Life after death – in a subdivided flat: why paper replicas are big business for Hong Kong’s Hungry Ghost Festival
Paper miniatures selling fast one week ahead of festival – the Chinese version of Halloween – where believers burn offerings for ghosts roaming Earth
To Chiu-sung holds up a 20cm tall, three-storey cardboard mansion of 16 rooms, each with an old-fashioned air conditioner installed outside the window.
“These are subdivided flats, the star item this year,” explains the 65-year-old owner of Chun Shing Hong, a paper offerings shop in Sai Ying Pun which opened 35 years ago.
The paper miniatures are selling fast one week ahead of the Hungry Ghost Festival – the Chinese version of Halloween – a time when believers say the gates of hell open, allowing spirits from the other world to roam among the living.
Traditionally, believers burn paper offerings and hell money during rituals for the homeless ghosts in the hope of their blessings. They also place pastries as food offerings on the pavements.
In real life, more than 200,000 Hongkongers live in subdivided flats, according to the government’s 2016 population by-census. But this type of housing, usually taken up by the poorest in society, is also being sought for the dead.
And the reason is, a little like reality, the paper subdivided flats cost just HK$48 (US$6) – half the price of a paper replica of a three-storey villa.