My point, Dl7und, is that westerners have no right to come over to this foreign land and tell the locals to abandon their cultural practices and beliefs because we find them annoying and silly. If locals feel they accomplish something by burning piles of paper, so be it.
We wreak far more havoc on the environment in the west. If you don’t like their annoying habits leave. . . or bitch about it on Segue. But they’ve got as much right to create a little smoke by burning paper as we do to kill the planet with our cars, our factories, our factory farms, our golf courses, and even our christmas lights which harm the planet far more than their burning of fake money.
Would you tell people in India to stop burning dead bodies due to the pollution? Maybe you would, but I feel you’d be out of place to demand that they stop. As harmful as it may be to the environment to burn dead bodies, that practice stems from their beliefs which maybe you don’t share because you grew up elsewhere. Same for burning fake money.
I’m sure your lifestyle involves, directly and indirectly, plenty of practices that contribute greatly to the earth’s demise. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
Rule Number One of Cultural Relativism: Nobody is ever wrong except anyone who thinks someone else is.
I live here, and I think I have every right to feel that burning ghost money is a stupid thing to do, and I tell my Taiwanese friends that whenever the subject arises. It has nothing to do with what the US does or what anyone else does; the problem is here, and we should deal with it here.
Are you qualified to judge whether burning fake money is “stupid” when you did not grow up in this culture, so you do not understand the great benefits that are gained by burning fake money and how clearly they outweigh the small inconvenience? Is it stupid for muslems to fast for a month and to pray 5 times a day? Is it stupid for hindus to believe in reincarnation? Is it stupid for jainists to go to such extremes to avoid killing other creatures? What is the correct and proper standard of behavior that we should all strive to conform to?
All religions are pretty stupid unless they actually contribute something to the advancement of humanity. And for the life of me, I can’t think of any that do. Misery … yup. Bloodshed … plenty of that! And now we can add polluted air to list of ass-backward things we do to appease our various deities.
I wouldn’t mind so much if anybody actually believed in this crap, but they seem to paying lip-service for the most part.
MT, I think burning bodies is much better for everyone than burying them. Just gotta get 'em hot enough. In India the problem is more the wood that has to get used in the burning. Sure does stink.
I think customs should be adapted when they are clearly having a harmful effect on the environment and on people’s health.
It’s not too much to ask people to only burn money in temples and not on the street. Taiwanese simply have to adapt (not drop) their customs if they are harmful. Of course, they may resist any proposed changes to their traditional practice but that does not mean we can’t complain about the pervasive stink of smoke across the island every couple of weeks.
BTW, it’s quite a fascist attitude to say, “Put up or shut up”.
Skeptics take heed: You’ll be sorry when you get to Heaven and you’re dirt poor and all the dead Chinese people are rich because they had ghost money burnt for them.
Granted, there’s not much any one person can do about it rather than complaining about it, but if there’s ever a candidate running on a cleaner-environment platform that includes banning or limiting such practices, he or she’s got my vote. Saying “well, we might as well ban everything” is black-and-white thinking. Not all of these things are equal. I would support a ban on two-stroke engines as well. Incense burns at a much slower rate and isn’t burned in the same quantities as ghost money.
Cultures change with time and circumstances. Customs come and go, otherwise we’d still be making ritual sacrifices and burning witches. It’s time for this one to go, because it’s hurting all of us. It’s my country too, after all.
whether any of the above is stupid is as irrelevant as if my faith that everything just is is stupid. none of us are tormenting anyone with chemical laden smoke or threatening their safety with red hot bins of ashes. that is a religious belief and i understand and respect it as such. but religious belief is not the end all of what is acceptable behavior. if i gain spiritual comfort from going out and casting my feces around, should everyone tolerate this? will my protestations that they were not born in my culture and do not understand be heeded? no. the behavior is obviosuly injurious to people’s health and disgusting. the only difference here is that the majority of people are used to it and accept it. as a foreigner i won’t go around kicking over peoples bins of ashes. but it don’t say on my visa “holder has no right to comment on strengths and flaws of local culture.” unquestioning tolerance is not the highest form of respect. government has to be the agent of change here, only they can accomplish it, and decide if it is a socially acceptable and desirable step. the majority of people were also used to and accepted throwing their garbage out on the street to fester until someone came to pick it up, but i’d bet people would be unwilling to return to that system now.
