Shopping for the Dead Takes Consumerism to the Afterlife

In status-obsessed Hong Kong, keeping up appearances can be hellish, especially in the hereafter.

Enter Kwan Wing-ho, fast-talking purveyor of everything the discerning ghost needs, from credit cards and cognac to mah-jongg tiles and “Hell Telecom” mobile phones--”We reach you anywhere.”

The items in Kwan’s emporium are all made of paper, to be burned and wafted to “the other side” for the use of the dearly departed.

The ghosts of ancestors and friends are very much a part of daily life in China. A deceased trader can cruise around in a full-size Mercedes-Benz made of paper. A playboy can croon love tunes to his paper mistress on a “Hell Tunes” karaoke machine.

“You may not have had mistresses in life, but you can definitely have them in death,” Kwan said with a laugh.

And just as in life, where having the latest mobile phone confers instant status in Hong Kong, so in death must you not let the neighbors upstage you.

“Even in the spirit world they think it is very important to show wealth,” Kwan said, arranging bundles of sandalwood incense sticks on the walls of his little shop in Sheung Wan, an old area of rice and herb merchants on western Hong Kong island.

“Ten years ago no one made computers or mobile phones for ghosts,” he said. “Now they are popular, and people only want the latest model.”

The goods are burned in the first seven days after death, on anniversaries and if a relative dreams that a dead person needs to shop.

Reflecting a social trend are the paper pencil cases, video games, dolls and baby clothes offered to aborted fetuses, who are assumed to be growing up in the afterlife.

People who were deaf in life are sent hearing aids. Deceased housewives can have shopping carts.

Even gangsters are catered for. Kwan said men come to his shop and politely ask for “about a dozen big guns, knives and white paper fans.” The fans represent high gangland rank.

The mobsters also burn offerings to the spirits of their victims to appease them and head off vendettas.

People who die single can be married to a living partner in a ceremony complete with paper wedding dress and a house for the newlyweds (no stairs, no toilets), along with kitchenware and a Rolls-Royce.

The surviving partner is free to marry a real person but must keep an altar in the house to make offerings to the ghost spouse.

Although he juggles market forces in two worlds, Kwan keeps his feet firmly in one.

“I think it’s just psychological, a comfort,” he said, tying up a batch of ghost-microwave ovens that sell for 136 Hong Kong dollars ($17) each.

“And it’s a good business because the customer can’t come back to complain.”