Smith Journal – January 2019

051 SMITH JOURNAL

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I have never seen ghosts before, but I have
heard their voices. I’m not afraid of them.
Rather, the ghosts are afraid of me – they’re
afraid I might stop working. They come here
to window shop, because I do beautiful work.
They are my customers, too. When a person
passes away, their spirit lingers on Earth for
49 days [before descending to hell for a fixed
period of punishment]. Then, during the
seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar,
the gates of hell open and all the spirits are
released for one month. During this time,
many people burn kimzua to appease their
dead, who are then free to receive them.
But so many spirits are released during
this period that you will often have no
clue which ones belong to your family,
so your burnt oerings will be snatched
up by other spirits. For this reason, it’s
best to burn oerings on the day of the
death, or at least within the first 49 days.

I think up all the designs myself. I don’t
sketch them out first, as they come naturally
to me when I fold them. Still, I always ask
my customers to give me a reference photo
showing what they want, so I can produce the
exact thing. People tend to prefer traditional
designs – houses, beds, servants – but I
prefer to make more unique items: washing
machines, basketballs, even aeroplanes.
Sometimes I tell a customer to go and buy
ready-made kimzua from the shop instead
of asking me to make one from scratch, but
they prefer my work, as I use the traditional
materials: just paper and bamboo. Bamboo
is great because it is flexible but strong.

Houses are the most popular requests,
because every dead person needs a house to
stay in. An average house might take me two
days to complete. The most unusual kimzua
I was asked to build was a set of golf clubs.
This happened when I was younger and
inexperienced, in my late 30s. The customer
brought in a real golf club set to show me.

He asked how much I would charge, and

I showed him four fingers. He said, “$40?”

and I said, “No, $400, because I need to

use my brain to think.” He replied, “Why

so expensive? I bought this actual golf

set for only $399.” I told him to buy the

actual set to burn then, and not trouble me.

In the end, he agreed to my price, and I

ended up making the golf club eigies.

I did three in a day, out of 13. I even did

the bag. He liked the end product so

much he came back twice.

The best part of the job is seeing the end

product of my creation. That and when my

customers are satisfied; my kimzua give

people hope [that their relatives will be

happy]. The worst part of the job is sitting

on my stool. A lot of young people see me on

the internet and come find me. The first piece

of advice I oer them if they are looking to

learn the trade is that their backs will hurt.

There was a boy who didn’t believe me, but

after an hour his back began to ache. I told

him to walk around and come back, like I did

when I started. He left and never returned.

The other piece of advice I would oer young

people is that they need to have patience.

I learned this craft through 10 years of work

before I opened my own shop and became

my own boss. If I couldn’t pick something up

I would try again and again until I learned

it. Just because you want to be your own

boss doesn’t mean you can; you have to have

dedication, and people need to trust you.

That takes time. The final piece of advice is

not to be greedy. A person should be satisfied

with having just the right amount from this

life. I am old, but I am content with being

able to just go on living. •

This profile was inspired by The Kimzua

Craftsman, a short film from Singaporean

publisher Our Grandfather Story.

ourgrandfatherstory.com

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