From Teslas to passports: filial piety reigns for Qingming Festival  

FROM a bungalow with security guards and maids to high-end skin care products; you name it, and joss stick shops might just have it in the form of paper.

These items that are made of paper are used by Buddhists to burn as offerings for the deceased and deities, usually on special occasions such as the Qingming Festival and Hungry Ghost Festival.

Sandakan's joss stick shop Kedai Tai Cheong’s owner Chin Nyuk Sun said that the paper offerings that he sells at his shop are shipped from China, and things get fancier every year.

“The most recent items would be the Tesla cars. They are all sold out before the Qingming Festival is even over,” he said.

Other items that were seen available at his shop were cigarettes, bungalows complete with a grant and security guard, mah-jong sets, smartphones, cars, Malaysian passports, and even a whole shopping mall.  

Chin said that these items are usually purchased by younger buyers. The older customers would opt for a more traditional purchase – the usual shirts, and shoes, as well as the must-have bank notes (fake cash) and incense.

“Each person would spend about RM100 for a tomb, but the younger customers are more ‘generous’ in spending, especially those who have returned from abroad only to visit the cemeteries of their deceased family during Qingming.

“They are young and might only have started working and earning money.

"They don’t mind spending more to pay respects to their loved ones who have passed away, more so that most of them would only visit the cemetery once a year,” Chin said, adding that there are young customers who have spent over RM1,500 at his shop.

Contrarily, the older customers would have a fixed budget to spend for the occasion every year, about RM100 per tomb, and special and modern items do not attract them.

The Buddhist community observes Qingming Day which falls on April 5 this year. It is similar to All Soul’s Day for the Catholics, where people would visit and clean the cemeteries of their loved ones.

Chin said the people continue to make offerings for their deceased family members because they strongly believe that it is important to be filial.  

“It is also a way for them to show love to their deceased parents or grandparents. What better way could there be other than burning offerings to give them a comfortable and even lavish lifestyle in the afterlife?” he said.

He said Qingming is not only about religion. He has had customers of different religions buying offerings because it has become part of their family customs and tradition.

“We have people of different religions coming in, telling us their Buddhist parents or grandparents had asked for certain items from them in their dream. This is a very normal scenario,” he said.

Meanwhile, despite the rise in the items’ prices, Chin said that his profit margin has 100% returned to normal. This is compared to when visiting cemeteries was prohibited during the movement control order due to the pandemic.

He opined that Buddhist parents are responsible for exposing the tradition to their children so that the practice of burning offerings can be passed down to the next generation.

“A lot of people stopped taking their children to the cemeteries. But if they continue to do this, the Qingming practice will soon be forgotten,” he said. – The Vibes, April 5, 2023