Fortune's wheel is ever turning. Despite an education background of computer science and business, 33-year-old Wang Suifeng follows his grandfather's step to be a Feng Shui master.

His parents, however, did not support the decision.

"For generations my family dwelt in this business. My great great grandfather and maternal grandfather were famed masters in my home town. I had read the Feng Shui books they wrote," said Wang, now a Shanghai-based part-time Feng Shui consultant.

The family business stopped at Wang's parents, who were born around the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

"They thought Feng Shui is superstitious. In their eyes, being a Feng Shui consultant is not a decent job," he said.

But, since a teenager, Wang has showed great interest in Feng Shui knowledge that could be dated back to 3,000 years ago.

"I prefer not to call them occult. Feng Shui is a set of knowledge that regulates people's living environment in ancient China. And you will find scientific explanations to some of the Feng Shui theories," he said.

Citing a real estate project, he said, Feng Shui arrangements to buildings and their interior decoration in fact help visitors feel comfortable and naturally they are more willing to buy it.

"Instead of leaving them there collecting dust, we may study these ancient knowledge from a new perspective," he said.

Wang has friends sharing the same interest. They meet on the Internet, exchanging ideas about difficult ancient literature such as Yi Jing, or Book of Changes, believed to be written in the 11th century B.C., and Zang Shu, or Book of Burial, by a Feng Shui master in the fourth century.

"They are of my age or younger. Many of them studied science in college," he said.

Only about three decades ago, the country's young people, calling themselves Red Guards, had broken into heritage buildings, smashed antique furniture and burnt old books, trying to get rid of everything considered "old."

Old is new

Beijing boy Wang Shengquan, 5, has taken a weekly class of Confucian classics for two years.

Every Saturday morning, he sits for two hours in a classroom inside the Guozijian, which was the Imperial College 100 years ago, with about 15 classmates of his age.

They chant the teachings of Confucius as ancient intellectuals did in their childhood for centuries. But the teacher does not ask them to sit properly and they can ask questions freely as in any modern nursery.

"He could recite several simple classics, such as Three-Word Chant, though he can not write a character," said Wu Yuxiang, the mother.

"We do not care what he learns about the books. We just hope he could be affected by our traditions," she said. "After attending the class, he understands the younger should be polite and respect the older."

The 34-year-old magazine editor and her husband are even a bit envious of their son.

"We are interested in ancient Chinese philosophies and literatures." she said. "It was a pity that there was no such class when I was a child. I only learnt some of them in high school."

Besides classes for kids, the Guozijian also provides classes of traditional music instruments, tea ceremony and Tai Chi Chuan which cater to adults.

"It is quite common that parents and kids attend classes here together," said Ji Jiejing, director of the traditional education school of the Guozijian.

"Old" things have suddenly become fashionable in today's China. Young couples like Wu and Wang brought furniture of the grandparents into their 21st century apartments. scholars are made celebrities for lecturing Confucianism and history on TV.

Prof. Zhang Yiwu, with the Peking University's Department of Chinese Language and Literature, was not surprised to see the increasing fancy of traditional culture.

"It is a natural outcome of China's economic and social development," said Zhang who has studied the Chinese culture in the age of globalization for years.

Since the 19th century, the country had been on the edge of collapse, facing repeated attempts of foreign invasion. People blamed the cultural tradition, which they carried on for 5,000 years, for holding the country back from being strong and modern, he said.

"In fact, we did not deny every part in our tradition. For example, we have always honored ancient intellectuals who devoted themselves to the country and never gave up to the power or profit," Zhang said. "What many revolutionists denounced since the May Fourth Movement in 1919 was the mainstream culture centered on Confucianism."

After the founding of New China, great efforts were made in the academic fields to research and protect traditional culture but in daily life tradition was radically placed on the opposite side of modernization, he said.

Some cultural symbols, such as rituals, etiquettes and traditional techniques, were thus neglected.

"After fast economic development in the past 30 years, the country regained its self-confidence. Time has come that people want a stronger and more convincing identity," Zhang said. "But where does it come from?"