The China Dollar

Cash for the Underworld as sign of the times

I found these realistic “China Dollars” spread all over the sidewalk in Boston’s Chinatown two days ago. They seem to be a mix of parody and borrowed authority. I liked the cute phrase “World Universal Bank Limited” and the Chinese phrases “meiyuan” 美元 (US Dollar) and “lu lu tong” 路路通 (passes through every road) which perhaps means that the money can be used in any realm.

This example of the US currency gone Chinese has several important implications. Of course there is the debt to China of the United States which has created such an instable relationship. Then very concept of the dollar as a form of fake money suggests the degree to which the value of the US dollar in an ideological sense, and increasingly in a monetary sense, has collapsed.

This Chinese Dollar appears to be a form of “cash for the underworld” (mingshao 冥鈔) which in Taoist practice is a ceremonial paper money one can buy that one then burns so that one’s ancestors in the underworld can use that money to buy what they desire over there. Here are a few images of cash for the underworld I found on Wikipedia.

Here is the process by which one burns such cash for the underworld, including silver and gold ingots made of paper, so that the ancestors will not be in need.

Of course, one could read these China dollars as simply a version of the old cash for the underworld designed for the use of overseas Chinese, but I suspect there is a deeper civilizational significance to these bills.