Date: 05/04/00
By DAVID RENNIE in Beijing
Thousands of Chinese urban professionals are building virtual "memorial
halls" for their ancestors on the Internet, joining a nationwide surge in
enthusiasm for paying respects to the graves of family members. After decades of enforced atheism, traditional rites and beliefs have been
soaring in popularity as Chinese, shaken by the collapse of the old Communist
certainties, seek a new spiritual direction. Despite continued government warnings against "superstition", and calls for
citizens to cremate their dead rather than waste precious land with graves, many
of the new rich are lavishing money on their departed. Thousands of Internet users are logging on to a new Web site devoted to
ancestor worship, founded by a group of Beijing computer graduates with
Singapore Chinese investment, in time for the annual festival of Qing Ming (Tomb
Sweeping Day) today. The Web site has provoked approving newspaper headlines, and claims to have
had 300,000 visits in the first few days of operation. Today will see pious families cleaning graves, making offerings of cake,
fruit and incense, and burning paper funeral money to give the dead something to
spend in the afterlife. Provincial Communist cadres have been caught erecting vast mausoleums to
their own memories. Beijing issued a stern warning that all memorials built with
public funds had to receive government approval. But a growing number of well-educated Chinese have found work far from their
home towns, and cannot return home for "Qing Ming". The new Chinese-language Internet site offers urbanites the chance to
construct their own "memorial halls" for family members, choosing from a variety
of architectural and religious styles. Photographs can be posted in the hall, as well as poems, prayers, obituaries
and brief snatches of appropriate music. Visitors may light virtual candles and lay virtual flowers. Halls are free
for the moment, though the company aims to charge wealthy patrons for the
construction of elaborate memorials. More than 1,000 "halls" have been built so
far. Mr Lin Xiaodong, a director of the Web site company, Netor, said people's
"spiritual needs are growing stronger and stronger. But it is almost impossible
for those who moved away to return to the tombs of their loved ones for the
tomb-sweeping ceremony. We are taking advantage of the Internet, which has no
limits of time and space." The Internet also offered a new equality, Mr Lin said. "Chinese people pay
special attention to their families and forefathers. But only great people have
memorial halls. Every single life is unique and should exist for ever. Our
slogan is: 'Bury your body in earth, but keep your spirit on the Net'." The Telegraph, London
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