Money for the Gods

Abstract

In Taiwan's temples, village courtyards, and old city lanes, women prepare for the flames the coarse, printed papers that serve as money for the gods. Folded into stacks with the deftness much practice brings, they burn quickly, transformed into mystical currency for the invisible other world. It is such a common sight that one soon overlooks the paradoxical symbolism of the cash-conscious, frugal Taiwanese burning money; the people who burn the most money do not have money to burn. In their lives, the intersection of this world and another is marked by the transfer of funds, linking the heavenly and earthly economies into a single system. What homologies exist between these economies that allow us to discern the structure of each? How does this financial ritual reveal the nature of the capitalist hegemony in its practitioners' lives? For answers, we must look first at the social and historical setting of these acts, and at the place of money in, and the commoditization of, recent Chinese culture. My field researches, and my conclusions here, focus on the class culture of Taiwan's numerous petty capitalists, who by now include virtually all its highly market-oriented rural population,