From a modern summer villa with an outdoor pool to a fully equipped film studio or a casino, paper model makers in Taiwan are ensuring the dead enjoy an eternity of luxury.
Across the globe for ethnic Chinese, burning paper offerings has long been seen as a way to send ancestors gifts that they can use in the afterlife.
In recent years, traditional paper incarnations of money and gold bars have given way to the more modern — paper iPads and mobile phones, washing machines, cars, televisions and credit cards.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, a handful of paper model makers in Taiwan are taking the art to a new level and crafting offerings that bestow on the dead the kind of trappings only experienced by the truly rich and famous in the land of the living.
“We believe that people will move on to another world after they die,” Taipei businessman Chen Shu-hsuan said, as he attended his uncle’s funeral.
Moments before, family members prayed as a detailed model of a two-story mansion created for the deceased went up in flames, complete with working lights, paper staff and a luxury car tucked away inside an attached garage.
“We hope he would live a good afterlife in that world so we prepared a paper house and a lot of paper money so he could have the means to live well,” Chen said.
The practice of burning offerings originated in Taoism, a leading faith in Taiwan, with the gifts primarily offered at funerals, death anniversaries and during key festivals when ancestors are honored.
Chen said his family intended to burn more offerings for his uncle at yesterday’s Tomb Sweeping Festival, when ethnic Chinese traditionally visit and tidy the graves of their ancestors to pay respect.
Model maker Lin Chien-chiang, 55, has been in the business for 30 years and said that consumer demands are becoming increasingly complex.
These include miniature banks, a space shuttle, and even an entertainment complex featuring a casino and a hostess club complete with ladies dressed in figure-hugging outfits.
His most popular offerings include realistic miniature gadgets, such as smartphones and laptops, and a “mini vault” containing a wad of US dollars, gold bars and credit cards.
Lin’s company is also one of a handful in Taipei that still manufacture bigger, traditional Chinese-style houses made with paper and bamboo, but they fell out of fashion because of environmental concerns, as they used to contain styrofoam.
“We are making changes to produce smaller and more intricate models to better suit the times. And using more environmentally friendly materials,” Lin said, adding that fewer than 20 percent of his orders now are for traditional houses.
Veteran craftsman Chiang Yueh-lun, 51, recalled his most unique order: A lifesize paper double of a young man killed in a car crash to be placed on top of the badly damaged body inside his casket.
“Some people think our business is bad luck because it has to do with the dead, but I believe we are accumulating good karma for the services we provide,” he said.
Han Ye-an, 40, started her business after she could not find an ideal paper house for her grandfather when he passed away 12 years ago. She eventually made a paper villa with an outdoor hot spring that her grandfather had loved.
Han believes that the offerings not only serve as a tribute to the deceased, but also help the living cope with loss.
“We can continue to express our love,” Han said of the paper gifts, adding: “We are not forgetting our loved ones and they are living in our hearts.”
Han offers a variety of handcrafted everyday items, such as paper clothes, bags and cosmetics priced from about NT$100.
At the other end of the spectrum, the price tag can be steep.
She once built an elaborate film-studio boasting sets from different time periods for the family of a deceased entertainment tycoon. The bill came to US$64,000.
The tradition has crossed over into Taiwan’s other faiths. Han estimates 20 percent of her customers are Christian.
She is to display some of her designs at an exhibition on Taiwan’s funeral culture in Paris from June, including a dim sum restaurant based on a product she previously made for a customer.
“I hope Western societies will understand our practice,” she said. “Paper offerings are not something scary. I want to make beautiful items that make people feel their loved ones are living a better life in heaven.”
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it