There’s a global war happening, and we are losing. Well, I guess “we” is only relevant if you’re not from China, specifically from the Chinese paper company Dachanglong Paper Company (大昌隆紙號), who seem to be the dominant global leader in close-to-full-size cars made of paper designed to be burned in accordance with traditional Chinese worship and mourning rites and rituals, part of a larger category of papercraft known as Joss paper.
Joss paper – which may be best known in its form of representation of money and luxury goods – is burned in rituals where a symbolic connection to the underworld, ancestors, and deceased loved ones is established, and the money or jewelry or other luxury items – including, yes, cars – are sent as gifts to specific people in the underworld, transported to that realm via the process of burning.
Most Joss paper cars are sub-scale models of cars, maybe a foot and a half long or so. You can find these for sale on places like Amazon and other similar sort of small-scale mom-and-pop retailers:
Now, these are great and all, but if you really want to honor those ancestors, wouldn’t you like to get them a full-sized Joss paper car? Or at least, close to full-sized, like maybe a Smokey Yunick-style 7/8-scale car? Something like that sounds great, right? Sure it does. And, as far as I can tell, there’s really only one outlet that delivers on this promise, and that’s the Dachanglong Paper Company. Check out what they offer, as seen in their social media posts:
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That’s a fantastic Beetle there! I think I can even identify a year – it looks like a ’68 or ’69, I’d say. That more modern Alfa is impressive, too – note how they have actual interiors, with seats and even a driver!
For whatever reason, the company seems to have been getting more attention lately, with a number of articles and social media posts showing up in the past week or so, leading to a friend sending me this Reddit link that showed a number of their cars. Their paper bandwagon is rolling along, so who am I to avoid jumping on?
I think the reason these have had such a peculiar spike in mainstream interest has to do with the large scale of the cars and the remarkable detail:
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That’s a pretty faithful recreation of a Mini; those headlights look especially good!
There’s even what looks like a half-scale Toyota AE86 that’s available, leading to wonderful Chinese market stories like this one:
Yes, let your ancestors drift! Why not?
Just look at the variety of these cars they make: Land Rovers, and Teslas, strange Mercedes-Benzes, Porsches – there’s a pretty good variety of cars in the afterlife, it seems.
A lot of the detail comes from the printing on the paper, of course, but it’s a lot more than that; there’s real sculptural elements, too, like the fendertop turn indicators on the Beetle or the side mirrors or the hood bulges – there must be some pretty elaborate armatures under all that paper and foil.
The window glass looks like clear plastic, which makes me wonder how well these actually burn? Or do they just melt and make noxious smoke? Maybe that’s part of the fun.
(top image sources: Dachanglong Paper Company, Deposit Photos)
There is something too on the nose about a flaming white Tesla or beetle.
Those hell money shops are like spirit Halloween all year round, but every thing you can think of as a burnable thing.
I remember burning paper iPhones and iPads when the family went grave sweeping for my late grandparents, and being the little smartass that I was, I asked my dad if we were going to burn some SIM cards too
What did he say?
He smirked and threw a paper Macbook Air and some paper car keys into the fire 🙂
Gives another dimension to the term “burner phone”
Papercraft was my Covid Hobby, I have a lot of scale models, including the Audi Quattro in both paper and Lego ( same scale interestingly)
Would love to see pics of your Quattros
It’s also currently the Chinese Seventh Month, which is when the spirits from the underworld come back to ‘visit’. In the Chinese world us humans would therefore have to ‘entertain’ them in the form of elaborate stage shows and burning offerings.
We just burn real cars here, we don’t need paper ones.
I think I saw a movie about these but I can’t remember the title…
Pulp Fiction?
Gone in 60 Seconds?
The Paper Chase?
The plastic is not an issue if the fire is big enough. Plastic has to be melted before it burns but all that paper from the car should do the trick.
Looking for the Fahrenheit 451 model.
Are these meant to torment my ancestors that didn’t make the cut and ended up in hell?
I deployed one to defend my street parking space – but a Tesla FSD mowed it over.
Think I’d choose a Joss 302 Mustang for my ceremony.
Jaguar XKSS for me, please!
Sure that’s a Lamborigami, dude.
Would a Pinto paper car be double combustible?
Yes and screw a Maybach or Rolls a Pinto is exactly what the ancestors want!
Ford made 3 million of them over a decade that ended 45 years ago. At this point most have probably returned to the earth already.
Is there non-burnable paper??
I’m not a chemist, but paper soaked in organohalogen compounds, possibly? It might end up being mush though.
Depends on what you’re burning it with:
A match? yes
A nuke? no.
Is it still burning if instead of combining the molecules with oxygen you are converting the whole thing into superheated plasma?
Depends how you define a radiation burn.
Yes, several different types, from flame retardant to ceramic fiber paper rated to 3000℉.
In my industry, everything combustible has to be flameproofed. Flameproofed confetti is truly expensive.