DEV Community: fan ye

Why I Built a Digital Temple for 16 Chinese Gods (And What I Learned)

fan ye — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 02:48:55 +0000

Why I Built a Digital Temple for 16 Chinese Gods (And What I Learned)

Three weeks ago I knew almost nothing about Chinese folk religion. Now I run a digital temple with 100+ weekly visitors.

The Spark

Growing up in China but educated in the West, I was always caught between two worlds. When my grandmother lit incense at the family altar, I saw superstition. When my American friends asked about Chinese gods, I couldn't name more than three.

Then COVID happened. Temples across Taiwan and Hong Kong launched virtual prayer services. Lungshan Temple in Taipei offered online incense lighting. Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong launched digital fortune sticks.

The question hit me: what if I built a complete digital temple that anyone in the world could access?

What I Built

eastmythos.com — A digital Chinese temple with:

🔮 AI Fortune Reading — DeepSeek-powered readings based on your birth details, gender, and life situation
🥢 Moon Block Divination (掷筊) — Physics-simulated 400-year-old ritual with authentic probability distribution
🕯️ Virtual Incense & Prayer Wall — Light incense to 16 deities, read prayers from people worldwide
📿 Deity Encyclopedia — Cai Shen (Wealth), Guan Yin (Compassion), Yue Lao (Love), and 13 more
🐉 Chinese Zodiac Guide — All 12 signs with mythology, compatibility, lucky elements
🌐 Bilingual EN/中文 — Full toggle between English and Chinese

The Numbers (Week 1)

After launching on Product Hunt and posting on dev.to:

Metric	Value
Total Visitors	120
Product Hunt	10 referrals
Google Organic	2
Most Visited	Homepage (91), God pages (3)

The bounce rate hurt. But it made sense — people were curious but didn't know what to do.

What I Fixed

Problem 1: Empty Prayer Wall

A temple with no worshippers feels dead. I added 28 seed prayers with realistic content — Chinese names, emotional stories. Suddenly the site felt alive.

Problem 2: Where's the Call to Action?

Visitors landed on the homepage and left. I added "Quick Prayer" sections higher up, made the deity selector more prominent.

Problem 3: No Social Proof

Added a prayer wall showing real-seeming prayers, a vow wall with gratitude stories. People engage when they see others engaging.

Technical Details

Stack: Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS — no frameworks, no build tools
Size: ~170KB total (smaller than most React apps' bundles)
Hosting: Vercel (free tier)
Analytics: GoatCounter (privacy-first, no cookies)
Monetization: Ko-fi vow fulfillment (5 tiers, $1–$200)
AI: DeepSeek API for fortune reading

What I'd Do Differently

Start with content, not code — The god encyclopedia pages should've been the MVP
Launch sooner — I spent too long polishing animations nobody would see
SEO from day one — Should've created guide pages before launch, not after

The Weirdest Bug

Chinese text in JavaScript strings kept breaking because of backslash-escaped quotes:

// This broke everything
'Don\\'t worry' // No.
'Don\'t worry'  // Still no.
"Don't worry"    // Finally!

I wrote 27 Python scripts to find and fix every instance. Twenty-seven!

What's Next

Firebase Auth for user accounts
More deity pages (only 2/16 are getting traffic)
Reddit launch across r/SideProject, r/ChineseLanguage

Try it out: eastmythos.com

Source: All vanilla HTML/CSS/JS — view source to see how it works!

Have you built anything that bridges cultures? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

How I Built a Digital Chinese Temple in Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS

fan ye — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 02:17:40 +0000

How I Built a Digital Chinese Temple

No frameworks. No ads. No signup.

What It Does

Moon Block Divination (Jiao Bei) - 400-year ritual
Virtual Incense and Prayer - 16 deities
16 Deities Encyclopedia - Cai Shen, Guan Yin, Monkey King
Chinese Zodiac - 12 signs with mythology
Prayer Wall and Vow Fulfillment

Tech Stack

Vanilla HTML+CSS+JS | Vercel | GoatCounter | Ko-fi

eastmythos.com

DivineEast — Explore Chinese Mythology Through an Interactive Digital Temple

fan ye — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 05:44:11 +0000

I built DivineEast — an interactive website that brings Chinese folk religion and mythology to the English-speaking world.

