Tomb sweeping services emerging in China: Would you buy it?

Liu Yang China Plus Published: 2017-04-01 21:35:13
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Tomb sweeping is supposed to be a solemn and sacred moment where people pay their respects to the dead by sweeping their graves and laying flowers.

Cemetery workers live streaming tomb-sweeping on behalf of customers in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. [Photo: Xinhua]

Cemetery workers live streaming tomb-sweeping on behalf of customers in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. [Photo: Xinhua]

However, a new trend has emerged in China with people buying tomb sweeping services during the Qingming Festival (Tomb-sweeping Day), which falls on April 4 this year. 

How the businesses operate? 

Tomb sweeping services on Taobao, one of China's biggest ecommerce sites. [Screenshot: China Plus]

Tomb sweeping services on Taobao, one of China's biggest ecommerce sites. [Screenshot: China Plus]

On Taobao, one of China's biggest ecommerce sites, a broad range of services will pop up if you search "dai ren sao mu" which means tomb sweeping services. The prices range from 100 yuan (14.5 U.S. dollars) to a few thousand yuan. 

According to one advertisement on Taobao, prices start from 389 yuan, for which two to three men will carry out services such as: presenting tributes such as flowers, fruits, bowing to the deceased, reading eulogies, removing weeds on the tomb, taking photos and videos during the process, etc. 

About 100 Taobao shops are currently offering this kind of service, China Daily reports.

A cemetery in Nanjing has also started to provide a live-streaming service for people who could not come to visit graves of their loved ones themselves on the Tomb-sweeping Day.

Dressed in black suits, employees of the Yuhuatai Cemetery sweep the tombs and place flowers on behalf of their clients, with the whole process streamed live through a WeChat mini-app.

Who needs services like this?

Cemetery workers live streaming tomb-sweeping on behalf of customers in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. [Photo: Xinhua]

Cemetery workers live streaming tomb-sweeping on behalf of customers in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. [Photo: Xinhua]

Many clients feel they are too busy, live too far away or even overseas, from the cemetery, or are seniors who have difficulty getting around, according to media reports.

Chai Guanghua from a cemetery in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, said he had been carrying out the service for four years. 

He said he had a client who ran away from home six years ago, and her mother could not get in contact with her even before her death in 2015. 

Chai said the client greatly regretted the situation, but as she now had her own child and worked in Beijing, she just couldn't come visit her mother's grave. 

Mixed reaction towards the services 

Cemetery workers live streaming tomb-sweeping on behalf of customers in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. [Photo: Xinhua]

Cemetery workers live streaming tomb-sweeping on behalf of customers in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. [Photo: Xinhua]

Chai Guanghua said four years ago he was unwilling to get involved, but his attitude has changed over the years. 

He said he regarded helping others by sweeping the tombs was an act of kindness. 

Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communications Law Research Center at China University of Political Sciences and Law, believes paying tribute to the departed by proxy affects the solemnity of the festival and may lead to privacy leaks, Ecns.cn reports. 

In an online poll, 92 percent of netizens said they could not accept tomb sweeping services and said it was a desecration of the dead, according to the People's Daily. 

However, some who are studying or working far away from their hometown say they support the service, because the three-day public holiday is too short for them to go back home and visit the graves of their loved ones, iqilu.com reports. 

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