Like slavery and whaling have? Smoking and drinking? Spousal abuse? Child abuse. Sex trafficking?
But man, those joss sticks really are the worst of the worst.
Apparently a topic that aroused your interest
No, JD. Ghost money. I think it will go away eventually, and maybe fireworks, too should we be so lucky. The late Bronze age can’t last forever, surely.
I was trying to search for the current laws about ghost money burning and see if any progress had been made. This thread came up in my search results.
We could go back and forth being rude and sarcastic, but let’s not. It’s fun, but not productive.
What I’d really like is for someone to update me about the laws regarding the burning of ghost money. Anyone? Many thanks.
You’re being rather sarcastic with me JD, but I don’t take it personally.
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Ok, you just pushed my buttons with that whole. “Do you condemn this and that” stuff.
I don’t ever let the terrorists win.
That said, I don’t much care for burning ghost money. But I care even less about making people change the way they celebrate their age old rituals. They’re not sacrificing virgins on a hilltop. They’re making smoke.
I can easily avoid the temples and most smaller ghost money burning bins.
As for joss sticks, I burned more incense in my dorm rooms in college than I’ve ever smelled at a joss stick caldron.
Have a nice day. 
They’re making smoke, a lot of smoke. That’s what I’m against, and that’s the public policy issue I would like to see addressed. Is there some way to accommodate tradition and eliminate the smoke, soot, and dust? I’m all for it.
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That’s because
Nice smelling incense is nice, but not Chinese temple incense that is ubiquitous in the Chinese temples here
Well the whole ghost money credit card thing was a bust.
I’d I had to choose one cultural irritant to be excised from the taiwanese diaspora, it would be the goddamned firecrackers. 
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I’ll go out on a limb and suggest the stuff I could afford was not high quality. Sandalwood. Yeesh.
I didn’t use to mind it. Then I had a bout of what I guess was giardia in Nepal, and the guesthouse was next to a temple with lots of smoke. God I despise the smell of temple incense now.
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Did they use the cheap Chinese stuff that smells like smoke, and not perfumed Indian stuff?
Unsure. Before that, I was only vaguely aware that some incense smelled good, and other incense smelled just OK. There wasn’t any that I particularly disliked. But my condition at the time, and the association, has apparently ensured that pretty much all incense will forever (well, fifteen years and counting) be near-nauseating for me.
I think we’ve still got a bag of the better stuff around in the apartment somewhere - bought at HOLA, I think? But even before that Nepal trip we decided that filling our apartment with smoke, even if we liked the smell, was probably an unhealthy thing to do.
I like how that last paragraph reads out of context.
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I did the whole New Years Day temple tour thing with a local family my first CNY here. Culturally it was interesting, but the incense/smoke made me hack and gag and gave me the worst headache. Horrible experience that I’ll never do again.
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The crowds have that effect on me.
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F*** you I’m praying even though I don’t care about that but you know I’m praying okay praying.
Yeah it could be a good idea to put a sign up when burning something so that people know before they pass by and suck feaking s*** into their lungs.
There should be a law. We are burning something here and should be a sign each side of the sidewalk if people are walking past
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Construction workers can’t even put up proper warning signs for construction and place necessary detour signs so people don’t dangerously turn and around and uturn immediately. I don’t think average people would put up signs for something as little as burning money.
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Just ban it.
Problem solved!
Guy
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This article suggests that it’s a grey-area:
不過，行政院環境保護署空保處科長陳宜佳指出，在家門口燒金紙並不完全屬於違法行為，但也可能因為過度燃燒，觸犯32條例中的「從事燃燒、融化、煉製、研磨、鑄造、輸送或其他操作，致產生明顯之粒狀污染物，散布於空氣或他人財物。」事實，另可依第67條規定，可處新臺幣一千二百元以上十萬元以下罰鍰；其違反者為工商廠、場，處新臺幣十萬元以上五百萬元以下罰鍰。
However, Chen Yijia, Section Chief of the Air Protection Office of the Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, points out that burning joss paper at one’s doorstep is not entirely illegal. However, excessive burning could violate Article 32, which states, “Engaging in burning, melting, refining, grinding, casting, transporting, or other operations that result in the obvious emission of particulate pollutants, scattering into the air or onto other people’s property.” In fact, according to Article 67, a fine of between 1,200 - 100,000 NTD can be imposed. If the violator is a commercial or industrial factory or site, the fine could be between 100,000 - 5 million NTD.
What that means is no one is getting fined for burning joss paper in front of their houses. At best you can get the Environmental Protection Bureau to do what the police do when they see a dangerously parked car in Taiwan-- 勸導 (persuasion/convincing/please don’t do that but if you do we won’t do anything).
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I’d vote to ban it in a referendum. It pollutes the air I breathe and I’ve no belief in it.
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