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SCMP Reporter

It is rare for an artist to be willing to see his work destroyed, but that is the lot of Au Yeung Ping-chi, who is in the business of making paper replicas of items that are burned for the dead to enjoy  in the afterlife
Paper artist Au Yeung Ping-chi is used to seeing his creations go up in smoke - in fact if they did not, he would be out of a job.
Mr Au Yeung, who graduated from a design programme at the First Institute of Art and Design more than 10 years ago, puts his talents to work making paper replicas of items to burn for the dead.
Given their short life, there may not seem much point in putting great effort into crafting the paper cars, houses and other essential goods for the afterlife that are a regular feature at the city's  funerals.
But he says he does his best to make them look realistic, recalling that on his first day at his father's paper craft shop he made a paper motor scooter with wheels that  turned.
'That was my first job, at a time when scooters were very fashionable,' he recalled.
Mr Au Yeung, who would not reveal his age except to say 'early thirties', said he did not talk much about his job, which some Chinese would see as taboo because of its links with death.
He said his schoolmates and friends never knew his family business.
'I only wrote 'paper industry' [under parent's occupation section] in my handbook.'
He looked for a job for almost a year after graduation but could not find one, so he started to help out in his father's shop temporarily.
Now it has become a permanent job, but he doesn't know how long he will stick with it.
'I don't know, I'll just continue to do it.'
Despite spending so many years of his life making the paper replicas, he advises against any young person getting  into the business.
'It's a waste of time, I don't encourage them,' he said - later confessing mischievously that what he was really worried about was extra competition.
Mr Au Yeung said he often read magazines to see what was fashionable, adding that the trendy item of the moment was video-game handsets.
One of his favourite works was a red guitar he made for the funeral of Koma Wong Ka-kui, the lead singer of local band Beyond, who fell three metres from a studio stage while filming a top-rated comedy in Japan in 1993.
Another one was a set of drums from the hit Japanese arcade and video game Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master), made not for a funeral but for an exhibition.
He said many customers were so impressed with his craftsmanship that they had commissioned special items to keep.
One of these was a sago dessert with mango and grapefruit known as yeung ji kam lo. Although he does not much like dessert, he visited a restaurant to see what it looked like and measure its exact dimensions. He charged HK$300 - more than 10 times the price of the real thing - and said the customer did not argue.
Another replica built for show was a cassette tape player that actually opened.
He has also made T-shirts, football strips, jackets and popular local food.
Mr Au Yeung  takes photographs of his works before clients pick them up. He showed a picture of a classic cha chan teng combo meal - a cup of milk tea and two egg rolls - being served by paper maids that went to the burner to provide the deceased with sustenance in the afterlife. The detail of the paper replicas made them look remarkably real with crumbs on the egg rolls and milk swirls in the tea.
Now Mr Au Yeung wants to try his hand at replicas of living creatures such as dogs, turtles and birds.
One he has in mind is a chocolate-coloured poodle with a bamboo frame covered with curly paper strips.
'You just need more practice. The more you do it, the better it is.'



Hong Kong Faces