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A salesman holds a gold coin with a snake image on it to mark the upcoming year of the snake in a gold shop in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province, Thursday.

BEIJING -– Chinese New Year is just days away and, as hundreds of millions of people across China head back home in record numbers to ring in the Year of the Snake, many are eager to see what lies ahead.

Enter the Feng Shui master.

Though some in China see Feng Shui and astrological horoscopes as a fun novelty exercise in mysticism, for others Feng Shui masters are an essential consultant on any and all matters -– whether they be financial, political or romantic.

Some trusted experts are reputed to pull in tens of thousands of dollars in commissions for each consultation from superstitious individuals and even companies wanting to peer into their murky futures.

Feng Shui master Chen Shuaifu’s credentials are top-notch.

The 60-year old has been a stalwart of the industry for years and serves as chairman of the Chinese Feng Shui Association, which has more than 50,000 members.

In 2012, Chen gave us his predictions for the Year of the Dragon, which included an auspicious year for those born in the Year of the Snake -- such as 1929, 1953, 1977 and 2001 -- like Xi Jinping, born 1953, who has since risen to head of the Communist Party and will formally become president of China at next month’s National People’s Congress.

He also urged those born in the Year of the Dog -- including 1958, 1982 and 2006 -- to postpone life decisions, small consolation to Rick Santorum, born 1958, whose presidential campaign folded last year.

Chen has been fielding calls all month from believers to get his thoughts and predictions for 2013.

Chinatopix/AP

Passengers wait for their buses in Shanghai Friday as millions of Chinese make their way for family reunions ahead of the Chinese New Year.

Bad news for pigs
Getting the bad news out of the way right off the bat, Chen predicted a terrible year for those born in the Year of the Pig, which fell on 1959, 1983 and 1995, among other years. 

“Snakes and pigs clash and don’t get along,” Chen explained. “If the pig doesn’t have bad luck, then his or her family will suffer the ill fortune.”

A year after he predicted the Year of the Dragon would be a prosperous year for snakes -- “snakes grow up to become dragons,” Chen sagely told NBC News last year -- this time he forecast a down year for serpents.

Traditionally, one does not have good luck in the year of his Chinese astrological sign.

Ever the politician, though, Chen predicted that the snake’s poison would not fell Xi.

“The emperor is not affected by this bad luck,” noted Chen.

For pigs and every other snake except Xi, Chen strongly urges that they consult a Feng Shui master and consider dedicating a part of their home to Tai sui, celestial generals appointed by the Jade Emperor -- the ruler of heaven and all other realms -- to oversee the matters of mankind.

Perhaps most ominously for some, Chen declared 2013, the “year of the widow” warning that many “marriages will die” and that the divorce rate will be higher than normal.

To counterbalance the dark negativity surrounding troubled marriages, Chen recommended that homes be decorated in red as much as possible.

“In China, a city develops faster if it has more red colors,” Chen said, “It is the same all over the world. So try to use red colors as much as possible.”

Good times for roosters, monkeys
Despite his ominous predictions for current marriages, Chen had good news for those planning to get married: Do it.

“Tradition and experience tells us that it’s good to get married on the year when China changes leaders,” Chen said. “It is also a good time to have babies if you are planning.”

Others poised for a good year are those born in the Year of the Ox --  such as 1961, 1973, 1985 and 1997; Rooster -- including 1933, 1957, 1981 and 2005; and Monkey -- such as 1956, 1968, 1980 and 1992. The monkey is said to be the only animal clever enough to handle the snake.

And for entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing to invest in, Chen strongly urged them to look at Internet companies.

“The most successful businesses this year will be e-business,” he said. “Think Alibaba or Amazon.”

Chen made a range of other predictions for 2013, including:

• 2013 should bring rapid economic development for China with GDP growth of 9%. Like last year, though, Chen has little faith in the mainland’s real estate market, despite signs that it’s heating up again.
• Sino-U.S. relations will be healthier than many people expect. “It’s hard to hurt America and it’s even harder to hurt China,” says Chen, who doesn’t expect either country will want to test that belief.
• Ever the nationalist, Chen predicted peace between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute, but not for the reasons you may think: “If Japan dares to fire the first bullet, China has the power to fight against it until China recaptures the Diaoyu islands,” Chen declared. “So everything will be quite smooth between Japan and China.”

