The Art of Burning Money: Crossing the Divide in Style

Hong Kong — Meet the Oyangs, Artists of the Afterworld. Oyang Ping Chi, (left) son of Oyang Wai Kin (right), has dragged the ancient Chinese art of creating paper offerings for the dead into the 21st century, building on a business his father established more than a half-century ago.

Burning “hell money” — Bank of Hell notes in denominations of millions of dollars — along with paper replicas of life’s luxuries — is an important part of the ritual of smoothing the journey of one’s loved ones into the hereafter.

In high-rent Hong Kong, the craft is fading away. It retains a foothold in older neighbourhoods. The Oyang family business is unusual in that it is thriving. In recent times that is largely thanks to Ping Chi’s skill at creating replicas of sought-after designer goods — from iPhones to luxury cars — all destined to be burned along with hell money banknotes.

In This Article:

ccccccc	Up in Smoke: A Chinese Tradition	Po Wah: Hong Kong’s Oldest Paper Offering Shop	Oyang Ping Chi’s Story	Environmental Concerns

But creating paper funerary objects is definitely a sunset industry. Competition from cheaper workshops over the border in China, environmental concerns about the toxic effects of burning offerings and a dilution of “traditional values” among some members of the younger generation are taking a toll.

Up in Smoke — an Age-Old Tradition

Burning paper offerings -– replicas of money and various everyday items -– to commemorate the dead has long been a Chinese tradition.The Chinese believe their dead relatives can receive and use the items in the afterworld.

Chinese people buy and burn paper offerings on important remembrance days such as Tomb Sweeping Festival, Ghost Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Chinese New Year and other traditional holidays.

But in China, no one does it better than the Hongkongers. Ancient traditions are preserved well in this financial centre.

Not having undergone communist doctrine and the rampage of the Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong people have been better able than their mainland counterparts to preserve many traditional Chinese customs. The city where “the East meets the West” is in many ways more “Chinese” than China.

Po Wah Paper Offerings — a Hong Kong Icon

Oyang Wai Kin (pictured right), Oyang Ping Chi’s father, fled to Hong Kong from neighbouring Guangdong province during the Chinese civil war in the 1940s. He started out as an apprentice in a relation’s paper offering shop.

Later he founded his own business, Po Wah Paper Offerings, which now has a history of almost half a century.

“The dragon heads and lion heads we made used to be exported to the United States.” — Oyang Wai Kin

Soundtrack in Cantonese. Click on | Captions | to view English subtitles

At the age of 73, Oyang senior still goes to work every day — but he spends much of his time overseeing the work of his son, Oyang Ping Chi.

Oyang Ping Chi’s Story:

“I sell goods for the dead,” the younger Oyang said. “You see, each family spends from a few hundred to tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars on these paper offerings. And the next day, they just burn everything up.”

“Most young people in Hong Kong are well educated,” he said. “They have bigger dreams than playing with bamboo and wrinkled papers all the time.”

But Oyang Ping Chi is dedicated to this traditional craft. And he does it the most innovative way.

When children’s scooters were a hit a few years back, Ping Chi made one using bamboo and paper. He hung the paper scooter outside the shop and within three days it was sold to a young mother who had just lost her son.

She bought the scooter without bargaining. Ping Chi’s first experiment earned him HK$300.

He went on to make more innovative paper offerings: Macintosh computers, digital cameras, Sony Aibo electronic dogs, video game machines, basketballs, and even sushi platters. Local newspapers dubbed him the “Artist of the Afterworld”.

As news spread, orders came in from both young and old customers, asking for very specific paper offerings. Fans of the local rock band Beyond ordered an electric guitar for the late lead singer Wong Ka Kui. One customer ordered a parrot for his bird-loving dead friend.

“There’s a potential market for artistic and trendy paper offerings,” said Ping Chi. He has decided to dedicate his energy and time to updating and perhaps even saving this traditional craft by combining it with modern ideas. He plans to open an online paper offering shop this year to attract more business.

On a typical day, Po Wah Paper Offerings has a daily turnover of around HK$5,000, which triples during busy seasons. …………………………………………………………………………

There are 227 registered paper offering retailer shops like this in Hong Kong, according to Hong Kong Paper Offering Workers’ Union figures. Union chairman Chen Kiang estimates that Hong Kong people spend at least HK$500 million a year on paper offerings. Kuang Jeoi, a paper offering master in Hong Kong “The minimum daily wage for a Hong Kong craftsman is $400-500. But workers in Guangdong (China) works on a monthly salary of HK$2000.” — Kuang Jeoi, a paper offering master in Hong Kong

That’s not enough in high-cost Hong Kong.  Fewer young people are interested in learning the craft of making paper offerings and families are turning to the mainland to buy the paper offerings

The Paper  Offering Workers’ Union reported that the number of paper  offering craftsmen  in Hong Kong  has dropped in the last 30 years from a few thousand in to barely a hundred. Skilled masters number fewer than 10 men. They are all over 70 years old.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

In Hong Kong, the laws changed in the 1990s.

“The government launched a series of environmental protection and fire control regulations,” said Ping Chi . “The paper offering business was seriously affected.”

The main materials of paper offerings are bamboo, plastic foam and coloured paper, which generate black smoke during combustion. Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department applied a range of rules under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance, including specific controls on dark smoke emissions and open burning.

Burning of paper offerings in public housing was banned.