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Thread: Qingming Festival (Tomb-sweeping Day)

  1. #1
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    Qingming Festival (Tomb-sweeping Day)

    Laptops, mansions and helicopters: The weirdest paper offerings Chinese people burn for the deceased to ensure them a happy afterlife

    Chinese people have the tradition of burning paper items for dead relatives
    The practice is often seen on the annual Tomb-sweeping Day in early April
    On the day millions in the country visit graves of ancestors to pay respects
    Offerings have become increasingly extravagant including latest gadgets

    By QIN XIE FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 05:14 EST, 1 April 2016 | UPDATED: 05:25 EST, 1 April 2016

    Once a year in April, China's cemeteries are more densely populated with the living than the dead.

    Millions of people of Chinese descent visit the graves of their ancestors to burn paper money as an offering as part of the annual Qingming Festival, or Tomb-sweeping Day, which takes place on April 4 this year.

    But while the tradition is some 2,500 years old, the somber celebration has become an increasingly lucrative business, according to People's Daily Online.


    Modern: The 2,500-year-old tradition of burning offerings for Qingming Festival has been updated with new items like cardboard Apple products (as above)


    Extravagant: There are increasingly outrageous offerings including helicopters (above) and luxury cars



    Necessities: Some of the most popular items for burning is paper money but it's also easy to track down cardboard homes and plastic servants

    There's a folk belief in China that if you burn paper money and make offerings at the graves of your ancestors, they will receive them in the afterlife and put them to use.

    In days gone by, the offering might have been seen as a way to appease ghosts but it was also a way for people to continue their filial duties into the afterlife.

    The graves are cleaned before candles and incense are lit.

    Paper money is burnt and fresh fruits and flowers are offered.

    Often, messages to the deceased are also spoken out loud.

    In recent years however, the offerings have become increasingly flashy.


    High tech: Fake Apple products, like the MacBook above, are also popular. Some are made to size as welll


    Details: Inside, the laptop has everything you might need, including printed keyboard and screen (above)


    Leisure: Mah Jong, a popular game in China, is one of the items for sale. You can even build one yourself

    On Chinese online shops such as Taobao, China's equivalent to Ebay, it's possible to buy everything from stacks of paper money for less than one Yuan (10p) to extravagant paper palaces that cost up to 2,000 Yuan (£200).

    The paper offerings have become increasingly elaborate as well.

    To keep up with the times, there's a plethora of gadgets for sale, including cameras, laptops and ipads.

    According to an 2014 report by People's Daily Online, the cardboard version of the iPhone 5S was one of the most popular items for offering that year.

    For leisure, there's bicycles, mah jong tables, and massage chairs. These could go alongside the household appliances and kitchen equipment.

    Those luxury inclined can buy villas, cars and even helicopters.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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    Continued from previous post


    Serious: This bike is full size, which is quite unusual for offerings as they generally need to be easy to burn


    Relax: A massage chair (right) and an emperor's throne (left) are the things you can furnish your home with


    Documents: There are important documents too, like bank cards, passports and identity cards (pictured)

    Food and drink, some real and some made of candle wax or paper, are also available.

    There's even documents like passports, driving licence and health insurance available for purchase.

    All of these items can be, and are burnt during Qingming Festival, as well as in other times of the year for funerals.

    According to The World of Chinese, there was even a retailer offering to carry out the tomb-sweeping duties on behalf of anyone who can't make the event.

    The service includes everything from cleaning the tombs and burning offerings to live chats at the grave and even having someone weeping to express the sorrow of the buyer.

    And like China's voracious consumerism, these extravagant offerings don't appear to be slowing or stopping.


    Zen: Tea, a popular gift in life, is also available. All of these items can be, and are burnt during Qingming Festival, as well as in other times of the year for funerals


    Edible: Food and drink , some real and some made of candle wax or paper, are also available. Above, ingredients for a hotpot set


    Full service: There's reportedly a retailer offering to carry out the tomb-sweeping duties on behalf of anyone who can't make the event, including burning offerings
    I'm surprised we don't have a thread dedicated to this festival already.
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    Beautiful gallery on Mashable

    Tomb sweeping is underway for Chinese around the world
    BY TYLER ESSARY 13 hours ago

    Spring cleaning in China and other parts of the world might look a little different than your usual sprucing.

