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about Asia Buzz
Asia Buzz: Cyber Tombs
Paying your respects to the dear departed has just become a whole lot easier
By
ERIC ELLIS
April 11, 2000
Web posted at 2:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 2:30 a.m. EST
For many in Asia, last Tuesday (April 4) was just another day, and
if you were embraced by the stock market, a rather wintry one economically
as the first chill winds of the NASDAQ rout swept into the region.
And so to many investors in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, all the better
to have a holiday, lest the NASDAQ have another day to get over its
15% swoon before its effects rippled into Asian portfolios.
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But for many millions more, particularly Asians of Chinese descent, the 4th day of the 4th month, or "Si-Si," a dual rendering of the homonyn for death in Mandarin Chinese, was more than a public holiday and rather an appropriate time to remember their ancestors. Qing Ming, Ching Ming or Grave Sweeping Day is a time-honored tradition in Chinese societies the world over. It's a ritual as ancient as China itself and one in which considerable family honor is attached.
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For centuries, the central event of the day is a visit to the graves
of departed ancestors, to remember and worship them, burn some Bank
of Hell notes for spending in the hereafter and generally give their
final resting places a little tidy up. But the practicalities of the
day often present a dilemma for many Chinese, particularly the 50
million-strong diaspora flung across every country of the world.
How do reconcile exam time at Stanford with paying your respects to
your dear departed grandfather interred in the family crypt in, say,
Xiamen, a man whose struggles and labors helped put you there in Palo
Alto in the first place? How can you be a dutiful granddaughter offering
your filial respect when you are a struggling student or a struggling
peasant for that matter?
Enter the Internet to help solve the problem. An enterprising group
of Beijing techies have created what they grandly describe as the
world's largest online memorials Website. It's called Netor.com (notice
the .com, not .net or .org) and while it doesn't go and sweep grandpa's
grave for you--not yet anyway--you can still log on and pay your respects
electronically, as you can at a similar site at Qingming.net.
Better still, I'll let the Netor.com people describe what they offer:
"For real memorial, those who goes far from home may never have chance
to visit. Internet is a virtual desktop through which the space barriers
and time limited could be completely broke. Following with the click
of mouse, at any time during the 365 days of one year, and any time
during the 24 hours of one day, no matter where they are, mourners
could visit memorials in Internet. There they could offer flowers,
leave a melody, light a flash candle, check message book to look for
the old buck who have not seen for long times, write down their retrospection
and sentiments, or send an email to relatives."
Whether leaving an e-mail for the "old buck" is enough to placate
his tradition-steeped widow--your granny--is a moot point, but Netor.com
is a fabulous example of how the Internet at first confronts ancient
traditions and then tries to work around and cooperate with them.
I was interested to see last week that an enterprising entrepreneur
in Taiwan was even making paper computers for funerals so the departed
can check their e-mails in the afterworld, or trade shares online
in stock market heaven.
Netor.com also deals with the surge in spiritual needs in China at
a time when the absolute faith in the Communist Party is being found
wanting by the enthusiastic arrival of the market. It's no coincidence
the Falun Gong group has emerged as a rival to the suffering certainties
of Maoist dogma. But approach Netor.com in another way. It is a permanent
tomb, one located in cyberspace. On the face of it, Netor.com should
be encouraged by Chinese authorities at a practical level.
Across the mainland and in Taiwan, authorities have been urging less
interring of bodies and more cremations. And, at the, er, end of the
day, what is a departed relative but a spirit, or a memory? Better
to have one there at the touch of your keyboard than in a windswept
plot overlooking the Taiwan Strait. But then again, I'm not Chinese.
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