Asia Unhedged has heard of dancing on one’s grave, but this is ridiculous.
China’s Ministry of Culture on Thursday seeks to eliminate the commonly held practice of hiring strippers to dance at funerals, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Is nothing sacred? Dancers have been taking off their tops and shaking their money-makers for decades both on the mainland and in Taiwan. The Journal said, “The point of inviting strippers, some of whom performed with snakes, was to attract large crowds to the deceased’s funeral – seen as a harbinger of good fortune in the afterlife.”
“It’s to give them face,” one villager explained. “Otherwise no one would come.”
Face? Asia Unhedged doesn’t think face is the part of the body the mourners are looking at. As for no one coming, let’s fact it, funerals are dry, depressing, affairs with a lot of crying going on. Nobody wants to attend funerals. You go out of respect. So, whoever decided funerals needed something to liven them up was merely stating the obvious. And really, what’s more life affirming than a little T&A.
Doesn’t the Chinese government have better things to do with its time? If this can help a mourner deal with his loss a little bit better, or just put a smile on the deceased’s face, then we’re all for it.