In honor of the Summer Olympic Games in China, today I'm feature an item from Evelyn Khoo's collection of Chinese Spirit papers.
About Chinese Spirit papers, Khoo says, "the use of Chinese spirit papers in funerals and the Hungry Ghost Festival and other Chinese occasions was a familiar part of the everyday fabric of life. Chinese spirit papers
...evoke certain aspects of both modernity and nostalgia. It also generated hosts of other questions, such as why and how the use of spirit papers, such as the ones in funeral rituals, were so much more prevalent in the Chinese diaspora communities such as in Hong Kong and Singapore, than in mainland China as well. I started to wonder how Chinese spirit papers could be an interesting microcosm of particular regional personalities. But most of all, it just seemed really fun to collect these little scraps of paper, with such an illustrious history but which seemed also, fully engaged in the modern world."
In honor of the Spirit Papers I respectfully suggest disassociating them from the Olympics and from its sponsor country--especially the governing body of the latter, which has long disassociated itself from the humane concept of "honor".
Posted by: John Ptak | August 17, 2008 at 11:02 PM