    The three-day ritual of Tomb Sweeping, also known as the Qingming Festival, kicks off on April 4. The most important day of sacrifice for many Chinese people, family members gather to pay respect to deceased loved ones by participating in a number of rituals — including cleaning the outside of tombs, burning incense and fake money, and bringing an assortment of gifts to lay outside their grave sites.

    The festival is a 2,500-year-old tradition, but some traditions will fall by the wayside this year. Due to pollution, fire hazard and traffic problems Qingming will have a modern alternative such as online Tomb Sweeping.

    However modernizing Tomb Sweeping didn't stop the influx of tourism. Xinhua News Agency reported 13.4 million Chinese people visited 150 major cemeteries this year.


    Malaysian Chinese are seen offering a prayer to their ancestors on April 4, 2016 in Shah Alam, Malaysia.
    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    A replica Mercedes Benz car made from paper is sits at grave site in Shah Alam, Malaysia.
    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: MOHD SAMSUL MOHD SAID/GETTY IMAGES


    A Chinese descendant takes flowers to a Chinese cemetery in Havana on April 3, 2016.
    IMAGE: YAMILE LAGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
    continued next post
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    Continued from previous post


    A Chinese woman burns incense at a Chinese cemetery in Havana.
    IMAGE: YAMILE LAGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: YAMILE LAGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: YAMILE LAGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: YAMILE LAGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: YAMILE LAGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    Chinese women are reflected on tomb stones as they repaint the characters and clean the tomb of their deceased relatives at the Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing on April 3, 2016.
    IMAGE: ANDY WONG/AP


    Worshippers gather near a wall of niches for cremated remains of their families' ancestors at a cemetery in Hong Kong on April 4, 2016.
    IMAGE: VINCENT YU/AP


    IMAGE: VINCENT YU/AP


    Taiwanese family members visit the grave of their relatives in Taipei, Taiwan,
    IMAGE: CHIANG YING-YING/AP


    Citizens burn sacrifices and sweep tombs at a cemetery the day before Qingming Festival on April 3, 2016 in Sanya, Hainan Province of China.
    IMAGE: VCG/GETTY IMAGES
    continued next post
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    Continued from previous post


    Citizens depict epigraphs on gravestones at a cemetery the day before Qingming Festival in Hainan Province of China.
    IMAGE: VCG/GETTY IMAGES


    A woman burns offerings at a grave in a public cemetery in Shanghai.
    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    A man repaints the engravings on a gravestone at a public cemetery in Shanghai.
    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    A man prays and burns incense at the grave of his parents and sister at a public cemetery in Shanghai.
    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    So called 'spirit money' burns next to a grave as an offering at a public cemetery in Shanghai.
    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    Food, incense and other offerings are left by loved ones for the departed at a public cemetery in Shanghai.
    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
    continued next post
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    Continued from previous post


    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    A woman prays at the grave of her parents at a public cemetery in Shanghai.
    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    People queue up for a shuttle bus to take them to a public cemetery in Shanghai.
    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


    IMAGE: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
    Love those paper offerings. Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz....
    Gene Ching
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    And then, of course, there's this...

    ... follow the link for an embedded YouKu vid, if you must.

    WATCH: Scantily-clad ladies shake their booties in front of graves to honor ancestors



    Like we said yesterday, China's annual Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Jie) isn't as stuffy of a holiday as you may think. If you don't want to spend big bucks buying your dead relatives a fake solar panel, then you can always just shake your moneymaker in their honor.



    At least that's what a gaggle of women were spotted doing at a cemetery in Shanwei, Guangdong province yesterday. The five ladies, dressed in short skirts with tummies exposed, put on a somewhat sultry synchronized dance that at least kept the living entertained.




    Images from their little jig have since gone viral online, with netizens debating about whether this is an acceptable way to honor one's ancestors. Most believed that it did not fit with the usually reserved and solemn atmosphere of Tomb Sweeping Day. Others pointed out that they were literally dancing on their ancestors graves.
    "These kind of people have no respect for their ancestors," one netizen stated.
    "Aren't they worried that their relatives will come back and haunt them after such a performance?" another wrote in.



