Hong Kong, like other cities, is running out of room for the dead

With urban living comes the challenge of housing the dead. In Hong Kong, where most bodies are cremated, even a niche for an urn can be hard to come by. Aside from the exotic ‘green’ burial options, a more lasting solution must be found

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Families pay respects to the dead at the Diamond Hill Cemetery during the Ching Ming festival in April last year. The dignity of “death space” should surely be seen as a fundamental human right, and for many – especially here in Hong Kong – that dignity no longer exists. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 7:00am, 23 Mar 2019Updated: 7:11am, 23 Mar 2019

In Britain’s Middle Ages, dozens of books were written on the “Ars Moriendi” – the art of dying a good death. As our world population marches relentlessly towards 11 billion, that art is seriously in danger. Just as our increasingly urban millions find it harder to buy a few square feet in which to live, so the future of a space for our dead is under threat.

As the Ching Ming grave-sweeping festival approaches, thousands of Chinese clan families that live out in the New Territories will visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean grave sites, pray to ancestors, make ritual offerings, burn joss sticks and paper offerings, and create the occasional country park hill fire.

But for most Hong Kong families, this ritual that was first recorded more than 2,500 years ago has been pared back to a minimum. Instead of tombs gazing out over the sea from the hilltops, the reality is likely to be a 20-year niche – enough room for an urn and a photo – in one of Hong Kong’s gigantic columbaria. Extra years come a decade at a time, for a fee.

Accommodating our living is challenging enough, but accommodating our dead is creating challenges that governments worldwide are secretly sweating over. And squeamishness about discussing our dead means the challenge does not get the urgent attention it needs. As Caitlin Doughty, the author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, about the global cremation industry, complains: “People are being robbed of the dignity of death by a culture of silence.”

Food offerings are placed on a tombstone at the Diamond Hill Cemetery, during the Ching Ming grave-sweeping festival in April last year. Photo: Felix Wong

As Daniel Cohen wrote a month ago in the Financial Times in an examination of “Britain’s burial crisis”: “For local councils, cemeteries are just another logistical matter, alongside rubbish collection and street lights.” As space gets short, so do leases on burial plots, which often cost per square foot as much as – or more than – an expensive apartment.

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