What is it?

A digital temple featuring 16 Chinese deities (Cai Shen, Guan Yu, Guan Yin, Sun Wukong, Nezha, and more), each with backstory, iconography, and worship traditions explained in detail.

Features

Fortune Telling 🔮 — Traditional Chinese divination with 10 different readings
12 Chinese Zodiac 🐉 — Your zodiac sign, personality, and lucky elements
Virtual Prayer & Incense 🕯️ — Light incense, offer fruits, wine, gold ingots — prayers saved for 1 year
Worship Guides 📜 — How to pray for Wealth, Love, and Health in Chinese tradition

Why I built this

I realized there's no good English resource introducing Chinese mythology in an interactive, engaging way. Wikipedia is dry, academic papers are inaccessible. I wanted to build something that feels like stepping into a temple.

Tech Stack

Pure HTML/CSS/JS (no frameworks)
Deployed on Netlify
LocalStorage for prayer persistence
AI-generated deity portraits

The site is completely free, no ads, no signup. Built as a passion project.

Would love your feedback! 🙏

🔗 eastmythos.com

I Built 25 Free Financial Calculators — No Ads, No Signup, Just Tools

fan ye — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 06:05:42 +0000

Two weeks ago I shared a collection of 6 financial calculators. The response was incredible, so I kept building.

Today, fi-calc.com has 25 completely free calculators covering every major personal finance need:

🏠 Housing
• Mortgage Calculator (full PITI + amortization schedule + pie chart)
• Rent vs Buy Calculator
• House Affordability Calculator
• Refinance Calculator

💰 Investing & Retirement
• Compound Interest Calculator
• Investment Return Calculator
• Future Value & Present Value Calculators
• ROI Calculator
• Retirement Savings Calculator
• 401(k) Calculator
• FIRE Calculator (Financial Independence)

💳 Debt & Loans
• Loan Comparison Calculator
• Auto Loan Calculator
• Student Loan Calculator
• Credit Card Payoff Calculator
• Debt Payoff Calculator (Avalanche method)

📊 Everyday Finance
• Budget Planner (50/30/20 rule)
• Savings Goal Calculator
• Inflation Calculator
• Salary & Take-Home Pay Calculator
• Net Worth Calculator
• Currency Converter (15+ currencies)
• CD Calculator
• Sales Tax Calculator

✨ Tech Stack
• Pure vanilla HTML/CSS/JS — no frameworks
• Chart.js for animated interactive charts
• Responsive design (mobile-friendly)
• All calculations run client-side in your browser
• No data collection, no accounts, no cookies

🔗 Give it a try: fi-calc.com

The entire site is free and open. I built it because I was tired of calculator sites with paywalls, signup walls, and bloated ad experiences.

Would love feedback from the community! What other calculators should I build next?

I Built a Free Suite of 14 Financial Calculators

fan ye — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:18:25 +0000

I recently launched Fi-Calc — a free suite of 14 financial calculators that runs entirely in the browser.

No signups. No ads. No data collection. Just tools that help you make better money decisions.

The Calculators

Mortgage Calculator — Monthly payments, total interest, amortization
Compound Interest — See the power of compounding
Investment Returns — CAGR, total return, inflation-adjusted
Retirement Calculator — How much you need to save
401(k) Calculator — Employer match and tax benefits
Loan Amortization — Full schedule with extra payments
Debt Payoff — Snowball vs. avalanche comparison
Rent vs. Buy — Compare renting vs. buying
Savings Goal — How long to reach your target
Emergency Fund — How much you really need
APR Calculator — True cost of borrowing
Dollar Cost Averaging — Model regular investment strategies
Social Security Calculator — Estimate your benefits
CD Ladder Calculator — Maximize CD returns

Tech Stack

Pure HTML/CSS/JS, no frameworks. 100% client-side computation — your data never leaves your browser.

All calculators are free at fi-calc.com.

Would love your feedback and suggestions for new calculators!