Pang Li / China Daily

Behind the magic acts put on privately by some self-proclaimed masters of qigong lies a much more dexterous skill of pulling strings and massaging the egos of China's rich and powerful.

The downfall of a qigong master does not start with the loss of physical prowess; it usually starts with unwanted limelight, such as the visit of e-commerce doyen Ma Yun, kung fu superstar Jet Li and actress-turned-director Zhao Wei.

When the trio of luminaries descended upon the palatial home of Wang Lin in a county town in Jiangxi province, the media spotlight followed their footsteps. As a matter of fact, Master Wang did not eschew it. He devotes two floors (out of a total five) to the exhibition of photos he has taken with celebrities and prominent officials. He loves showing reporters around this personal gallery and reminds them to focus well before taking snapshots of his photo collection. Or at least he used to before the press turned against him.

Wang Lin hangs around with the rich and powerful, but he was hitherto not publicly known. Unlike the movie stars who made a pilgrimage to him, he does not need a mass market to thrive. As he likes to point out, a businessman paid him 17 million yuan ($2.77 million) for "tuition". "It's not against the law that I accepted it" is his catchphrase.

And I must add that no press reports say he teaches qigong for a fee. Local authorities are reportedly investigating him for possibly practicing medicine without a license.

What Wang practices could be more psychological than traditionally medical. In a sense, he is like an exorbitantly priced career counselor aided by the self-claimed mastery of psychic power. His signature feat is a magic act that fills an empty basin with a live snake. Only he does not call it a magic trick or an illusion, but some kind of supernatural power endowed upon him by some mythic force or a lifetime of qigong training.

Reading about Wang Lin, I couldn't help think of similar "masters" I have encountered. In recent years I have noticed that a business crowd often features an imposing figure donning a traditional garb. He - I've yet to see a woman in this role - would talk in cryptic language, such as "All the troubles in the world can be boiled down to one word".