Help humans rather than ghosts is Rules Creative Taipei’s message during Chinese Ghost Festival
July of the lunar calendar is known as Ghost Month in Taiwan when, according to ancestors, many ghosts and spirits return to the world of the living. Therefore, as a tradition, many companies and families prepare food to feed them and pray for safety on July 15th of the lunar calendar.
Rules Creative Taipei found that there are more important things of concern during the Chinese Ghost Festival. They did not want to just follow the tradition and prepare food for ghosts like others always do, they wanted to point out an issue and give the world a more positive meaning.
In Taiwan, people pay lots of money to buy an offering and also burn cash for those spirits so that they won’t be poor and hungry in the underworld. People are generous to those spirits that we can’t see. But, in the living world, there are many beggars and homeless people wandering the streets; sleeping in parks; finding food to eat, but most people would rather waste food rather than share with them.
People are afraid of being cheated by the beggars, and often pretend that they do not exist. But how can we be assured that the invisible ghosts really receive and are satisfied by the food that is offered?
We found that the trust between human beings is far less than the trust between ghosts and humans.