Chinese Funerals.

[annaidzinga]

I am a Anthopology student and for an research internship I am currently doing research about funeral traditions in China. I already found a lot of information about the traditional funerals, but most of the articles are not that recent. 

 

So, I was wondering if there is anybody here who lives in China (or maybe just knows a lot about Chinese funerals) and is willing to read a short summary of my research and verify my findings.

 

If you are interested and willing to help me please send an e-mail to: chinesefunerals@gmail.com and I will send you the summary of my research. Thanks in advance!

 

Greetings,

Anna.

 

Edit: included a short summary.

English Summary.docx

[roddy]

Could you post your summary? Or just summarize it?

 

I suspect this is something that varies a lot by location. Anyone been to a Chinese funeral?

[annaidzinga]

Yes, I think so. But for the research we are mostly focussing on traditions in city's instead of the countrysite, also the target group will be rather young as I am working with a company which exist entirely on the internet. 

 

I have to translate my research quickly (I wrote it in Dutch) and than I will post it here. Thanks!

[maomao2014]

- The funeral is paid for by the daughter (?)  never heard of that , normally paid by sons, or the cost is split by children

- Besides the ritual specialist there is only close family present. it depends, some remote relatives will come 

- Annual rituals with presence of the family take place. Like the Qing-Ming meals, whereby the family will eat a meal at the grave of the deceased.

we do not have meal at the grave, probably will take Chinese alcohol or called rice wine ( 白酒)to the grave to pour it at the grave (symbolic behaviour drinking rice wine with deceased )

 

as Roddy said funerals varies by locations. Different cities, the tradition is different

[annaidzinga]

Thank you for the feedback! Can you maybe also tell me something about how common traditional funerals in China are, and than specifically in the larger cities of China? Is it naturally for people to follow these traditional rituals or do funerals also take place without all the rituals, maybe in a more modern form? 

[maomao2014]

I only attended one funeral so far. I think in big cities, people simplify the traditional ritual, especially the government now propagate cremation，and I heard in some coastal cities, some people choose sea burial , which is against the traditional burial. In addition the traditional ritual requires a big space, and in big cities it is very hard to find a big enough space for traditional ritual. So the simple ritual is normally held in a funeral parlour.