Hong Kong's Fortunes in Neutral Position

Lau holding fortune No. 15, a neutral one for the sixth year

Hong Kong's Year of the Dragon will not be a good one, according to the fortune Heung Yee Kuk Chairman Kenneth Lau Ip-keung picked out on Sunday, the second day of Chinese New Year.

The "neutral" No. 15 stick reads: "Holding an axe and entering a forest, looking for something not yet obtained. Wasting good material and losing one's strength, offering oneself and waiting for the arrival of spring."

Lau drew the stick at Che Kung Temple

In other words: "When you're in the forest with an axe, there are many trees to chop down. This is exactly what the government has to do, to choose appropriate policies," said Lau. "Spring will come but the government should not waste time and resources."

Or maybe it's time someone else shakes the cylinder full of bamboo fortune sticks and shakes a better one out? Lau has drawn "neutral" sticks in the past six years.