    Maybe this kind of thing will catch on in time for the next Tomb Sweeping Day to help out all those funeral strippers, who have been out of work since last year's government crackdown.

    Here's the ladies in action:
    http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTUyNDA1NTQxMg==.html

    [Images via NetEase]
    Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
    By Alex Linder in News on Apr 5, 2016 5:10 PM
    Gene Ching
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    Copyright infringement for funeral offerings

    Gucci warns over fake paper goods used in Chinese funerals


    Fake paper Gucci handbag and shoes on display in a Hong Kong shop CREDIT: APPLE DAILY

    Neil Connor, beijing 29 APRIL 2016 • 11:54AM

    Luxury Italian brand Gucci has sent letters warning stores in Hong Kong not to sell paper versions of its products which are used as offerings to the dead in Chinese funerals.

    Paper items such as houses and money have traditionally been burnt next to the tombs of ancestors to symbolise that they will be enjoyed by loved ones in the afterlife.

    But as a new class of rich emerge in China, the burning of paper mansions, high speed cars, iPhones and luxury shoes and handbags has become popular.


    Fake paper handbag and shoes on display in Hong Kong CREDIT: APPLE DAILY

    In a move which Gucci said is motivated by concerns over “trademark infringement” issues, the company has written to at least two stores in Hong Kong to request them not to sell paper replicas of their products.

    One store owner said she was “shocked” when she received the letter, according to a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper.

    “I have never bought a luxury bag before and I didn’t know it (Gucci) was a well-known brand.”

    Another store owner in the Sheung Wan district of the city said: “These products are offerings for the dead, not the living, so how can we be violating copyright?”


    Fake paper Chanel handbag and shoes on display in Hong Kong CREDIT: APPLE DAILY

    The newspaper quoted a local lawyer saying that even if the Gucci brand was used in a totally different business area to clothes and fashion, it could still constitute a trademark infringement.

    Gucci said there was “no suggestion of legal action or compensation” in the letter.

    "We fully respect the funeral context and we trust that the store owners did not have the intention to infringe Gucci's trademark,” it said in a statement emailed to The Telegraph.

    "Thus a letter was sent on an informational basis to let these stores know about the products they were carrying, and by asking them to stop selling those items."


    Fake paper Gucci shoes and handbag on display in Hong Kong store CREDIT: APPLE DAILY

    Police in New York were reported to have previously cracked down on the trade in branded fake paper goods in the city’s Chinatown.

    Additional reporting by Ailin Tang
    So will Gucci now offer legally branded funeral offerings? And how much would those cost? I want my ancestors to have the very best in handbags.
    Gene Ching
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    Slightly OT

    The art is all wrong and there is a slanted Western perspective, but the article is still of interest.

    Family pay £20k for dead bride to marry their son in 'ghost wedding'
    13:14, 16 MAY 2016 UPDATED 13:14, 16 MAY 2016
    BY JESSICA HAWORTH , RUTH HALKON
    His family organised a zombie wedding for the pair, through fear they would be cursed if he died unmarried


    Getty
    The couple were 'married' despite having passed away

    A family paid nearly £20,000 to marry their son to a dead woman - because they didn't want him to be a bachelor.

    The man - who had died three years earlier - passed away before he had chance to take a bride .

    So his family , from Shanxi Province, China, paid 180,000 yuan (£19,196) to matchmake him with a dead woman so that they could be married in heaven.

    The bizarre ritual is an old custom in rural China, and involves having a 'ghost wedding' for the couple.

    They do this because of fears the family will be cursed if one of them dies unmarried.

    According to state-run China Radio International (CRI), they were given a discount to buy the wife as locals believed they were a 'good social match'.


    Getty
    The family paid a lot of money for the 'ghost bride'

    It also benefits the young woman's family, as without being married she would be unable to have a 'proper burial'.

    Posthumous marriage is widely regarded in rural Chinese communities, but there is often a lack of female bodies to perform the ritual.

    Many more young men than women die due to physical injuries sustained in the coal mines of the region.

    But since parents see it as their obligation to marry their children, many will continue to wait until years after death to find a wife.

    Others turn to crime in order to secure a bride, with an increasing number of dead bodies being stolen to take part in the practice.


