HEAVEN SENT: A handful of paper model makers are taking the art to a new level with their intricate carvings of luxurious items such as mansions and a film studio
Taipei Times
Date: Apr 06, 2019
By: AFP, TAIPEI
From a modern summer villa with an outdoor pool to a fully equipped film studio or a
Visitors pass by paper models of houses and yachts that are burned as offerings at funerals at the Taiwan International Funeral expo at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 3 on June 14, 2013.Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
casino, paper model makers in Taiwan are ensuring the dead enjoy an eternity of luxury.
Across the globe for ethnic Chinese, burning paper offerings has long been seen as a way to send ancestors gifts that they can use in the afterlife.
In recent years, traditional paper incarnations of money and gold bars have given way to the more modern — paper iPads and mobile phones, washing machines, cars, televisions and credit cards.
However, a handful of paper model makers in Taiwan are taking the art to a new level and crafting offerings that bestow on the dead the kind of trappings only experienced by the truly rich and famous in the land of the living. [FULL STORY]