In China, professional mourners spice up funerals
FEATURE |
CHONGQING — Hu Xinglian kneels before the corpse of Liang Zhicai and, with one hand on his metal coffin, lets out a piercing wail. But Hu is not at all grief-stricken — she is a professional mourner.
In parts of China, where rural pre-burial rituals are still observed, mourners known as “kusangren” are hired to guarantee that a funeral is a spectacle in grief. And the 53-year-old Hu is up to the task.
She comes to work with a full sound-system, multi-colour spotlights and the six members of her band, “The Orchestra of the Star and River of Chongqing.”
Her job offers a study in contrasts between modern living and tradition in the southwestern province-sized municipality, home to more than 30 million people and a symbol of the rapid urbanization seen across China..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110619com8.html
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