HONG KONG - A HIGH-PROFILE court battle over the huge estate of late Hong Kong tycoon Nina Wang has lifted the lid on the city's obsession with the ancient Chinese energy system of feng shui.

And while the system is often seen in the West as simply a quirky way of arranging furniture, it is taken very seriously here.

At the centre of the High Court case is so-called feng shui master Tony Chan, a former bartender whose permanent grin has filled the city's newspapers for weeks.

Mr Chan, who says he was Ms Wang's lover as well as her feng shui adviser, is laying claim to the eccentric tycoon's US$13 billion (S$18.8 billion) fortune. Chinachem Charitable Foundation, controlled by Ms Wang's siblings, says the will giving Mr Chan the money is a fake.

Lawyers for Chinachem argued Mr Chan took advantage of Ms Wang's declining health and seduced her with promises he could use feng shui to get rid of the cancer that would kill her in 2007.

They also claimed that Mr Chan had told Ms Wang he could help bring back her kidnapped husband, Teddy, by digging holes on the grounds of her properties and filling them with engraved jade pieces. Her husband has never been found since he was kidnapped for a second time in 1990. He was declared legally dead nine years later.

During his week-long stint on the stand, Mr Chan's credentials have been undermined. As a result, the entire practice of feng shui is in the dock.

Mr Chan was able to convince high-powered clients, including politicians and businessmen, to pay him huge sums for advice. Ms Wang herself gave him three tranches of HK$688 million (S$127.6 million) shortly before she died.

Mr Chan has been pummelled on the stand, conceding that he did not know how to perform some feng shui rituals properly. His advice to clients to burn banknotes to improve their luck originated from his late father - a retired schoolteacher who, he said, could have given him the idea as a joke. -- AFP