    Getty
    Unmarried men are wed in posthumous ceremonies through fear their family will be haunted

    At least three dozen bodies have been reported stolen in the past three years in Southern Shanxi's Hongtong County, according to Lin Xu, deputy director of the county police department.

    In 2011, a man was arrested for killing his wife and then trying to sell her body as a corpse bride.

    Read more: Horrifying video shows 'exorcist doctor' who 'raped and tortured' girl for days before she died

    Last year, three men were arrested after trying to sell bodies for more than £25,000.

    Even old, decomposed bodies can be sold for over £500 according to Weird Asia News.

    A man, Jing Gouzi, who bought a corpse to bury next to his single older brother told Xinhua News Agency : "I thought of using a woman made of dough, but the old men in our village insisted only real bodies could prevent misfortune."


    Getty
    Increased reports of grave robbing for women's bodies have blighted rural China

    According to Chinese criminal law, those who steal or defile a corpse are subject to up to three years in prison.

    Corpse theft is difficult to investigate as it is hard to find evidence, Lin said.

    Repeated corpse thefts have caused panic in nearby villages.

    In one village, families have started to build tombs near their homes, rather than at distant mountain sites.

    Some affluent families have hired people to watch their family tombs, reinforced the tombs with steel and installed CCTV cameras over graves.
    Gene Ching
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    This is horrific

    It would make a good horror film plot. But sadly, terrifyingly, it's news.



    Murdered Mentally Disabled Sold As Ghost Wedding Brides
    The body of one of the murdered women fetched around $5,260.
    Colum Murphy

    Aug 23, 2016

    Police in northwestern China have charged a man with murdering two mentally disabled women and selling their corpses for use in “ghost” weddings.

    The custom of marrying a couple, one of whom, or both, are deceased has been practised in China for centuries. They are carried out, for example, either to bring an unmarried, living woman into the lineage of a deceased man’s family, or to join two dead individuals in perpetual matrimony after death. Such weddings also are arranged to comfort unmarried spirits that might otherwise haunt the family of the deceased.

    Weddings involving dead people have long been a thorn in the side of the Chinese government. Mao Zedong targeted the practice in his drive to rid the country of unscientific and superstitious customs. The sale of corpses was made illegal in 2006. In spite of the ban, the practice continues to this day, particularly in rural areas of China’s northern and northwestern regions.

    In this latest case, a traffic policeman discovered the body of a woman in a van near the city of Yanan, in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi, on April 13. This led to the discovery of another murder involving the same perpetrator. In both cases, the women were killed in Gansu province and their bodies transported to the neighboring province of Shaanxi.

    Since then, two other people in addition to the murderer have been charged with crimes related to the deaths of the two women, including concealing the murder and trafficking women.

    According to a report issued Monday by the police in Yulin City, Shaanxi, the main suspect in the case, a man surnamed Ma from Gansu, was an acquaintance of the mother of the first victim, a mentally disabled woman identified only by her family name Liu. The police in the city could not be reached for comment on Tuesday morning.

    According to the report, the suspect Ma told Liu’s mother he would he would find her daughter a marriage partner, and invited Liu out of her home on this pretext. Once he was alone with Liu, Ma injected his victim with heavy sedatives, and Liu died from an overdose, according to the police report.

    Ma then paid a man surnamed Yang to transport Liu’s body in his van from Gansu to Yulin. There they met with a resident surnamed Qiu, who acted as an agent, introducing Ma to potential buyers of Liu’s corpse. Ma received 35,000 yuan ($5,263) for the body. For his part as middleman, Qiu received 5,000 yuan. It was not immediately clear how much Yang the driver was paid for his role.

    Three months later, Ma was up to his murderous ways again, the report suggests. With the help of two accomplices, he identified another potential victim in a disabled woman surnamed An. Her murder followed an almost identical pattern to Liu’s, right down to the lethal injection. Once again, Ma enlisted Yang’s services with the same destination in mind — Yulin, where arrangements had been made for the corpse to “marry” the son of a resident surnamed Chen, according to the police.

    But the corpse never made it to its final destination, as Yang was intercepted en route by traffic police.

    Ma has been charged with homicide and trafficking of women, while Yang has been charged with concealing the murder. One person involved in An’s abduction has also been arrested for trafficking women.

    Additional reporting by Yin Yijun. With contributions from Owen Churchill.

