Hu Fang's 'Diviner (night school)' essay explores self-knowledge and temptation in ArtReview Asia

Hu Fang's essay 'Diviner (night school)' was first published in the Summer 2017 issue of ArtReview Asia. The narrative describes a personal crisis where the author encounters a service promising self-knowledge through a computer screen, requiring only a date of birth to reveal personality and fate. This temptation leads to abandoning an actual night school, depicted as a chaotic environment filled with schemers, seducers, and various social types. At an affordable fortune-telling venue, scenes include Ziploc-bagged flowers, martyrs' skulls in a freezer, and an anthropoid skeleton hanging from the ceiling, where interactions are marked by laughter and subtle gestures. The author reflects on hesitation and the allure of understanding destiny, culminating in a hypnotic moment where secrets are disclosed. The essay contrasts the night school's endless delays with the fortune-telling site's inevitability, suggesting repentance leads to a metaphorical graduation at daybreak. It concludes with the author alone, cleaning a dusty screen reminiscent of an unearthed bronze statue, returning to the site of temptation.