Clinton’s ‘stronger’ chin means she’ll win, Hong Kong face reader predicts

Want to improve your performance at work, or solve relationship problems? If you’re in Hong Kong, Li Chau-jing has the solution – plucking your eyebrows to help achieve those life goals.

A trained face reader, Li has taken the ancient Chinese tradition one step further, making slight changes to her client’s brows to bring them better luck.

Stalls offering face reading, which dates back more than 2,000 years, are still found in market streets and near temples in the city. Practitioners believe they can determine a client’s fate by interpreting their features – a strong brow translates to the person’s ability to plan ahead, high cheekbones can point to power.

The face can be read like a book, they say, a showcase of a person’s wealth, health and family.

But Li claims she can help alter the path of destiny with a few flicks of her tweezers.

“It’s an instant change and you can change it for everyone,” she says, describing her clientele as ranging from just a few years old to in their 70s.

“I can help a person in the shortest amount of time, by bringing them energy and happiness and the goal they want to reach,” Li says.

Another Hong Kong face reader, Chow Hon-ming, says the art is a scientific discipline that ties in with some of the tenets of traditional Chinese medicine.

Face reading has been practised in China for thousands of years but became a popular practise in the 10th century because the social upheaval in the dying days of the Tang dynasty (618-907) prompted many to worry more about their fate, Chow says.

“There are turning points in a person’s life, and when you can’t make a decision at those points, you might want to seek a (face reading) master.”

A face reader starts with the left ear, which tells the story of the first seven years of a person’s life. The right ear reflects the next seven years, followed by the nose, eyes and chin, which are used to predict later life.

Different parts of the face also represent different topics.

A jutting chin and a squarish jaw mean a person will have power as they get older, while large exposed nostrils mean they are bad at saving money.

“The nose represents wealth. Just look at [actor] Jackie Chan’s nose, it is very big,” says Chow, who also predicts Hillary Clinton will win the US presidential election as her chin is “stronger” than rival Donald Trump’s.

Li, a former make-up artist, says she has studied the art of face reading with a mentor. She has been running her shop in the working-class Kowloon neighbourhood of Sham Shui Po for six years and its walls are covered with photos of her clients’ eyes and brows.

Women tend to come to her to solve emotional or relationship problems, men for better luck at work, she says.

Li, who refuses to give her age but says she has worked for 43 years, believes straight brows will bring more luck and happiness than curved.

“If the brows are very straight, then those people will not have to suffer through many hardships,” she says.

Customer Edward Lam, a 35-year-old technician for a television station, says he felt more energetic after having his brows modified.

“The biggest goal I have for fixing my eyebrows is to find jobs and to have better networking, and that my career will improve,” Lam says.

“I believe that the impression I gave was better,” he says of job interviews since having his brows worked on by Li.

Chow says tweaking features like eyebrows can give fortunes a short-term boost – but warns against making drastic changes, describing plastic surgery as potentially doing more harm than good.

While some may prefer eyebrow-plucking Li’s proactive approach, others are happy to stick to tradition.

Dozens of packed stalls next to the popular Wong Tai Sin Temple offer face reading to thousands of worshippers and tourists visiting the religious hot spot.

A tourist from China, Fu Xiaohong, 26, says she went there to have her face read in order to deal with a personal matter. “I have some longing in my heart,” she says near one stall where diagrams of faces and palms were displayed.

Fu says she felt more confident after her session, but that she also took the advice she was given with a grain of salt.

“I don’t fully believe in it – I just came to try it out.”