During the early 1800s, feng shui was introduced to the U.S. with the first Chinese immigrants. The notorious Four Corners section of New York, which was then a Chinese ghetto, featured gambling houses and other structures that incorporated feng shui, as did the Chinatowns in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 19th-century Australia, the Joss House was built using feng shui. It has also been practiced by western "hongs" or trading companies to satisfy local business communities and to encourage luck in business.

Since the mid-20th century, feng shui has been illegal in the PRC, primarily because Mao Zedong (who had studied feng shui) denounced many practitioners' propensity for fraud. Other reasons have been suggested, which is why a department of the Chinese government was assigned to oversee its use. Ole Bruun's fieldwork has shown that during the Cultural Revolution, most feng shui practitioners had their books burnt, were persecuted and jailed, and underwent extreme privations for their knowledge of ancient Chinese culture. Very few were willing — or had the means — to leave the country.

Feng shui is still used in rural China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It is not well-known among younger Chinese in the PRC. However, the rapid modernization of China has led to feng shui becoming a worthy subject for scholarly inquiry at Chinese universities. As Chinese scholars increasingly work with their counterparts in the rest of the world, a new picture is emerging of the history and application of this ancient ceremonial custom.

The adaptation of Feng Shui to spatial arrangements in the West has been a controversial trend of the postmodern age. Architects and landscape designers around the world are sometimes asked to include feng shui principles in their designs, even in places that do not have significant Asian populations. There are cases where superstitious office building planners use feng shui, often at significant added cost, in their belief that their interpretation of such principles will increase sales and boost morale. Homeowners are susceptible to self-appointed feng shui "experts," who charge consulting fees for interior decorating or for the design and construction of a home.

Many Westerners are cynical towards Feng Shui because they believe it to be pseudoscience. This has been a part of the general cynicism in the West towards postmodernism, New Age practices, and adaptations of Eastern culture by Westerners. Many in the west have expressed frustration with the difficulty of measuring any practical effects of Feng Shui. A number of trade paperbacks have appeared on the market touting the magical benefits that special placement of mirrors, arrows, use of certain colors, and flowing water can have on one's life, finances and relationships; many skeptics have claimed that these are the result of imposters wishing to exploit postmodern trends (who may have little or no knowledge of Feng Shui tradition).

The famous Bank of China Tower on Hong Kong Island, a blade-like design by I.M. Pei (not a feng shui adept), was supposedly a deliberate curse upon the Government House and the former British administration. No updated version of this fable exists to explain effects on the current occupants, or on the next-door Citigroup building, allegedly another "target" of the designer. In response, it is alleged, the architects of the Citigroup building designed it with a curved facade in order to shield and deflect the negative elements emanating from the neighboring Bank of China building.

The Cheung Kong Tower is one of the most famous buildings in Hong Kong and was reviewed by Li Ka Shing, feng shui consultant. The building inside is totally in green and the major entrance is toward the east direction that the feng shui specialist believes would bring more wealth to the Li Ka Shing family in the soil of Hong Kong

Thousands of years ago, the Luo-shu and Hetu predicted the success of the harvest of each year. By the centre of Lok River, the ancient people found the pattern of incidents of each crop. After a few thousands of years, people found the old records of incidents were accurate; they pass their knowledge to their followers.

The basic theory of feng shui is to utilize the 5 elements and Bagua theories. The 5 elements are Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. Bagua consists of 8 trigrams: Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kan, Dui and Gen. The combination of them could deduce the things to occur later in a house, a region or anywhere on Earth.