Need your iPad in the afterlife?

The current print issue of Caixin Weekly — I can’t find it on the website — features an intriguing item on Apple’s market share extending to the great beyond: Paper replicas of Apple’s latest products have begun to appear on the shelves of funerary shops around Southern China. As the annual tomb-sweeping day approaches, known ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images

The current print issue of Caixin Weekly -- I can't find it on the website -- features an intriguing item on Apple's market share extending to the great beyond:

The current print issue of Caixin Weekly — I can’t find it on the website — features an intriguing item on Apple’s market share extending to the great beyond:

Paper replicas of Apple’s latest products have begun to appear on the shelves of funerary shops around Southern China.

As the annual tomb-sweeping day approaches, known as Qingming Festival, packages of iPads and IPhones made in a range of colors are being sold as a sacrificial offering to burn for the spirits of ancestors during the holiday. Sold for 6 yuan a package, the names and logos of the projects have been replaced with brand names such as "The King of the Dead."

Reuters reports that the trend has spread to Chinese families in Malaysia, where "first and second generation paper iPads sell at a dollar for 888 gigabyte capacity, an auspicious number in Chinese culture."

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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