CHINA’S FUNERAL STRIPPERS TRADITION COMING TO AN EXPOSED END?
Every culture has interesting traditions. Burping, farting, and just about anything you can think of is a tradition somewhere. But have you ever heard of the tradition of having strippers at a funeral? Well, soon you might not hear about it anymore. But China’s provinces of Hebei, Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan have all enjoyed the tradition. Mourners hire strippers to strut their stuff, dance and even sing at funerals. But the Ministry of Culture in China announced just this past month that they want to crackdown on the titillating death rites. They’ve even created a hotline where prudish squares can call and report someone for what they call “funeral misdeeds.” Bye bye, funeral strippers?
CRACKDOWN HAS HOTLINE WHERE SNITCHES CAN GET PAID
But why would anyone do that? Well, snitches get paid in China too, it seems. One snitch got paid to tell the hotline about a particularly interesting stripper funeral. Several strippers did their routine, fronting a large electric screen displaying the head of the deceased. There was also a message saying, “We offer profound condolences for the death of this man.” But why would anyone think of hiring strippers for a funeral? Attendance. More people show up to pay their respects if there are dancing, naked women. But China has taken aim at ending this practice since 2015.
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ANCIENT TRADITION, MODERN TAKE, CLASSIC PRUDES END FUNERAL DRAW
With the crackdown, police can now break up funerals, dispersing all in attendance. They look to end what they call “obscene, pornographic and vulgar performances.” Oddly, though, the funeral strippers tradition isn’t new. Well, maybe the naked part is. Hiring performers for funerals goes all the way back to the Qing Dynasty. Strippers at funerals only goes back to the 90’s. For some reason, experts say this was for fertility worship. Anyway, it’s pretty peculiar, unless you want the dead to rise.
