Papier-mache offering shops in Hong Kong

Traditional papier-mache offering shops in Hong Kong sell papier-mache offering items for sacred purposes and for festival-celebration purposes, the popularity started since the 1940s. Nowadays, the demand of papier sacred products are lowering and thus papier-mache shops and the entire papier-mache industry are facing declination.

Papier-mache offering shops started popping up in Hong Kong since 1940. From 1940, there were high demand of papier maches and the papier-mache industry was prosperous, shops were basically ran by the whole family that they manufactured and sold the papier-mache products all by their own. In the 1950s, the Communist Party in China started to simplify funeral services through education, persuasion and step-by-step measures, following to the cultural revolution started from 1960, the Communist Party promoted simplism, they simplified traditional cultures and most of the traditional funeral rites were being dissuaded in mainland. This led to the flocking in of mainland papier-mache shop-owners to Hong Kong to continue their business. After 1980, Hong Kong transformed into an International Financial Centre which promoted knowledge-based economy. People were not willing to work in papier-mache sectors, this gradually led to the declination of papier-mache industry in Hong Kong. Nowadays in Hong Kong, not only the demand of papier-mache products is low, but over one-ninth of papier-mache products sold by local papier-mache offering shops are also imported from the mainland China, local papier-mache offering shops doing their own production are not common nowadays.

There are generally two types of usage of papier-mache products, festival papier-mache for celebration and for funeral use. Papier-mache offering shops target their customers occasionally, they provided various papier-products according to different festivals and occasions. For people who consecrate offerings, most of them are Taoism and Buddhism.

In Chinese New Year, shops provide paper money, joss sticks, Fai Chun and lighted red candles for good luck inscriptions. Paper offerings are in demand at Ghost Festival, various offerings such as incenses, joss paper accessories, altar candles, paper-mache form of material items (i.e. golds, clothes, bank notes) or other goods for the visiting spirits of ancestors, those all have a strong footing in paper offerings market. Candles in wooden bowls are placed on street corners or along rivers to guide wandering spirits to the feasts prepared for them. Shops provide joss paper,accessories paper and incense, selling to the public to sacrifice their ancestors in Qingming Festival. In the Mid-Autumn Festival and Lantern Festival, shops sell candles and paper lanterns, which are used for celebration Families are willing to buy those stuff for children in the Mid-Autumn Festival.

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Wikipedia