Women clad in sexy skimpy sheer lingerie slowly dancing and strip teasing along a sexy Chinese music in front of the mourners and bereaved family and relatives — you may think that such lewd performances are disrespectful to the one who died, but in China, residents in rural areas traditionally hired funeral strippers and pole dancers to entertain and gain more attending mourners.
The “mourners” on the other hand, were not crying for their loss, but they dreamily watched the hired funeral strippers with their steamy performances, along with the attendants’ howling, roaring, laughing, whistling, applauding, and even cursing, when the performance reached its climax.
“As the performers saunter into the audience to giggle their breasts and rub men’s crotches, a reminder of ‘no photographs allowed’ can occasionally be heard,” a report described on the typical funeral scene.
While the women were dancing in a platform, there was an electronic screen flashes on the wall behind them bearing the deceased photo and name with a message that reads, “we offer profound condolences for the death of this man”.
The Chinese authorities have long been waging war against this kind of practice and tradition, but they always failed as such activities or businesses still exists underground. In 2015, China’s Ministry of Culture made an announcement that it will crackdown funeral strippers in many rural provinces due to their “obscene and vulgar performances at weddings, funerals, and temple events”, NY Post cited an announcement made by China-owned Global Times newspaper.
In 2018 China imposed a special “hotline” for the public to do their parts by reporting any “funeral misdeeds” in exchange for a monetary reward.
Why do Chinese people hire strippers at funeral services?
Base on a theory, Chinese family hire funeral strippers and pole dancers to attract more attendants of mourners. Chinese believed that it brings honor for the dead when there were more family, friends, and neighbors who attended the funeral ceremony to mourn.
A professor of Fujian Normal University Huang Jianxing said hiring dancing with erotic elements women in funerals are part of some local cultures.
“In some local cultures, dancing with erotic elements can be used to convey the deceased’s wishes of being blessed with many children,” Huang said in Global Times.
Another reason, the act of hiring funeral strippers could be seen as a sign of richness or wealth of the bereaved family.
“Chinese rural households are more inclined to show off their disposable incomes by paying out several times their annual income for actors, singers, comedians, and strippers, to comfort the bereaved and entertain the mourners,” the report added.
According to the Global Times, the tradition of hiring women strippers and pole dancers started in the 1990s as a way to “worship fertility”. Another Chinese professor Kuang Haiyan, explained that erotic performance at the funeral ceremony is just a “cultural atavism”.
Kuang added the hiring of funeral strippers can be linked to Chinese folklore, festivals, and rituals, such as the Chinese New Year, are critical time for Chinese people, as they “lay down their lives and embrace the death”. He explained that hiring funeral strippers are their moment to “release their passion at the funeral”.
Experts said that such practice will ever go away “completely”, as funeral strippers still exist at present. However, the Chinese government, at the same time, will never stop trying to thwart this “funeral misdeed”.
EliteReaders
