zhua zhou

This fortune teller project depicts the Chinese ritual, 抓周, or zhua zhou, which is performed on a child's first birthday. The ritual is prepared by family, where the baby is dressed up in tiger clothes because traditionally, it is believed that the tiger can ward off evil and bring about peace. Typically, more processes are involved like the worshipping of ancestors, the blessing ceremony, and the combing of the baby's hair, but this project depicts the final process in the ritual. Items are placed on the "kang", each representing career choices, skills, or personality traits. Whichever item the baby grabs first will represent an aspect of them or their future. Traditionally, there isn't a negative fortune; however for this project, I added more neutral and negative versions of each fortune in order to incorporate randomness.

In this project, the objects I chose were a stack of coins representing wealth, an abacus on the left representing skills in statistics and financing, books and a calligraphy brush representing literary skills, a spoon representing culinary talents, a pair of scissors representing dexterity, a bundle of thread representing craftsmanship, a pair of seals representing power and authority, and a traditional rattle drum representing pleasures in life and leisure.

Feel free to read more about zhua zhou here

Credits: typewriter effect for "pick an item."