The row of joss paper shops in Sheung Wan looks a bit like a string of toy stores at the outset. To unsuspecting visitors, the goods for sale could easily be mistaken for pretend food, cardboard dolls' houses and model cars. The objects, each made entirely out of paper, include intricate details and creative touches: scaled-down mansions complete with a smiling servant, imitation dinner sets with bowls edged in gold foil, and paper Louis Vuitton purses printed with the incorrect logos of knockoffs. A lot of cleverness had gone into making these kitschy-looking items, but all this work is meant to quickly go up in flames.

Ching Ming Festival falls on April 4 and is a day when much of this joss paper money and objects meets the incinerator. This day is a public holiday in Hong Kong for families to visit the graves of their ancestors. As part of the Chinese custom, graves are tidied by sweeping away leaves and other debris, and food is spread out as an offering to the dead. Visitors pray that their ancestors will protect their living relatives, and as a gesture of care and respect, they sometimes burn paper offerings of imitation money and other luxury items.

It is believed that these “spirit objects” can actually be used in the afterlife. The act of burning them for deceased loved ones is not entirely selfless, but rather motivated by rules of reciprocity: we’ll take care of you in the afterlife, and you’ll watch over the living. While it is most common to see the burning of fake bank notes with high denominations (sometimes in the billions), nowadays every modern convenience and extravagance has been created in paper form as gifts to the dead, such as pet dogs, computers, cars – you name it.

Another type of paper money printed in red and gold is burned in temples as an offering to deities. These sheets look nothing like real bank notes and often have Chinese wording and folk designs. Although the inexpensive sheets might look pretty, to the Chinese, joss paper only implies death. In a culture that believes it is unlucky even to speak of death, no one would leave the sheets lying around either. So better think twice before using them in your next decorating project, lest it offend any superstitious Chinese.