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Posted: 26-06-2013 16:40 Post subject: Satan's own bankers: Chinese Hell Money

http://www.planetslade.com/hell-money1.html

I've just posted the essay linked above on my website. Here's the blurb summing it up:

Just because you’re dead, that’s no reason to give up life’s little comforts.
PlanetSlade's latest essay looks at the Chinese custom of burning special Bank of Hell currency - and paper replicas of every consumer luxury imaginable - to equip departed loved ones in the afterlife. By burning these items at funerals or beside the grave, Chinese families hope to “transmit” both spending power and treats to their late relatives.

Among the items delivered in this way are banknotes for $1bn or more, luxury items like paper iPads, six-packs of beer and even paper condoms and replica Viagra tablets.

China’s governments have tried to ban this custom ever since Mao, but it’s still practiced by 450m people worldwide. In China alone, the market for paper funeral goods is put at over $1.6bn a year.

The essay recounts my own quest to find Hell banknotes in both London and San Francisco, shows scans of notes from my collection and explains some of the imagery they use. We also have photographs of funeral offerings like paper telephones and fake cigarettes on sale in America.

PLUS: Banknote dealer Joel Anderson recounts the tale of an Indian couple still hoping to find a Hell Bank branch where their own note can be cashed.

Posted: 26-06-2013 19:32 Post subject:

Thanks for that - fascinating. They're rather well made and don't look particularly 'hellish'.

Posted: 08-07-2013 15:05 Post subject:

When I was about 10, I went on holiday to Singapore with my family. As one of my souvenirs, I bought a pack containing Hell money, cardboard credit card, and I think a passport and/or chequebook. I thought they were fun and interesting things, but my parents weren't too keen on them.

Posted: 17-07-2013 13:47 Post subject:

Ive got some somewhere.

A Friend gave me them.

I hope he realised its rather bad taste to give to the living....