BEIJING, March 24 -- It's not necessary for feng shui to gain a foothold in colleges in order to enter mainstream society, affirms an article in Qianjiang Evening Post. Following is an excerpt:

Wuhan University of Science and Technology has cancelled the feng shui course it opened last October.

Some believe feng shui is a branch of science and thus shouldn't have been cancelled.

They even cite explanations from the dictionary to support their views that feng shui refers to "the location of house or tomb, supposed to have influence on the fortune of a family". The discipline's official name is kanyu.

But feng shui is widely dismissed as mere superstition. What its masters usually do is to help people, especially the rich, seek fortunes by choosing good locations for real estate, like factories, hotels and homes, and fending off evil spirits like "ghosts".

In today's world, feng shui has developed into a booming industry.

So, some so-called feng shui research centers seek affiliations with colleges where they can at least make money even if they do nothing else.