Strange! My prominent beak is highly sensitive to unpleasant smells. That means I suffer constantly in Taipei: from the traffic fumes, the stench of cigarettes, the gag-inducing awfulness of the refuse trucks, the foul breath of the males who stand or sit close to me in the MRT, and endlessly on. But I’ve never for a moment considered the smoke from spirit-money burning to be the slightest bit unpleasant. In fact, I rather like it, as it helps to mask the other less welcome smells. It reminds me somewhat of the smoke of autumn bonfires back home, with all the wonderful memories and feelings that conjures up.
The only time it disturbs me at all is when someone lights up on the stairway of my building, the smoke floods into my apartment, and I panic for a moment in fear that my flat or a neighbour’s is on fire.
A few years ago, I translated a series of speeches for Chang Long-sheng (former head of the EPA) to deliver at international conferences. He was setting out some of the measures that he had initiated or would initiate to improve Taiwan’s environment, and one that he laid much emphasis on was exactly that of restricting and reducing the burning of spirit money. I was rather puzzled by it at the time, as I hadn’t perceived it as much of a problem, but judging from the comments on this thread, a lot of people do. I don’t know if anything ever came of his efforts – but there’s one politician that you might wish to stump for, Poagao.
I am a bit surprised to find out that the practice of burning money was such a problem for people who have posted in this thread, personally I think all the cigarette smoke one have to endure in crowded bar is much much worst. I grew up in Taiwan and actually have always remember the whole spirit paper burning (as well as all the fire cracker) quite fondly, the smell, the ashes flying through the air. I don’t believe that the money is actually going some where, but I think the ritual adds to the over all atmosphere to the event. I understand that the smell might be repulsive to some, but at the same time, I would be real sad to see an old tradition die in this age of global homogenization.
I live in New york now and the Chinese new year never felt the same with out fire crakers.
I found NT$100 on the ground the other day and picked it up. Now my gf won’t let me spend it or even put it in my wallet because it’s supposedly bad luck. Instead she says I have to give it to someone else, such as the beggars on the ground at the market. Is there any truth to what she says? If I do what she says, aren’t I just passing my bad luck to the beggar?
I don’t know if it’s bad luck, but it’s not very honest, and I would feel bad about taking someone else’s money. I would put it in the collection boxes you get in McDonalds or 7-11 for your change. Then it hopefully goes to a good cause.
Is there any truth that a $100NT knows it has been dropped and picked up by someone else, then makes bad things happen to that person ? I don’t think so.
I always thought it was foolish to give money to beggars, they might spend it on drink or drugs, and it encourages them, and they might be better off than they let you think. Better to give it to a charity then they can make sure it goes where it is most needed.
"I would put it in the collection boxes you get in McDonalds or 7-11 for your change. Then it hopefully goes to a good cause.
Ha ha ha. Those so-called charities never give the money to people who need it. It goes to pay admin costs. It’s all a big hoodwink. WorldVision is the biggest scam of all, poor starving kids in Africa my eye!
better to give the found money to… yourself as a present for finding it and skip the bad luck superstition. use it to buy copies of the English newspapers here and tell us if things have improved yet…
On a similar topic, I found $A20 on the footy oval when playing a game of Aussie rules about 5 years ago, I promptly shoved it into my socks. One quarter later, we were 2 points down with about a minute left in time on, I could see Macca (team mate) streaming down the centre, then after a couple of bounces he launched into a 60m torpeedo from just oustside the centre square. Seeking an opportunity, I took an absolute screamer, came down from from high above my opponent’s back and landed on my collar bone, fracturing it in one place. Crowd went crazy. I then painfully went back and put the ball through for a goal. Seconds later, the siren went.
Take the $NT100 and be a hero, collarbones heal. Memories last forever.
