Hungry Ghost Festival this weekend | Local paper crafters fading with the years

Imagine owning a pile of trillion dollar notes, gold bars, a casino and a big house – only imagine that they are all made of paper.
With the Hungry Ghost Festival taking place this weekend, local residents are burning paper sacrifice offerings on the streets.
According to Chinese tradition, a person’s spirit continues to live in the underworld after they have died. Therefore, they still have ‘material’ needs and desires for things such as accommodation and entertainment.
In the past, Chinese royalty and wealthy citizens would have furniture, valuables or even human beings buried with them for their enjoyment in their afterlife.
For some common people who were not wealthy enough, however, they found the alternative of burning sacrificial offerings in the hope that their ancestors would be able to receive them in the underworld.
Nevertheless, two paper-offerings makers told the Times that, due to the change in social norms, a market monopoly and increases in rental costs, the end of the industry is approaching.
Standing under a hundred-
year-old shop sign he inherited from his master, Wong Yuk Kei told the Times that the industry has an unlimited space for creativity and business opportunities. However, his business, alongside many of those owned by his friends, has suffocated in Macau.
Having been in the paper sacrifice industry for more than three decades, Mr Wong said that he did not pick the industry out of interest, but only for survival.
“We Chinese have to have a skill to survive. Now [young people] need to go to school, but in our generation, we had to acquire a skill.”
He said that his family was not concerned with the superstitious nature of the trade. Nevertheless, the paper sacrifice offering industry was highly stigmatized by society.
“Being a paper-offerings maker, one has a very low social status. When I got married, my wife did not dare to tell others that I was a paper-
offerings maker. She would say I am a shop owner, selling incense. That’s the most she could say to people.”
Nowadays, most of his customers are fishermen and families with recently diseased members. There are also wedding rituals and other superstitious occasions that require paper offerings.
Discussing his creations, Wong Yuk Kei said that he has made various types of sacrifices ranging from furniture to tools, and sometimes even buildings.
“I can make anything you name. I have even made a paper Disneyland because the parents loved the child so much. Even a Grand Lisboa [for a dying person who] said he was not satisfied because he couldn’t see the opening of the Grand Lisboa. [The family] even said that I could name a price.”
Mr Wong said that other requests also included slot machines and Baccarat tables.
Nevertheless, amongst all his creations, one of the most memorable was not a leisure item or a building, but a human organ – a penis.
“Several days ago, there was a request for a penis. [The customer] said that the person suffered from skin cancer and had to have his penis surgically removed. I have to make one for him immediately.”
He said that the man’s descendants wanted him to be buried whole. Therefore, they made a paper penis for him to put in his coffin. Other organs made in the past by Mr Wong include a leg.
Wong Yuk Kei said that being a paper-offerings maker is actually a career filled with joy, because it allows him to fulfill the dreams of others.
“For example, there is a group of friends who went fishing together. However, one of them got cancer and died. His friends then came to us and begged us to make a fishing rod for them…
This is in fact a heartfelt wish. They were his friends, who want to give him what he liked the most. If we don’t [make it for them], there is no way they can have it,” Mr Wong said.
“[This job] is [also] to fulfill people’s dreams, which makes me happier than earning money.”
Sometimes, Wong Yuk Kei would even teach his customers how to make the offerings themselves because he did not have time to make them all. “Sometimes, they were even happier [to make the items themselves] than if was I making the items for them.”
Notwithstanding how content he feels whilst at work, Wong Yuk Kei has warned people against joining the industry because of the lack of prospects.
“There are definitely people [who asked to join]… [but] we have discouraged them.”
He said that if he allowed young people to start an apprenticeship with him but they ended up unable to earn a living, he would be doing them harm by wasting their time.
In his opinion, the biggest reason for the industry’s demise is the monopoly of the funeral industry.
He said that most of the business in the paper-offerings industry used to come from the funeral houses. However, ever since the Kiang Wu Hospital Charitable Association decided to allow only one company to manage its funeral halls two years ago, that private company has monopolized the market.
“We are disappearing [from Macau]. I have already told others that I will bring my shop sign with me by making it part of my coffin because nobody is going to inherit it in Macau.”
Another paper-offerings maker who finds the business environment hard in Macau is Lin Jeh (sister Lin).
She joined the industry in 1989 but only opened her own shop a year ago. However, most of Lin Jeh’s products nowadays were not made by her, but imported from the mainland.
Just like Wong Yuk Kei, Lin Jeh has some very memorable creations. “There is a paper coffin I made for a protest.”
However, she said that the customer had lied to her and claimed that the paper coffin was for his ancestor. “If I had known that he [was planning to] use it in a protest, I wouldn’t have made it for him.”
Lin Jeh said that the number of people who care about tradition is declining. Therefore, her customers nowadays are either fishermen or elderly people.
“There used to be many things that were [made by us]. However, many of the items [are imported from the mainland] now.”
Due to a continued increase in rent and in wholesale prices, Lin Jeh said that her business is only just surviving, and she believes that the industry does not have a bright future.
When the Times’ reporter left Lin Jeh’s shop, there were several customers looking for paper sacrifices, most of them elderly people. It seems that, without young people joining the industry and a better business environment, the paper-
offerings makers are going to take their skills with them to the afterlife, just like Mr Wong’s shop sign.

João Pedro Lau