The spirits of those who have died unnatural deaths, in particular those killed as a result of the machinations of others, the cruelty of government or malice of a system beyond their control are known as Victim Ghosts 冤鬼 or 冤魂, short for 冤屈鬼魂.… Read

Demonisation has been a feature of religious and political life in many societies over the ages. The ‘People of the Book’ (أهل الكتاب ′Ahl al-Kitāb; עם הספר Am HaSefer) — those who identify with the body of writings in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions — were masterful in demonising other belief systems, and persecuting their adherents.… Read

Leung Ping-kwan 梁秉鈞 was a prominent Hong Kong poet and essayist, better known in his home city as Yah-see 也斯, Yesi in Mandarin. To most of his friends he was simply ‘P.K.’,… Read

The Analects Fortnightly 論語半月刊, a magazine founded by the essayist and translator Lin Yutang (林語堂, 1895-1976) in 1932, promoted the concept of humour 幽默 (a neologism in Chinese of Lin’s invention), while also publishing essays and art work that reflected the urbane, as well as the often scurrilous, world of Shanghai letters.… Read

Xi Kang (Ji Kang 嵇康, 223-263CE) is renowned as one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove 竹林七賢. His ‘Letter to Shan Tao’ 與山巨源絕交書 is one of the inspirations behind the creation of China Heritage, and it features in the essay On Heritage 遺 on this site.… Read

This essay was written to accompany an installation at the Drill Hall Gallery of The Australian National University in March 2003, coinciding with the Qingming Festival of that year. It is reprinted here, on 5 September 2017 — the Fifteenth Day of the Seventh Month of the 2017 Year of the Rooster — coinciding with Ghost Festival, another occasion on which objects for the afterlife go up in smoke.… Read