For hundreds of years, paper horses have been a popular item used in Chinese folk life to communicate with the gods. The creations are a form of woodblock prints of folk gods on coloured paper which have been used for home worship or burned at ceremonies since the Tang dynasty (618-907). Although they are known as “paper horses”, they do not only feature equine images, but all kinds of deities that reflect China’s polytheistic folk religion. One theory behind the name is that in the times...