A burning issue...

"The burning of luxury villas, sedan cars, mistresses and other messy sacrificial items... will be investigated and punished"

Quote from the Beijing News,

attributed to Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs Deputy Secretary Mr Dou Yupei.

Got your attention? Yes, you did read that right - including the idea of sacrificially burning your mistress. What this snippet fails to include, however, is context... he was, in fact, talking about paper models of such items.

For many moons the Chinese have honoured their ancestors by burning paper money as a graveside sacrifice but as certain members of the populace become increasingly affluent they are splashing out on more unusual offerings. Sacrificial paper offerings have included models of condoms, Viagra and karaoke hostesses (eh?) but as they are usually rather larger than a crisp note they tend to create a bit more mess, upsetting the tomb-sweepers.

Of course, it is not the feelings of the lowly tomb-sweeper that has caused Chinese authorities to take action against this sort of thing. No, although the new funeral and internment regulations to be issued this week will include fines they are aimed squarely at those who burn items considered not classy enough. As Mr Dou continued "...not only is it [the burning] an indulgence in feudal superstition, but it just appears low and vulgar."


On a lighter note, El B appeared in the comments of the post below to tell me "...you were right you smug cunt." For those wondering what the fuck he meant I am assuming he refers to my suggestion that yesterdays post by Twenty Major was aimed at him. And now it appears he's gone all huffy and erased all his old posts - the miserable twat!

Cheers m'dears!