Public outrage over Chinese man placing hell money in Japanese temple donation box

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Public outrage over Chinese man placing hell money in Japanese temple donation box
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Public outrage over Chinese man placing hell money in Japanese temple donation box

By Fran Lu 0

A Chinese man who placed joss paper into a fortune-drawing money collection box at Japan’s Sensoji Temple has sparked online outrage and criticism of bad tourist behaviour.

A video that circulated on social media in November showed the unidentified man putting a piece of joss paper, also known as “hell money”, into the box on the desk where fortune sticks are drawn.

A video online shows the mainland man holding the “hell money” while talking to the camera. Photo: taisounds
A video online shows the mainland man holding the “hell money” while talking to the camera. Photo: taisounds

Visitors are required to put 100 yen (US$1) into the box to draw from 100 bamboo sticks in a tube. They then need to find the omikuji, or paper fortunes that match the number of the stick they draw.

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The man drew number 68 and received an omikuji that said “kichi”, which means good luck.

Before the man pulls out one piece of joss paper from a bundle in the video, he says: “Japanese fortune sticks do not bless the Chinese. We Chinese have our own fortune.”

In China, people burn “hell money”, above, for the dead out of superstition that the deceased will have a better existence if they have it in the afterlife. Photo: taisounds
In China, people burn “hell money”, above, for the dead out of superstition that the deceased will have a better existence if they have it in the afterlife. Photo: taisounds

His friend who appeared to film the video said he was “cheating the devils”.

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