Tarot and interpretive texts are widely available in bookstores. [Shanghai Daily]

Kathy Lu suspects her husband of cheating, but is afraid of confronting him. She turns to the stars and asks a friend to review her own and her husband's natal charts for the answer.

The friend, a gifted interpreter of such arcana, compares the charts, common in Western astrology, and confirms the suspicions of the 26-year-old human resources professional.

"There are many significant stars, including Venus, in my ex-husband's house for relationships," says Lu, who got divorced a month ago, but never did confront her husband. "It seems that he is the type to have affairs."

Early on, however, Lu's mother had taken the couple's birth dates, times and locations to a Chinese fortune-teller for a similar birth chart. She got the same news: the guy is likely to be a philanderer. This, however, she kept to herself until the marriage was on the rocks.

We don't really know whether Lu's husband was unfaithful - she thought so, however, since he was always out late and away from home. And the stars agreed. They divorced a month ago, after a year and a half of wedlock.

Lu is not the only young educated Chinese who makes important decisions based on Western horoscopes, as well as Chinese astrology. Fortunetelling has been part of life since ancient times, though authorities officially frown on "superstitious practices."

Still, Western astrology and tarot card readings appear to be gaining a greater following today. There is abundant anecdotal evidence.

Popular horoscope blogs announce daily, weekly and monthly fortune and dos and don'ts. There are numerous daily click rates of more than 100,000.

Online lessons teaching about Western astrology have been downloaded in huge numbers. Almost all big Chinese forums reserve a section for horoscopes and discussions.

Many fortune-tellers and tarot readers keep a very low profile. They open only at night and are not widely known, but they are usually full of customers. At one popular tarot spot, people wait for at least two hours to get questions answered on weekends.