Note: I'm not trying to make fun on this tradition culture. But it seems like businessman is getting creative to earn money. Don't you thinking burning a petrol station replica will bomb?

Festival aims to honour the departed

Tuesday March 30, 2010

Festival aims to honour the departed

Stories by YIP YOKE TENG teng@thestar.com.my

CEMETERIES in the country were packed over the weekend as the Chinese community began its annual round of paying tribute to ancestors in conjunction with the Qing Ming festival.
The festival falls on April 5 this year, but the ritual can be carried out up to 10 days before and after this date.
The festival, which dates back more than 2,500 years, is a public holiday in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

Brisk business: Customers thronging Hoe Heng prayer paraphernalia shop in Jinjang to get the items needed for the festival.

It is a day dedicated to cleaning the graves of the departed, offering joss sticks, food, hell notes and a myriad of prayer paraphernalia.
Qing Ming is traditionally observed with a gloomy atmosphere, as described by many poets in the past, but is seen today as an opportunity for family members to get together.
The development of Malaysia’s bereavement service industry has helped give new meaning to Qing Ming with the comfortable ambience of modern cemeteries prompting visitors to stay longer.
“Qing Ming used to be an occasion where family members would bring tools to clean the grave and it was a strenuous task, which meant that, usually, those from the third generation onwards had little interest in keeping it up,” NV Multi Corporation Bhd marketing and business development general manager Reeno Kong said.
“Nowadays, however, family members celebrate the Qing Ming, spending quality time together, snacking and chit-chatting by the tombstone till about 3pm,” he added.
The emergence of private memorial parks has also brought up the environmental quality of traditional cemeteries, with maintenance committees also set up to take care of the surroundings.
The time-honoured Qing Ming custom has evolved over the years to meet the needs and lifestyles of people.

Intricate details: Petrol stations are among the latest paper items to hit the market in Malaysia.

At Nirvana Memorial Park in Semenyih, it is also a day for many to visit their departed four-legged friends at the pet cemetery.
Prayer paraphernalia, a must-have element of Qing Ming, also reflects the changes in lifestyles.
Replicas of massage chairs, home theatre sets, premium delicacies such as birds’ nest and abalone, luggage and designer goods are just some of the items sold at the main street of Jinjang Utara, where housewives converge to buy the materials needed for Qing Ming.
These items are already regarded as common, with the latest coming in the shape of treadmills, petrol stations, shopping centres and even plates of roast duck rice.
“Most of these items are imported from China and there are new things every year. One can find a paper replica of almost everything you see around you in your life,” Hoe Heng prayer paraphernalia shop proprietor Chan Kam Fook, 68, said.
The items are priced between RM1.50 for a simple set of clothes and RM100 for a bungalow.

For the deceased: Chan showing off paper replicas of bicycles and motorcycles at his factory.

But, even the wide range of ready-made paper offerings cannot satisfy the demands of customers and Chan’s made-to-order paper replicas, which he started handcrafting 31 years ago, continue to sell like hot cakes.
“It seemed like a dying business in the 1990s but it has, instead, grown by leaps and bounds,” Chan’s son, Mun San, 39, who supervises the factory in Jinjang Utara where foreign workers were seen making bamboo frames of cars, houses, horses and other figures, said.
According to him, the items could cost up to RM30,000 for a mansion measuring 6m. He said the company had received orders for eight of the oversized mansions this year.
“We are surprised that the younger generation seems to be serious about it, ordering huge items and coming to us with all sort of new requests,” he said, showing two life-size replicas of imported cars with impressive details.
According to Chan, making the replicas was an arduous process that had to be learnt from scratch as there were no plans involved. He said he had learned the skills from his master in Port Klang when he was only 18, and he said he was still learning.
“It’s a lifelong process, there’s no limit to this craft,” he said.
Among the more unique items the father-and-son team have made are aeroplanes, motorcycles, bicycles, and even doctor and nurse figurines to tend to the departed as well as a row of shops complete with banks and clinics to collect rentals.
“We do our best with every order, as these replicas are the means with which our clients express their filial piety,” Chan said.
“We do not take the work lightly. It matters if the works are not up to par, as the souls would inform their relatives through a medium. They could even tell that there was a hole in the car,” he added.