Smutty meets sacred: Funeral strippers make a comeback in China

[KamaAina]

http://asiancorrespondent.com/131641/funeral-strippers-make-a-comeback-in-china/

The sacred and the smutty are converging at funeral services in rural China. According to a recent ‘Shanghaiist’ article, many urban Chinese residents hailing from the northeastern province of Hebei were shocked to learn, upon returning to their hometowns for Spring Festival, that strippers were being hired to perform for mourners.

This is not the first of such scandalous incidents at Chinese funerals. In 2006, the ‘Shanghaiist’ reported on similarly scantly clad women at the funeral of a farmer from Jiangsu province.

According to the article, the intentions behind such incidents aren’t entirely unscrupulous, with one author noting: “The local people believe that the more people gathered at a funeral, the more luck it will bring to the family and offspring. So some families hire striptease troupes to attract more people.”

It added that this practice has been commonly used in Taiwan for years. However, as the funerals in Jiangsu gained more national attention, several party officials were reprimanded and all “obscene burial practices” were outlawed. Since then, loved ones of the dearly departed were even required to submit a funeral plan within 12 hours of the death, and a telephone hotline was created for anyone who needed to report “funeral misdeeds”.

How they managed not to work this into Six Feet Under I will never know.

[Blue Owl]

1. Those pole-bearers are working hard

n/t

[Xyzse]

3. Oh My...

[flying rabbit]

2. Seems like this would uplift

the thongs of mourners.

[KamaAina]

5. You meant 'throngs', right?

[hunter]

4. Easier on the eyes than some of the drunk non-professional naked people I've seen at funerals.

Once the solemn part of the ceremony is over, a funeral is just a big party, right???