Cremation And Chinese Burial Customs
Feeding 21 percent of the world’s population with only 7 percent of the world’s arable land is the unenviable task faced by the Chinese government. With 1.3 billion hungry mouths to feed, preserving all available farm land is a top priority for the government. While soil erosion and commercial development in China’s emerging market economy might first come to mind as obstacles toward this goal, the Chinese government is less concerned with these problems than with another factor-ground burial of the dead. According to Chinese belief, in order for the dead to find external rest, their intact remains should be buried in the ground in a grave appropriate to the deceased’s rank and station in life, For thousands of years, the Chinese performed elaborate ground burials. They transferred food, money and goods to the deceased. In some ceremonies, rice was place in the mouths of the dead so that they would be free from going hungry in the underworld. In a deeply-rooted belief that spirits of the ancestors had to be looked after and ritually appeased, every spring on Qingning Festival people would pay homage by visiting their tombs and offerings. Paper money is burned for the wandering ghosts in order to satiate their need to consume in the nether world. Other goods, anything from a shirt and tie to a luxurious car, are also buried in an effort to transfer these items to the dead. Since 1949, when the communists took power, they have tried to replace traditional burials with cheaper alternatives. The Communists argue that such burials are costly to both the families and the country. Supplying the traditional heavy wooden coffins requires the cutting of many trees thus adding to land erosion, while the scattered graves take up considerable land that could be used for farming. The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, has reported that due to the preference for tomb burials in the Guangdong province, more than 250 hectares of land are lost there every year. Communist leaders have often challenged social conventions by setting a personal example, and the Chinese are no exception in the regard. The first challenge to traditional ground burial was mounted by Mao Tse-Tung in 1956 when he announced that he planned to be cremated. While this never happened, and Mao’s body went on display in Beijing’s Tiananmen  Square, the gesture did begin a small trend toward greater acceptance of cremation. But while cremation began to catch on, the demand for ground interment remained unabated. So despite government-sponsored programs touting space-saving sea burial and high rise columbariums for the disposal of cremated remains, the Chinese continued to prefer ground interment of their loved one’s cremated remains. The next major challenge to custom came in February 1997 with the death of Deng Xiaoping, architect of China’s reform and opening drive, whose last wish was to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the sea. Deng’s remains were cremated and scattered at sea. Again this gesture brought about some amount of social change, but was not as successful as the government would have liked. A 2001 study revealed that only 37 percent of those who died in China during the preceding year were cremated, despite free cremation services in may low income rural areas. According to recent press reports, Shanghai has encouraged burial at sea since 1991. But although it costs only about $13, compared with $1,200 to $1,800 for a typical earth burial, there have been few takers. Less than 1,000 of the 100,000 people who die in Shanghai each year are buried at sea, according to a Chinese government run newspaper. Predictably, the elderly, especially in the rural areas, have led the resistance toward cremation. Chinese statistics show that while nearly 90 percent of city dwellers who die are being cremated, only 15 percent of rural residents choose cremations. Having offered the carrot to limited success, the Chinese government banned all ground burials in urban areas and began an effort to ban new cemeteries throughout the nation altogether. Efforts to alter traditional beliefs about funeral customs have also been redoubled with the creation of government -run, 24 hour, full service burial centers that were recently opened with the mission to change old customs and attitudes. Still, the road to ending ground burial will be an uphill one in a China where even talking about death is difficult. The word for death (pronounced suh) is rarely spoken, apparently due to the ancient belief that what you speak of will come to pass. The number four is even considered unlucky because the Chinese word for it sounds like the word for death. In the past, a range of class and rank specific  euphemisms was used to describe death. Even now most people refer to death as xieshi (pass away), laole (got old) or simply zoule (gone). Another factor adding to the difficulty is China’s market economy which is giving more Chinese greater access to wealth and more freedom to spend their money as they see fit, Many newly-rich Chinese have spent lavishly on ostentatious burial ceremonies and monuments for their parents. One family reportedly spent upward of $2.5 million on an elaborately landscaped hilltop grave including a four-story building for their elderly father. In 2002, people making the Qingming Festival-China’s traditional day for sweeping the graves and remembering the dead-were encouraged to pay homage through the internet instead of burning paper money and arranging sumptuous feasts on the hillside tombs. As China goes modern and the number of internet users is growing rapidly, the authorities are hoping that online tributes to the dead and even online cremations might prevail over traditional burial and homage practices.
If you or a family member have any further questions or concerns with respect to cremation, cremation services, cremation costs or a direct cremation please feel free to contact Cremation Options toll free 24 hours daily at 1-877-989-9090.
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this is stupid and dosnt explain anything