Eric Baculinao and Le Li contributed to this report.

On behalf of all us at Behind the Wall, thanks for reading and best wishes for a happy Chinese New Year and prosperous Year of the Snake.

Xinhua

Popular actor and singer Jay Chou (R) and actress Lin Chiling perform during a rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala Evening.

BEIJING – China returned to work this week after another Chinese New Year highlighted by the traditional talking points: the scarcity of train tickets, the constant cacophony of fireworks and gossip over one of the country’s most watched shows, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

The Gala, an annual television event since the eighties, is a show heavy on singing, acrobatic performances, magic and cross-talk – the popular form of pun-heavy comedic dialogue akin to Albert & Costello.

Molded in the image of variety shows once popular in America, the Gala has become a modern institution here in China not unlike “Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve” or the annual showing of movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Story” during the holiday season.

Though it is still one of the biggest annual draws, bringing in over 700 million viewers every year, the Gala’s numbers have steadily declined in recent years due to a perceived over-commercialization of the show and a staleness of content that has started to wear on an increasingly sophisticated Chinese television audience.

It is a familiar problem that has manifested itself in other state produced content. The People’s Daily, China’s most read daily newspaper with a circulation of three to four million readers has over the years years garnered a reputation of being drab and chock full of lackluster propaganda. That dullness was captured last year when popular China blog, Danwei.org, demonstrated how the state-run paper had notoriously used the exact same layout for its National People’s Congress coverage from 2004-2009.

Courtesy of Danwei.org

The front page coverage of the annual National People's Congress from state-run newspaper, The People's Daily, looks eerily familiar from year to year.

Top: 2004, 2005, 2006; Bottom: 2007, 2008, 2009

Similarly, despite attempts in recent years to freshen up the look and feel of the show, CCTV’s “7PM Network News Hour,” has also slowly bled viewers over the years due to complaints about the unchanging format of the show and its content.

Sina

Laughing Brother at the 2011 CCTV Spring Festival Gala

Despite numbers that would make any news network in the world blush – an estimated 135 million viewers a night – the show is often caustically described as consisting of three segments: 1) See how hard our leaders work for us; 2) See how prosperous our country is; and 3) See how terrible the rest of the world has it.

Given the way these two institutions of Chinese propaganda have been treated, it’s no small surprise the size and pointed earnestness of the Gala has made it a popular target for lampooners and cynics who have grown tired of the forced cheer and watered-down entertainment that is demanded by state censors and the need to appeal to such a mass audience.

Sina

Laughing Brother at the 2004 CCTV Spring Festival Gala

As with any other production of similar scale and cost, the Gala has become a lightning rod for accusations of plagiarism and a favorite for rooting out production mistakes inevitable with live television. Perhaps most famous of these in recent times have been the flubbed lines from the “Black Three Minutes,” when during the 2007 gala, five hosts flubbed their lines, leading to some embarrassed "dead air" on live television, uproarious audience laughter and an alleged furious backstage fight between the famous hosts.

This year’s favorite though, has been ten years in the making. There has long been debate about just who makes up the audience at these highly orchestrated affairs. Prominent businessmen, government workers and celebrities are expected of course, but many have speculated that the studio audience is also heavily stacked with what the Chinese call, longtao, or “Utility Men.”

Sina

Laughing Brother at the 2001 CCTV Spring Festival Gala

Their role? As paid audience members -- to laugh, applaud and cheer at all the right moments.

The presence of longtao at the Gala has long been suspected and some have even been picked out by eagle-eyed Gala watchers. However, one netizen has picked out the king of them all: the man Chinese are fondly calling online, “Laughing Brother.”

In an amazing show of netizen sleuthing, someone at the popular Chinese web-portal, Sina, found video-proof of a longtao who has been at every gala over the last decade. In each shot, he can be seen smiling broadly or applauding enthusiastically, doing his part to ensure success and glory for the show.

The posting has been enthusiastically received online in China, spurred on in no small part by the obvious jovial nature of “Laughing Brother” and the very apparent need for his special services in the first place.  

While this incident can be interpreted as another egg on CCTV’s collective face, it also is simply another manifestation of the savvy and sophistication Chinese netizens have shown in bringing a sense of humor and a degree of accountability to Chinese popular society.

Or it could just be another compelling reason for China’s propaganda machine to lighten up.