Why the demise of China's strip shows are a more fitting send-off to the afterlife
Crackdown is the final nail in the coffin for farewell events involving erotic performances
In mainland China, some people had their lives ended, quite literally, "with a bang". Not anymore.
For years, strip shows have been a part of some rural funerals, where barely-dressed dancers stripped on stage against a picture of the deceased with cheering mourners, including families and children, watching.
Allegedly a decades-old practice in Taiwan, strippers were there to draw a crowd. "It is to give the family 'face'," a villager explained, alluding to a traditional belief that a large turnout for someone's funeral bodes well for the afterlife and prosperity of the living. "Otherwise no one would come."
Yet, officials have begun clamping down on the increasingly widespread and lucrative trade. According to a CCTV report, performances can cost around 2,000 yuan (HK$2,533), with many strippers staging as many as 20 shows a month.
As early as in 2002, the ministries of culture and public security instructed all responsible units to ban strip dances or any shows that "contaminate the culture", but to no avail. It wasn't until an online video featuring a stripper removing her bra at a funeral in Hebei province went viral in March that the Ministry of Culture decided to pull the plug on the "obscene performances".
In February, authorities in Hebei and Jiangsu provinces invoked public security and commercial performance laws to punish those found to have staged erotic dances at two funerals. In the former incident, the person in charge of the strippers was reportedly detained for 15 days and fined 70,000 yuan.
How could this practice thrive in a culture famous for its reverence of the dead? According to the , rural authorities have long acquiesced in the spectacle at weddings and funerals - the two most important occasions of one's life. Owing to the lack of cultural and recreational policies and infrastructure, erotic performances such as strip shows have become a source of entertainment for China's poor villagers. As long as they posed no threat to social stability, local governments saw them as "compensation" for their own shortcomings.
A skewed pattern of local investment has placed culture at the mercy of commerce. For example, many former village libraries have been replaced by seedy entertainment venues that "earn". With many under-funded cultural facilities left to fend for themselves, aspiring artistes have little choice but to "get their hands dirty".
In December 2013, the State Council issued a notice asking party members to cut back on lavish funerals and mega-tombs, which Xinhua news agency described as "a platform to show off wealth and connections".
In an era of anticorruption, even the dead need to make do with austerity in the afterlife.
