This Eight Characters (八字, Bazi) fortune chart is part of a set that belong to Mr. and Mrs. Mr Chua Chuan Leong. The set includes charts created for their marriage in 1922 and the first month birthdays of their second, third and fourth child in 1928, 1930 and 1931 respectively.Such charts are used in Chinese tradition for foretelling a one-month old child's future and also for matchmaking purposes. A typical fortune chart is written on red rice paper and includes the Eight Characters of the person whose fortune is being calculated. The characters are made up of four pairs of Chinese characters that give the year, month, day and hour of a person's birth and their combination of the five elements, namely metal, wood, water, fire and earth.
