For weeks Raymond Shieh has been meticulously crafting syringes and vials out of paper.
His creations, once purchased, are then set alight and burnt to ash.
It's a ritual that's part of the annual Hungry Ghosts Festival — widely celebrated across Asia this lunar month — where the gates of the underworld open up and wandering spirits roam freely.
This year, vaccines have become the latest essential for the deceased.
"We're experiencing a serious pandemic and a lot of people contracted COVID helplessly and passed away before they even got the vaccine," Mr Shieh told the ABC from Malaysia.
"I have seen many video clips where [COVID patients] say, 'Why have I not been able to get the vaccine until the last minute, when I'm about to take my last breath?'
The South-East Asian nation is facing its worst wave of the outbreak, with almost 20,000 daily cases and nearly 300 deaths on Monday.
Mr Shieh, who lost his father to lung cancer during the pandemic, said he sympathised with people who had desperately wanted to save their relatives who had died of COVID-19.
The "netherworld vaccine" is sold for about $7.50, while the real vaccine for the living is free in Malaysia.
Mr Shieh has given the vials different colours — representing vaccines from different countries — and said some customers had requested two paper syringes, to ensure their loved ones were fully vaccinated in the underworld.
What is the Hungry Ghost Festival?
Professor Selina Chan, an anthropologist at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, said the festival historically originated from Buddhism in India, but it has become localised in China and widely practised for more than 1,600 years.
"On the seventh month of the lunar calendar, it was believed that the gates of hell swing open for a month," she said.
That allows ghosts — that is, "those who lost their lives in accidents, disaster and even of the pandemic" — to walk around freely.
"It was believed that you have to pacify the spirits, so people offer incense, and paper offerings … and also food, because they believe that the ghosts have to be well fed. Like human beings, they need money, they need clothes.
If the spirits aren't properly appeased, they might cause trouble or traffic accidents in the world of the living.
She said the festival also included praying to gods, venerating ancestors and commemorating those who lost their innocent lives to misfortune.
"People always think that this is the Chinese version of Halloween, but it's not true," she said.
The rise of luxury effigies
But the effigies have moved far beyond paper money and clothes, as master craftsman Au Yeung Ping-Chi can attest.
From Hong Kong, he told the ABC he has constructed a vast array of consumer goods — from massage chairs to Tamagotchis, from billiard tables to skis.
"When people pass away, they will express what they want in the dreams of their loved ones. For example, they may want a TV or a new phone," he said.
"I used paper to make a pair of fluffy dolls, because a young girl loved hugging them before she passed away.
"Her mother came to me and asked me to make a replica of the dolls for her."
Products like paper iPhones and designer high heels have become increasingly popular, as people hope to give their departed loved ones a gift they always wanted in the world of the living.
He's even made Star Wars storm trooper masks and an AK-47 gun entirely out of paper — a project that took him about 10 days.
It can take hours to create the effigies, and they are burned up in a matter of seconds. But Mr Au Yeung said it's worth it.
"It's satisfying … when you burn it off, they can have it as their last gift."
But one thing he isn't making is paper vaccines — he doesn't think inoculations or masks are in demand in the ghostly realm.
"I think it is a commercial idea … we don't make or sell things like that," he said.
"I also haven't heard of demands for pandemic prevention items in the underworld."
'A reflection of our human world'
Professor Chan said it was no surprise luxury items were among the effigies people sought out for their loved ones, and that the vaccine was a predictable addition to the list.
"It's a projection of human need in this world, and they believe that their loved ones in the other world will have the same need," she said.
"So it's basically a reflection of our human world."
Professor Chan added that aside from paper vaccines, the pandemic had impacted the way the Hungry Ghosts Festival was celebrated.
Before 2020, Hong Kong would usually see huge crowds at a temporary marquee in an event costing up to $HK1 million ($176,000), as well as an opera performance, before large paper structures would go up in flames.
Gatherings were cancelled last year, but this year a scaled-back festival was able to be observed, with participants wearing masks and social distancing.
In Australia, Roland Chin said the Chung Wah Society in Darwin marked the annual occasion — also called the Yee Lun Festival — with a small group of about a dozen observers, due to public health measures.
He said far from the pop cultural paper designs seen in Malaysia and Hong Kong, his local community liked to stick to tradition — burning incense, candles, coloured paper that represented clothing, and paper with a gilded gold or silver disc in the centre, symbolic of money.
"It's just a sign of respect, that you offer prayers to deceased relatives, hence offering our food and drinks and the burning of the joss paper," he said.
A food "menu" for the ghosts included a vegetarian dish, roast chicken and pork, fruit, lollies, and small cups of tea. Some of the food offering is burned, and some is shared out among worshippers, he said.
Mr Chin said the ritual has been observed in his community for more than 100 years, and that he was maintaining a tradition he remembered observing when he was small, alongside his great-grandmother.
"We've always respected the way things have been done in the past. So we haven't really introduced anything new," he said.
"But what we do in Darwin is just something that's been passed down through the generations."
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