Far
East to study the roots of this ancient art. He
is a student of Professor Lin Yun, stands in a
specific Buddhist tradition, and tries to make
Feng Shui accessible to the western "scientific"
mind. Chin combines "laws" of Feng Shui with a
love for people and beauty. The spirit of caring
about people and their environment speaks all
through his book Feng Shui Revealed: An
Aesthetic, Practical Approach to the Ancient Art
of Space Alignment.
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An Aesthetic, Practical Approach to the
Ancient Art of Space Alignment
Feng Shui Revealed
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The earliest feng
shui books available in the West were not so
attractive and hard to understand. Then came the
wave of publications in which the expert tries
to explain to us "how it really is". Their
design was more or less advertisement art,
including stock photography. Chin's book is the
first book with only original and beautiful
photography. It is the first well designed book
that you can put on your coffee table if you
want to show it off. But most important is that
Chin, instead of teaching top-down, shares his
personal approach. Feng Shui Revealed basically
is a tour through fourteen consultations in
which the writer simply shows what he saw, what
the questions of his clients were, what
solutions he came up with, and how the results
were.
We get to see a
Frank Lloyd Wright house, Manhattan designer's
studios, ocean-dune and river houses, and
suburban homes. Old lofts and new architecture.
Single people and families. Stockbrokers.
Fashion designers, architects, art collectors,
and contractors. A diversity of locations,
interiors, gardens, and styles of furniture,
decoration, and building materials.
Through the collaboration with co-author Gerald
Warfield it reads like a novel and leaves an
impression that you can do something positive
about your home without complex calculations,
hiring a consultant or taking Feng Shui classes.
Chin and Warfield have made the application of
Feng Shui more accessible than most books to
date have accomplished. The consultations are
preceded by a general and unpretentious
introduction to Feng Shui. The last part of the
book discusses Feng Shui "cures". These are all
the possible things one can do to improve less
than happy energy flows. The tone of respect for
personal and cultural meanings and the large
volume of experience result in a humble and
cautious, well illustrated description of
possibilities. It adheres to the spirit of his
teacher Lin Yun that each person's fresh
thinking is the best source for any cures.
Good reading for both advanced Feng Shui
students as well as anybody interested in home
improvement but couldn't be attracted by the
Feng Shui hype. Chin's open approach inspires to
make your home your comfortable, safe, and happy
castle.
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