Opinion | Chongqing's dead get spa treatment in afterlife

A funeral parlour in Chongqing is seeking to attract more customers by offering foot massages to its dead clients, leading to widespread criticism online. 

The spa treatment is offered as an addition to cremation services and costs more than 1,000 yuan (HK$1,250). The funeral parlour conducts the washing ceremony about 10 times a month, said the Chongqing Funeral Management Centre's deputy director Yang Yanmei.

Yang said the parlour had hired a professional, who had assisted in the making of the 2008 Oscar-winning Japanese movie Departures, about a mortician coming to terms with his work.

While some netizens said the service could help Chongqingers bid farewell to their loved ones, most castigated the parlour for finding yet a new way to monetise people's grief.

"They really have guts, or they have lost their mind trying to make money," one person commented. "Are they not afraid of nightmares?"