China launches crackdown against striptease shows at funerals
Performances often staged in rural areas to ensure high turnouts at events, state media report
China’s government says it will crack down on the increasing number of striptease shows performed in rural areas, with many taking place at funerals.
A statement from the Ministry of Culture said the illegal performances had been taking place for some time in the countryside and that firm action would be taken to stop them.
“This kind of illegal operation has disrupted the order of the rural, cultural market and corrupted social morality,” the statement said.
The state broadcaster CCTV said that risqué shows were often staged at events such as funerals in rural areas to ensure a high turnout.
The report said striptease operators could earn about 2,000 yuan (HK$2,500) for each performance and they might put on 20 to 30 shows a month.
The Ministry of Culture’s statement gave details of two striptease shows, both at funerals.
One was held near a village near Handan in northern Hebei province just before this year’s Lunar New Year holiday.
The “Red Rose Song and Dance Troupe” performed traditional songs and dances on stage at a funeral on February 15, the statement said, before stripping and dancing was staged at the end of the show.
The Global Times newspaper quoted a villager as saying: “Two strippers wearing revealing clothes danced on a stage in the public square in our village.
“They first danced passionately and then took off their clothes piece by piece. Behind them, an electronic screen was displaying a picture of the deceased with elegiac couplets on either side.
“In recent years, our village has seen a lot of shows like this, since we have a tradition of holding large funerals, especially on the three-year anniversary [of the person’s death],” the article quoted the villager as saying. “It is really shocking.”
The villager said the show cost 3,000 yuan. The person in charge of the troupe was later detained for 15 days and fined 70,000 yuan.
In the other case mentioned in the government statement, a group of three performed striptease at a funeral in a village in eastern Jiangsu province.
