With Chinese New Year 2026 just a few days away, many homeowners are once again reassessing their spaces, hoping to reset their luck as the new lunar year begins.
From rearranging furniture to revisiting long-held feng shui beliefs, the annual ritual of “starting fresh” often places the home at the center of that hope.
If they followed feng shui advice, placed the right charms, and still felt stuck, does that mean the house itself is beyond repair?
For Feng Shui Coach Johnson Chua, the answer cannot be simply answered with a yes or no.
In an exclusive sit-down interview with PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal), he addresses these concerns at his store, Fengshui Sunrise, where clients have been streaming in ahead of the holiday.
Chua explains, “There are two kinds of feng shui. We have classical feng shui, and we also have modern feng shui.”
The distinction matters, especially when talking about homes that seem resistant to change.
Classical feng shui, according to Chua, deals with the physical structure of a house. This includes elements that can be corrected or reworked, such as layout, orientation, and architectural flow.
Modern feng shui, on the other hand, often refers to symbolic adjustments like charms or cures.
“When there is a problem with feng shui in a place, especially in a house, people usually put charms to cure it,” he says.
“Sometimes, it gets cured.
"But there are houses that are really very hard and really need to be fixed.”
Chua points to common examples like the wrong placement of bathrooms or staircases, which are structural issues that symbolic remedies alone cannot fully address.
“If the residents are willing to change and fix these things, then the house can still be saved,” he stresses.
For him, the question is never whether feng shui has a solution: “In short, feng shui always has a solution. Everything has a way.
“The only question is how willing we are to do everything that needs to be done.”
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Luck without Feng Shui
Interestingly, Chua notes that some homeowners appear “lucky” even without ever consulting a feng shui practitioner.
When asked about the common trait among these homeowners, he does not credit it to superstition, but to awareness.
“When we talk about feng shui, it’s more about energies. Feng shui is not only about charms or following rules.”
He returns to the literal meaning of the practice: “Feng shui is wind and water. This has something to do with the energy in the environment.
“If you are aware that you want your place to be airy and open, that’s already feng shui, even if you don’t know it’s feng shui.”
Energy flow, he emphasized, is critical inside a home.
He explains, “If you love clutter, if your place is always dark, then the energy cannot flow properly. You will have a lot of negative feelings or a sense of bad luck.”
This is why some people unintentionally practice feng shui without believing in it.
“They are aware of their environment.
“They don’t believe in feng shui, but they are very organized people. They think clearly. They always want their space to feel light and open.”
In his view, these homeowners are already applying feng shui principles: “They’re doing feng shui already, they just don’t know it’s a feng shui theory.”
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Can you ask for a refund when feng shui does not work?
The issue becomes more complicated when expectations are not met.
In this matter, Chua likens feng shui to medicine, where advice only works if it is followed correctly.
“Understanding feng shui is like understanding medicine. It’s like a doctor giving you a diagnosis and a prescription.”
He offers a familiar comparison: “The doctor tells you, ‘Take this medicine for your diabetes, but please stop eating sugar.’
“If you keep eating sugar and then say the doctor didn’t cure you, that’s the same concept.”
Feng shui, he says, functions as a client-coach relationship. “We need to act together.
“But some clients have a tendency to say, ‘You didn’t cure me, so I want a refund.’”
Chua recalls one incident that stayed with him.
A client sought help because someone in their office was sabotaging them.
“They didn’t know who was doing it. I recommended a charm to help stop the harassment.
“After using the charm, the client found out the one destroying them was actually their best friend. They couldn’t accept it. They thought the charm brought bad luck.”
The client returned the charm and demanded a refund. Chua agreed, but not without clarifying his position.
“I told them, ‘If you believe that way, I can refund you. No problem. But it’s not my loss. It’s your loss.’”
For Chua, the charm had done exactly what it was meant to do.
“‘You learned the truth. You found the traitor beside you. That should stop the problem.’ The real problem was that they couldn’t accept it.”
He returns again to the medical analogy: “You can’t say eating sugar causes diabetes and then say the doctor is ineffective. That’s the same thinking.”
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Why Feng Shui Can Only Do So Much
Chua also emphasizes that feng shui is only one part of a much larger picture.
“There are three kinds of luck: Heaven luck, earth luck, and man’s luck.”
Feng shui, he says, belongs only to earth luck.
“That’s only one-third of our life. Feng shui cannot totally change a person’s life 100 percent.”
He describes heaven luck as timing and birth circumstances.
“You cannot choose your birthday. Your birthday represents your zodiac sign, your character, your traits. You have to embrace that.”
Man’s luck, meanwhile, comes from effort and discipline.
“Sipag at tiyaga,” he heeds, “You can win groceries and have them delivered to your house, but if you don’t cook them, they’ll just expire.”
For Chua, there is no absolute good or bad luck: “Everything depends on the right action, right placement, right people, and right timing.”
Homes, then, are not doomed by default.
What determines whether a house can be “saved” has less to do with charms and more to do with the people living inside it, and how willing they are to change what truly needs fixing.