Ancient Chinese astrology gets a Gen Z rebrand in Southeast Asia

Yik Wai Chee doesn’t think of himself as a believer. The 33-year-old senior executive at a Malaysia-based AI company is the kind of person who deals in data and decision-making frameworks, not destiny. Yet for years, he has consulted bazi, the ancient Chinese system of elemental forecasting, as a kind of strategic gut check on his life. “For me, it is just a long-term ‘luck check’ to see if there are general strategies I can adapt to get through some life challenges,” he said. “If it doesn’t cost me at all to adapt to new strategies, I will try it.” He is careful not to overstate its influence. Bazi sits closer to tarot in its interpretive vagueness than to any hard forecast, he says. It doesn’t drive his decisions so much as occasionally inform them. But in a region where young professionals are increasingly confronted with hectic schedules, rising living costs and the relentless pressure to get ahead, even interpretive vagueness has its appeal. Across Southeast Asia, this ancient practice is finding a distinctly modern second life. From temple to TikTok Bazi, or the “Four Pillars of Destiny”, is a form of Chinese metaphysics that maps a person’s fortunes through birth dates and elemental cycles. For generations, it has informed matchmaking decisions, baby names and family rituals in Chinese diaspora communities throughout the region. Today, it is being repackaged for a new audience: as a tool for career planning, business strategies and weathering the anxieties of a volatile age. Short-form bazi and tarot content has become immensely popular across Southeast Asia since 2023, propelled by a wave of younger, English-speaking Asian creators reworking Chinese metaphysics for modern lifestyle audiences on apps like TikTok and Lemon8. Sia Jing Heng is one of those creators. The 31-year-old Singapore-based bazi and spiritual influencer began posting Chinese metaphysics content on TikTok in 2021 and has since built a following of more than 14,000 subscribers and 185,000 views – drawn largely from an audience in their twenties. He says the demographic skew doesn’t surprise him. “My past clients were in their forties and were surprised to hear that more young people are getting interested in bazi and metaphysics,” Sia said. The short-form format does much of the work, he says: bite-sized, conversational and stripped of the ritualistic weight that once made the practice feel inaccessible to younger audiences. He has also noticed a newer cohort entering the picture. “The number of teens watching my content and getting interested is growing,” he said. “I have noticed this shift over the years.” The number of teens watching my content and getting interested is growing Sia Jing Heng, ‘bazi’ creator Other spiritual influencers, such as Hu Ai Feng and “Sifu Li”, boast tens of thousands of social media followers and hundreds of thousands of like for their content. Rather than lean into traditional superstition, these creators analyse the birth charts of prominent CEOs and celebrities to offer relatable takes on career pivots and investment decisions, drawing millions of views to dedicated #BaZi hashtags. The content is clearly making an impression. Google Trends data shows rising search interest across the region over the past 12 months, suggesting audiences are increasingly discovering bazi through chart calculators and social media rather than traditional fortune-tellers. In Malaysia, “bazi reading” was the top related search for the keyword “bazi” last year – up more than 100 per cent year on year – alongside queries for “bazi calculator”. In Singapore, searches for “bazi chart” rose 40 per cent over the same time frame. Technology has also lowered the barriers to entry. AI-powered platforms like Shenshu AI now generate automated 10-year luck forecasts, while custom bots on the ChatGPT store such as “Chinese BaZi Fortune Teller” function as free, conversational metaphysical life coaches. Professional consultations are still an option for the committed: practitioners like Singapore’s Master Yuan, who brands his services as “BaZi Consultancy and Life Coaching”, typically charge US$110 to US$135 for a standard one-hour session. Structure in uncertain times Gareth Liu Zi Yuan, a researcher at the University of Malaya’s Department of Southeast Asian Studies, says bazi has always been woven into the daily life of Chinese diaspora communities across Southeast Asia. But its revival among urban youngsters reflects something more than just cultural familiarity. “Career instability and rising living costs create confusion and anxiety,” Liu said. “Bazi offers structure for reflection and choice-making rather than blind faith.” He sees the appeal as both practical and emotional, a way for younger generations to anchor themselves to cultural identity at a time of collective disorientation. “Bazi has become a way of reconnecting with heritage,” Liu said. Bazi has become a way of reconnecting with heritage Gareth Liu Zi Yuan, Asian studies researcher The practice is also evolving to meet these new expectations. “Master Leong”, president of the International Feng Shui Master Association in Kuala Lumpur, has watched his client base change since the pandemic, with economic unpredictability increasing interest in pattern-recognition frameworks. “Now the youngsters know feng shui is all about energy and not superstition,” he said, describing both feng shui and bazi as calculation-based systems that rely upon a person’s date of birth. He says roughly 20 per cent of participants in his courses are now under the age of 40 – a marked shift from earlier decades. These younger clients also come with different demands. They want explanations that feel scientific and proof-oriented rather than ritualistic, Leong said. Few figures have had a better vantage point to witness this shift than Joey Yap, widely regarded as one of bazi’s most prominent modern practitioners. “This is my 30th year,” Yap said. “When I first started my seminars, there were only six to eight people. Today, attendance can reach almost 12,000 people in a single hall.” He says an event dedicated to feng shui and astrology held in Kuala Lumpur last month drew around 10,000 attendees, with nearly 20 per cent born in the 2000s – a figure extrapolated from the birth date records submitted by attendees for their forecasts. But to Yap, the more telling shift is not who shows up. It is what they are asking for. “The older style focused on matchmaking,” he said. “The newer style focuses on business and career decisions.” Bazi is increasingly deployed alongside conventional financial models, according to Yap, informing decisions on hiring, restructuring and market entry. The questions have changed accordingly. “Older clients tend to ask whether something will happen,” he said. “Younger clients will ask how to make it happen.” He communicates differently with younger audiences, using less technical language and more focus on outcomes. “The tool is secondary,” he said. “Impact and direction matter more.” For Yap, the demographic shift is proof that bazi has crossed a threshold: from prophecy to process, from fate to framework. “Younger generations use bazi as a tool, not as a belief system,” he said. Liu interprets this same evolution through a wider societal lens. As traditional lineage-based expertise gives way to algorithm-driven interpretation, bazi is no longer being handed down – it is being downloaded. He says the draw is less about belief than about structure: a means of making sense of uncertainty in an era that offers precious little of it. For young professionals like Yik Wai Chee, it begins not with a master or a ritual, but with a screen and a willingness to try anything that helps.

Ancient Chinese astrology gets a Gen Z rebrand in Southeast Asia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Forget rituals and superstitions, today’s young professionals are using ‘bazi’ 10-year luck forecasts to plan their next career pivot

Forget rituals and superstitions, today’s young professionals are using ‘bazi’ 10-year luck forecasts to plan their next career pivot