random item

Troperville

Tools

Find recent edits by troper:

back to: UsefulNotes / ChineseFuneraryCustoms

edit article | go to discussion page

4th May '13 12:57:07 PM Nabi

Send Nabi a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 17,20 (click to see context) from:

Possibly one of the more well known aspects, hell money isn’t quite as sinister as it sounds. They are paper replicas of banknotes, with ridiculously large denominations printed on them, for the deceased to spend in the afterlife. Sometimes, they mimic actual bank notes VERY closely - some shops got in trouble for copying the Hong Kong $1000 bank note too closely. They are often ‘issued’ by the Hell Bank, with a large image of the Jade Emperor on the front, and bear the signature of Yan Wang(Also known as Yanluo), King of Hell.[[note]]"Hell" being attached to all this stuff comes from a misunderstanding with early missionaries -- the Chinese thought people who didn't convert to Christianity would go to ''their'' afterlife instead (since that's where they'd been going before all these missionaries showed up, right?), and "hell" was simply the English term for it. It just kind of stuck, and carries no connotations of damnation or sinfulness.[[/note]]

The smallest denomination is around 1000. They regularly reach into 100 billion. Inflation must be really, ‘’really’’ bad. Sometimes, blank strips of paper are burned, along with paper gold bars and gold and silver ingots. Round pieces of paper with lucky charms and incantations on them are also burned. Learning to fold paper ingots is a skill that gets passed down through families, as traditionally they should be folded on the spot. (Of course, you can buy them ready made now.)

to:

Possibly one of the more well known aspects, hell money isn’t quite as sinister as it sounds. They are paper replicas of banknotes, with ridiculously large denominations printed on them, for the deceased to spend in the afterlife. Sometimes, they mimic actual bank notes VERY closely - some shops got in trouble for copying the Hong Kong $1000 bank note too closely. They are often ‘issued’ by the Hell Bank, with a large image of the Jade Emperor on the front, and bear the signature of Yan Wang (also known as Yanluo), King of Hell.[[note]]"Hell" being attached to all this stuff comes from a misunderstanding with early missionaries -- the Chinese thought people who didn't convert to Christianity would go to ''their'' afterlife instead (since that's where they'd been going before all these missionaries showed up, right?), and "hell" was simply the English term for it. It just kind of stuck, and carries no connotations of damnation or sinfulness.[[/note]]

The smallest denomination is around 1000. They regularly reach into 100 billion. Inflation must be really, ''really'' bad. Sometimes, blank strips of paper are burned, along with paper gold bars and gold and silver ingots. Round pieces of paper with lucky charms and incantations on them are also burned. Learning to fold paper ingots is a skill that gets passed down through families, as traditionally they should be folded on the spot. (Of course, you can buy them ready made now.)

4th May '13 12:54:07 PM Nabi

Send Nabi a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

less redundant phrasing

Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:

to:

4th May '13 12:53:23 PM Nabi

Send Nabi a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 13,14 (click to see context) from:

to:

30th Apr '13 7:57:31 PM DracMonster

Send DracMonster a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 17,18 (click to see context) from: