Scantily-clad female singers and dancers at open-air stage shows for a month-long "Hungry Ghost Festival" have drawn the ire of some women leaders, a report said today.

But organisers told The Star that the shows were meant for the "younger generation of ghosts" who also enjoy watching sexy performances.

Hundreds of such shows are being held in fields and open areas nationwide by Chinese religious groups as part of offerings to mark the seventh month of the Lunar calendar, or the "ghost month", symbolising the opening of the gates of hell, the home of wandering spirits.