The Billion Shop

The Billion Shop was a shop near my office that sold paper money and other artefacts for ethnic Chinese people to burn as offerings to their dead. It no longer exists: Jixiang Traditional Foot Massage now stands in its place. I'm not one to lament change, and trust in Adam Smith's invisible hand that the good people of Toa Payoh would rather please souls. But I'm also sentimental: about places gone, loves lost, ideals overturned or, more often, outgrown. Consider these stories, then, as my own paper offerings to my dead.