actually the show from zero to hero, is putting what the chinese
believe about life after death into a show. Of course, for
viewership and it is DRAMA, it is abit exagarating lah. beside its
'kua zhang' scene, it is actually reflecting the strongly rooted
chinese belief to the chinese.
The Chinese, like many other race and civilisation believes in life
after death an life is continous in the next phase and it is
similar to the current world. It is called the netherworld. The
suffering hell portion is only part of the netherworld. only those
who deserved to be punished will go there. the rest will just stay
in this dimension(netherworld).
Of course ,the paying of taxes, shares and buying dreams is
exagarating, but the rest are just simple examples to the chinese
belief.
One example is the attire. notice the guys are red and women are
green? it is according to the chinese custom -red for guys, green
for women. the 'yi bao', paper offerings in boxes, packages during
qingming or seventh month, they got gender differences one. red for
male, green for female.
another example is the scene asking ancestor to let them strike 4D.
one need to give offerings to the ancestor first. well, the chinese
actually have this belief of 'xiang huo'. the worship of the
ancestor(the tablets) need to be continous without stopping,
passing down from generation to generation and must be sincere in
worship. to keep the 'fire' burning. The chinese believe this will
provide blessings for the entire family.
As for burning of the bones, notice Bao uses talisman to burn.
maybe that is why the scriptwrite says it can hurt zhengde's soul.
its not ordinary fire anymore.
And also, mis-handling of the body(ash, bones) will affect the soul
in the chinese belief.
another this is in the begining, Edmund chen's soul is still around
his body when he is in coma. this is also true in chinese belief.
the soul is make up of diff entities and not all is fully gone when
a person die. not to mention just in coma. thats why went a person
is in coma, speaking to him helps in a way. in science they say the
brain still can process. in belief, the soul is still around.
When edmund chen just died, he is not sure he is dead. cos he
'died' in a accident. that is why in chinese belief, they have
funneral ritual and iti s esp impt when the person died a wrongful
death or accident.
as for newton and melvin, they just represent the ox head and horse
face guards. :hoho:
the main thing is life is not the end when a person dies. the
chinese is not alone to belive that. the eygptian is another
civilisation that have strong belief in that.
That is why there are mummies, and the chinese have
offerings.