Years ago in one of our morning walks to the open market not long after we first arrived in Tianjin, China, we came across several roadside stalls selling pretty much the same thing: red underwear, not just for the ladies but for the guys as well!
"Wow, look at the colour. Really shocking red, are they not?" my wife commented.
"You won't find me wearing any of those!" I replied.
A friend later told us that the locals wear them on certain occasions for good luck and good fortune. On New Year's Eve or eve of a wedding, for example.
Last year (and 13 years later) I was reading a feng shui book by a famous Hong Kong writer, in which was a suggestion under my horoscope that luck would markedly improve if I wore red underwear on New Year's Eve. As my luck the preceding couple of years was in a freefall in what seems like a bottomless pit, I thought to myself: "Why not try it? What is there to lose?"
The problem was, I couldn't find any red underwear on sale anywhere in Singapore. So we went on a special mission to Hong Kong specifically looking for red underwear. Problem solved. There were plenty on sale, some branded ones, as it was just weeks before the Year of the Ox.
Did my luck change? Well, sort of ...
We recovered my investment in DBS's structured (toxic) products in full plus interest. They were on the brink a complete wipeout during the global financial crisis.
We recovered in full our investment in Aussie dollars. For two years we lived with a paper loss of 40%.
We recouped all our early losses on UBS unit trust investment in the wake of the current financial recovery.
We also saw some healthy returns (yields) on our stock market investments this year.
Coincidence? Maybe. Peace of mind? Surely.
I will be doing the same this New Year. A cheeky thought just crosses my mind. What if I wear a double-layer red underwear this time!
(Writer's footnote: This article is to be read with tongue firmly in cheek or whenever Liverpool plays!)
Writer: Peter Chang
email: peterchanglc@gmail.com
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