    (Header image: A ghost wedding ceremony for two dead teenagers is held in Yuncheng, Shanxi province, May 6, 2016. The groom was beaten to death by a group of boys; the body of the bride was purchased by his family. Chen Wei/VCG)
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    It's that time of year again

    I'm very fond of any ritual that honors the dead.

    Ancestors to receive $10 million bills, fake cigarettes, maotai bottles this Tomb Sweeping Day
    BY SHANGHAIIST IN NEWS ON APR 4, 2017 2:00 AM



    You would think that such a solemn and traditional occasion as Tomb Sweeping Day must come into conflict with the modern world. However, each year, tomb sweeping only seems to become more and more connected with contemporary life as relatives burn paper representations of various state-of-the-art goods for their ancestors to enjoy in the afterlife.
    Last year, some highlights included paper maotai, mahjong tables, solar panels, and laptops. For this year's Qingming Festival (which is today!), paper iPhones remain a must (along with the charger, of course), as well as trendiest of paper clothing.




    Counterfeit money and premium-branded cigarettes are also in high-demand. Behold, the $1 million bill:



    And if you really want to spoil your forebearers, how about a stack of $10 million notes?



    While those banknotes might not pass in the real world, these 100 RMB notes certainly could:



    A deluxe cigarette pack including Marlboro for the ancestor that loved to smoke (perhaps a bit too much):



    Of course, smokes go even better when paired with some maotai:



    Looks like the makings of one hell of a party in the afterlife to us.
    However, CGTN notes some of the mixed reactions from Chinese netizens regarding the less than traditional offerings that are on sale for ancestors this Qingming Festival:

    “It is contemporary to be creative with ideas of offerings, but to recognize the importance of the event is also important,” one netizen, @daqianjiedao, commented.
    Another, @xuzhouzhangdashuai, was more serious about such superficial choices that he believed just appealed to people's vanity. ”No matter how luxurious the offerings are, it will never replace the importance of practicing filial piety when people are still alive.”

    In yet another sign that this ancient holiday is catching up with the times, Nanjing's Yuhuatai Cemetery is offering live-stream mourning services for relatives who are unable or simply too lazy to make it to the cemetery themselves today -- if you're in the latter category, your ancestors would deeply appreciate it if you would spent a few hours of your time to visit them!



    While we can hope that next year's Tomb Sweeping Day might be regarded with more respect and meaning, let's just be thankful for the moment that cemeteries aren't also offering stripper services as well this year.
    By Allison Ma
    [Images via Sina / NetEase / ECNS]
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    Slightly OT

    It isn't Qingming, but this is Chinese funeral related.

    Chinese man stopped at bus station with two human arms in bag
    Man was transporting amputated arms back to his hometown for his brother who had undergone surgery
    PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 08 August, 2017, 12:35pm
    UPDATED : Tuesday, 08 August, 2017, 12:35pm



    Sarah Zheng
    http://twitter.com/_szheng
    sarah.zheng@scmp.com

    The 50-year-old man was caught with the limbs when he put his bag through a security scanner in Duyun in Guizhou province last week, a news website linked to the Chongqing Morning Post reported.
    Security staff thought he may have been involved in a murder and immediately detained him.
    The man later explained that his older brother had been electrocuted and had to have his arms amputated.

    Since it was his village’s custom to bury the whole body in death, his brother asked him to carry his amputated arms back to his home so they could be stored.
    Police verified the man’s account with the hospital where his brother was undergoing further treatment.
    Various permits are needed from the authorities in China to transport human body parts.
    Employees at the bus station were quoted as saying that travellers are banned from carrying body parts on buses, even with all the necessary permits, to protect the safety and hygiene of passengers.
    Chinese passenger in rush to catch train tries to save time by crawling through security baggage scanner

    The man will have to find another way to transport the amputated arms back to his hometown, local media reported.
    Traditional Chinese culture stipulates that the whole body needs to be cremated or buried.
    This preserves the body’s connection to place and family, according to the Journal of Chinese Studies.
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    Honk Kong Dollars or Hell Notes

    I've always loved the term 'hell notes'



    $POOKY
    People are mocking Hong Kong’s new $100 bill for resembling “hell money”
    Echo Huang July 25, 2018
    “hell money” (L) and the new HK$100 banknote (R)
    Uncanny. (Screengrab/Taobao, Elson Tong via Twitter)
    Hong Kong just gave residents a peek into its new banknotes yesterday (July 24), but one of the bill designs is already being mocked for its resemblance to “hell money,” which Chinese people burn for their deceased loved ones.

    HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China spent three years working with the monetary authority to each design five new notes. In addition to preventing counterfeiting, the new bills are centered around a few themes to promote Hong Kong’s culture and sights, such as dim sum ($20 notes), the city’s Unesco Global Geopark ($500), and Cantonese opera ($100). It’s the last one that has drawn mockery.

    Some people say they feel a little unnerved by Bank of China’s version of the $100 note, which features a female Cantonese opera performer, because of its likeness to paper money (link in Chinese) meant for use in the afterlife.

    View image on Twitter

    Elson Tong
    @elson_tong
    The new Bank of China HK$100 note has been mocked as resembling “hell money” for ancestors in the afterlife.

    Be reminded of a cautionary tale never to accept laisee from strangers on the street during Lunar New Year. They may be looking for partners for relatives who died young.

    7:52 AM - Jul 24, 2018
    10
    See Elson Tong's other Tweets
    Twitter Ads info and privacy
    “The design is very scary. One should spend it right after receiving it. I don’t dare to bring it home,” wrote one on Facebook. “The design looks like a cooperation with the ghost bank,” said someone else (links in Chinese) on the social-media site.

    The new bills will be put into circulation in the fourth quarter this year. The last time Hong Kong issued new designs of banknotes was in 2010.
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    slightly OT

    How Beijing is trying to curb the spiralling price of death in China
    A lack of space in cities and an ageing population are pushing up the costs of laying the deceased to rest. Now the government is taking action
    PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 03 October, 2018, 12:00pm
    UPDATED : Wednesday, 03 October, 2018, 10:03pm
    Daniel Ren



    Dying can be an expensive business in China.

    A shortage of space in big cities and an ageing population have combined to dramatically push up the cost of laying someone to rest.

    Now the government has stepped in with new rules designed to curb the skyrocketing price of storing a loved one’s ashes after death. In some major cities, this has outpaced the growth in property prices.

    The key change to existing rules is to limit the size of the small spaces known as “niches” where urns containing the ashes of the deceased are placed. The niches themselves are contained – often in their hundreds, or even thousands – within giant structures called columbariums, and remain the most popular choice for mainland Chinese as a final resting place.

    It is a big social issue – the government has to carefully make plans to ensure that all the dead people will have a resting place PROFESSOR QIAO KUANYUAN, UNIVERSITY OF SHANGHAI FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    In developed cities like Shanghai, the cost of an average niche has jumped about 40 per cent since the first half of 2015 to more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,556) now. An official indicator that gauges home prices in 70 Chinese cities rose 23 per cent over the same period.

    About 80 per cent of the city’s cemeteries ran out of space in 2015, and only about 10 of them have spaces available to buy now.

    The existing 100-odd hectares of land reserved for cemeteries is expected to be used up in the next 20 years.

    Professor Qiao Kuanyuan at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, who specialises in funeral studies, said the national authorities needed to make new rules to better use the limited land for graveyards and columbariums.

    “It is a big social issue – the government has to carefully make plans to ensure that all the dead people will have a resting place,” he said. “The key lies in how to use land in a thrifty manner for the deceased people.”

    In Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, an average columbarium sports a price tag of about 30,000 yuan per niche, while in Beijing the cost is double that.

    Chinese families tend to treat the niche as a kind of shrine they can visit, normally adorned with photographs of the deceased as well as flowers and keepsakes to keep their memory alive.

    In early September, the Ministry of Civil Affairs unveiled a draft version of amended rules on funeral services, limiting the size of a single urn space to 0.5 square metres. Currently, an average niche takes up between 0.5 and 1 square metre.

    Some high-end tombs containing a collection of family urns cover several square metres and cost as much as 500,000 yuan.

    By limiting the size, the government is aiming to contain the surging prices.

    As well as laying out the new measures, the ministry took the opportunity to reiterate existing regulations and warn wayward funeral operators to expect to be dealt with. It said it would strengthen supervision of construction and management of cemeteries and expel illegal operators.

