Lucky Bamboo

IT'S CALLED "LUCKY BAMBOO"--those graceful, bright green stalks arranged in tight bundles and anchored in smooth stones. Not since the pet rock has an objet du nature achieved such widespread exposure. Few can resist the lure of good fortune, especially when it comes by way of Asia, which itself is enjoying a chic streak, what with Buddha beads, black pearl tea, feng shui, and now this. "Bamboo bends, but it doesn't break," says Edward Slingerland, assistant professor of East Asian languages and cultures at USC. "It represents moral strength, a Confucian ideal." But moral doesn't have the same marketing ring as lucky, and "Confucian bamboo" couldn't make it out of the faculty lounge.

"Sometimes it brings you money, sometimes happiness," says Angie Hing of Chinatown's Wing Wa Hing store. "What you pay out, you will get back."