Space-starved Hong Kong could get its first virtual cemetery for green burials
Father and son entrepreneurs set up high-rise columbarium, but insist that displays of remembrance must be done online to encourage green burial
Imagine remembering your loved ones in a virtual cemetery that displays a digitalised version of your favourite location, while in real life, their ashes are stored in a high-rise columbarium that bans most tribute rituals.
In virtual reality, you can stroll around, gaze at the views and walk up to the grave to pay respects, something you will find hard to do in land-starved Hong Kong.
This is what 80-year-old industrialist and inventor Yuen Se-kit and his son Anthony Yuen Sze-ming want to achieve.
By providing a physical columbarium but requiring the burning of incense and offerings to be done online, the pair hope to prepare largely conservative residents for the concept of green burial, where people return the ashes of their loved ones to the environment.
“Green burial will be the eventual future for the city,” Anthony Yuen says. “When we are facing limited land resources for the living, it will be impossible to keep developing land for the dead.”
The online platform has already prompted 300 families to register since its launch in December last year.