GOING AWAY GIFTS

The above picture shows Taiwan-based Malaysian singer, Z-Chen giving the eulogy for a popular Taiwanese singer known as 阿桑 Ah Sang (real name 黃嬿璘 Huang YanLin) who had left a deep impression on many people through her song 葉子 [Ye Zi] [Leaves].
On April 6, Ah Sang passed away due to breast cancer at the young age of 34 years. During the funeral service for the late Ah Sang, her good friends brother-sister duo "JS" and Z-Chen sent her off for the last time. Their parting gifts for her were a delicate recording studio made of paper and a microphone, hoping that AhSang will continue to create music in heaven, always singing her own songs.
In traditional Chinese belief, dead family members are as much a part of the family as those who are alive. They are believed to exist in the "underworld," a place that is below the ground, much the same as the living do on earth, and so they still need things like food, money, and clothing. If the dead are provided with these things, they will in turn bless the living with prosperity and happiness. People also give the dead offerings of money and new clothes, which are made of paper and burned so that their "essence," or spirit, can be used by their departed friends or relatives. Paper money and other necessities are burned, in hopes that through the smoke the money and materials will become real and can be used by the dead in the underworld.