    In China, the sale of niches is tightly regulated and family members can only buy one from a licensed operator.

    Pre-selling columbarium spaces to people who are still alive is not allowed, and the sites are also barred from changing hands on the secondary market.

    But the existing regulations have not stopped unscrupulous operators from building columbariums without government approval to take advantage of the tight land supply and pocket illicit gains from selling tombs they built illegally.

    And there are concerns about the effectiveness of the amended rules. Some analysts believe smaller niches will not be enough to tackle the problem of land shortage in the long term.

    “A columbarium is still viewed by most Chinese as the best place for the deceased,” said Jiao Bing, chief execuitive of Focus Investment Management, who is a strong advocate for reforming the mainland’s funeral system. “Authorities need to educate the coming generations on how to use other means of burial to commemorate the deceased family members.”


    A girl prays at a cemetery in Dagantangcun, 30km east of Beijing. Photo: AFP

    He said the majority of elderly people still cherish the age-old tradition of being placed in a columbarium after death.

    “Their wishes need to be granted,” Jiao said. “But for the next generations when they become more educated, they will understand that a physical death site may not be necessary.”

    In mainland China, celestial burial and burial of the dead in the ground are only allowed in designated areas such as remote rural areas that do not have cremation facilities.

    The government is increasingly advocating sea burial and the construction of multi-storey columbariums to ease land crisis. However, alternatives to cremation are still not proving popular.

    Wang Jisheng, president of Fu Shou Yuan International Group, the mainland’s largest publicly traded operator of cemeteries and funeral facilities, believes the new rules will help his business even though the company’s shares Hong Kong-listed shares tumbled 23.8 per cent to HK$5.12 (65 US cents) on September 10 when investors feared the impact they might have on the company’s performance.

    “Strengthened regulation will edge out companies who do not comply with government rules,” he said. “Consolidation in the industry gives Fu Shou Yuan golden opportunities to grow faster and stay ahead of competition.”

    Fu Shou Yuan’s shares have since rebounded 17.8 per cent to trade at HK$6.03 on Tuesday.

    The firm posted net profits of 262 million yuan for the first six months of this year, up 14.6 per cent from a year ago. Revenue rose 2.5 per cent to 789 million yuan.

    By the end of 2017, China had a population of 241 million people aged 60 or above, accounting for 17.3 per cent of the total.

    Last year, 9.86 million people died, up 0.9 per cent from 2016.
    Finding a place to bury bodies is always a hassle.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  15. #15
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    Siyuan Zhuyu

    Artist poses naked with his dad’s skeleton for Tomb Sweeping Day
    He was only three years old when his father died and has no real memories of him
    by Alex Linder April 8, 2019 in News



    A performance artist has left many more than a bit creeped out with his “father and son” photo shoot marking Tomb Sweeping Day.

    Traditionally, Tomb Sweeping Day or Qingming Festival is a time for people to pay respect to their ancestors by tidying up their graves. However, a Beijing-based artist named Siyuan Zhuyu did more than that on Friday, exhuming his dad’s bones and placing them down on a blanket before lying down naked beside them and posing for some photos.

    He later posted the images onto Weibo under the title: “My Father and I.”



    In a video documenting the photo shoot, Siyuan revealed that his father had passed away 30 years ago from liver cancer when he was only 27 and Siyuan was just three. Because he died at such an early age, Siyuan said that he had no real memories of his father, only a family photo and stories told to him by relatives.

    Siyuan explained that each year he would travel back to his hometown for Tomb Sweeping Day and that over time his father’s grave had become very weathered. Therefore, he decided to transfer the remains to a new grave and use the opportunity to become closer with his dead father and contemplate the meaning of life.

    He said that he was deeply touched by the experience, writing: “I am lying with my father, life and death, flesh and bone, father and son. As the sun shines on me and my father, I feel wonderful feelings that I have never felt before.”

    The photo shoot provoked predictably mixed reviews. Some accused Siyuan of being deliberately shocking to gain attention for himself while shaming his own father. Others found it a moving experience and a way to connect with loved ones lost.

    However, Weibo itself evidently did not appreciate the project, deleting Siyuan’s account.
    Chinese performance art = redacted
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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