24 Asia The EconomistFebruary 24th 2018
2 your palm to the camera or snap a selfie,
and another app provides instant face- and
palm-reading. Shin Hyun-ho of Jeomsin
reckons two or three new apps are being
launched every day.
More than two-thirds of those surveyed
by Trend Monitor, a local market-research
firm, said they see a fortune-teller at least
once a year. Manyvisit between December
and February, to see what awaits them in
the new solar and lunar years. At Kyobo,
South Korea’s biggest bookstore chain, as
many shelves are devoted to deciphering
destiny as to understanding Korea’s mod-
ern history, with primersincluding “Your
Winning Lotto Number is in Your Dreams”.
Diviners appear regularly in television dra-
mas, sometimes as fraudsters but often to
foreshadow a plot twist. In “The Face Read-
er”, a gifted seer employed by a 16th-cen-
tury king correctly identifies traitors from
their facial traits. It was among the highest-
grossing films of 2013.
Andrew Eungi Kim, a professor at Korea
University, says soothsayers hold an every-
day relevance in South Korea that they do
not have in the West. He likens dropping in
on one to occasional Sunday churchgoing
in the West. The practice is passed on with-
in families—as “one possible way by which
to make sense of the world”.Judgment and The Lovers
Big junctures in life are a common time for
a celestial steer. Careers fairs at Hankuk
University of Foreign Studies, in Seoul, re-
serve places for tarot readers. Students go
to saju masters with lists of potential em-
ployers to determine those most likely to
hire them. Businessmen might go to one to
select a propitious date to launch a new
venture. New parents routinely visit name-
makers, another branch of fortune-telling,
to help decide on the luckiest name for
their baby. Couples check their compatibil-
ity before marriage, and one or both may
be advised to change their first names to
improve their matrimonial lot. In the past
decade 1.5m Koreans have legally taken a
new one.
The clairvoyance business has also
been able to thrive because fate is not fixed
in Korean cosmology. Bad news can be mit-
igated with charms, often given in the form
of an action: take up a religion, take out
health insurance, stop eating red meat, do
not even think about getting a tattoo. Re-
peat clients are thus ensured. Some even
drop in for a weekly check-up.
As palm lines and facial features evolve
with age, so too, it isthought, does fortune.
Rather than put a brave face on a luckless
situation, a small number of Koreans sim-
ply change theirs. Some plastic surgeons
have been educating themselves in phy-
siognomy to advise their clients. (In “The
Face Reader”, rivals to the throne modify
the face of a contender to get the king to
banish him.) Purists in the face-readingbusiness lament that their jobs are getting
tougher in plastic-happy Korea.
In the posh district of Apgujeong (part
of stylish Gangnam) the entrance hall of a
prominentsaju café is plastered with auto-
graphs from glitterati. Sotdae Saju Cafe of-
fers clairvoyance with cocktails. Its saju
master says counselling is the biggest part
of his job. “A lot of rich types around here
are dissatisfied. Not long ago South Kore-
ans were trying to survive. Now they’re
trying to be happy,” he says. Tae-young, a
30-something Seoulite, says she goes for a
reading whenever things get too much, or
if something worrisome is on her mind.
Some say readings help them to accept
whatever unhappy situation they are in.
Few of those who see fortune-tellers
take the readings as fact. Many say they of-
fer an additional perspective. In a countrywhere mental troubles are taboo, this is
useful. Lim Chaewoo of the University of
Brain Education in the city of Cheonan,
south of Seoul, says that as modern societ-
ies have grown more complex, making de-
cisions has become exacting. During the fi-
nancial crisis in 2008, American stock
traders and insurance brokers, themselves
givers of advice, turned to psychics for a
steer. Theirs seemed as good as any, in the
circumstances.
Thatsaju and face-reading are recog-
nised as academic pursuits in Korea also
lends them some modern-day credibility.
Janet Shin, a saju master and newspaper
columnist who also lectures at universi-
ties, says that her clients include doctors,
professors and religious types. Status with-
in the profession is achieved through study
and experience, as in other disciplines,
rather than bluster. Kwon Hee-gwan, who
offers readings from soothsaying tents
near Tapgol Park in Seoul, is a firm believer
in this. On a recent weekday evening,
wearing a navy-blue cardigan and tie, hedelicately examined clients’ palms with a
bone-handled magnifyingglass. Mr Kwon
sees as many as 20 faces a day, and has
worked on a total of 10,000 in his career.
But that is only half the number necessary,
he says, to know a client’s troubles as soon
as she enters his tent.
Some contend that this is not as myste-
rious as it sounds. Face-readers consider
cues like posture, body language and tone
of voice in assessing a customer, much as
people naturally assess physical appear-
ance to guesssomeone’s emotional state.
In pre-industrial Korea, when fewpeople
left their place of birth, many thought peo-
ple’s faces were a record of their lifestyles
and so in some ways a guide to their fate.
Researchers even suggest thatpalm lines
may be a “fossilised record” of a person’s
earliest moments, because they develop
early in the womb. Maybe, then, they hint
at a baby’s future health.
If computers could process and dissect
what contributes to human intuition,
might they become the fortune-tellers of
the future? In 2016 a computer programme
beat Lee Sedol, a South Korean who is
among the world’s best (human) Go play-
ers, by four games to one. Even the clair-
voyants had not seen that coming. Already,
robots are being taught how to anticipate
human actions—in effect, reading the fu-
ture. Researchers atthe Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology have trained a sys-
tem to foresee when two actors will kiss,
shake hands, hug or high-five by feeding it
millions of hours of television dramas.
Chinese researchers have trained a com-
puter to distinguish between criminals
and non-criminals nine times out of ten.
For many, all this portends a rather fear-
some future. But a pair of South Korean art-
ists atLOVOT LAB, a startup, offer a differ-
ent vision. The pair tinker and exhibit
above an old rubber-and-metals work-
shop in Mullae-dong, a run-down industri-
al neighbourhood of Seoul. In a corner of
their studio, a small white robot sits cross-
legged, surrounded by coils of sweet-
smelling incense. “Buddha I” (pictured)
has been programmed to read faces to de-
tect a few basic emotions including happi-
ness, anger and sadness, and dispenses
lighthearted prophecies accordingly.
Hong Hyuns ofLOVOT LABhas never
been to a fortune-teller. But part of his in-
spiration came from cracking open a for-
tune cookie. The prophecy told him to “go
east”. As he had already decided to move
from Chicago to New York, this puthim “in
a good mood”, he says. Many perfectly ra-
tional folk have been found to adjust their
behaviour, even in tiny ways, after taking
advice from cookies. Mr Hong was struck
by how many go to have their fortunes
read even as they laugh itall off.
The robo-Buddha stirs from its slumber.
“You look happy today,” it purrs. “Good
things will come to you.” 7Enlightenment (batteries not included)