China Exclusive: Chinese tweak traditions to adopt eco-friendly burials

Chen Qi, an undertaker from northeast China's Dalian, set sail on Saturday for another sea burial.

It was an especially busy day for Chen, whose ship carried 60 urns from Harbin. Since 2009, 559 people from the inland northeastern Chinese city have had their ashes scattered in the water.

Chinese people often bury the ashes of their late loved ones in time to pay tribute to them during Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, which falls on April 4 this year. It is a day for people to visit their ancestors' graves and honor them by burning paper offerings.

Graveyards are always packed with people on Tomb-Sweeping Day, but more and more are opting for "sea burials" in which ashes, often accompanied by flower petals, are scattered into the sea.

"We have seen more families take part in sea burials in recent years," said Chen, who has been in the business for 19 years. "Their attitude toward burials has changed."

Chinese people traditionally believed that souls only rest in peace if their bodies are covered by soil, and the practice was also considered more respectful to the deceased. But attitudes are changing.

"Old people ultimately don't care how they are buried," said "Kangzhuo" on Weibo, a popular microblogging platform. "What truly matters to them is the well-being of their children."

"They've also realized that nobody will look after their graves when their children and grandchildren all pass away," Chen added.

"It makes little sense to keep the ashes in urns," Weibo user "LantianbaiyunV" said. "We came from dust and should return to it in the end."

"How we are buried doesn't matter as long as we consent to it," said "Xianer" on Weibo. "After all, we'll be dead then."

Having an environmentally friendly burial has become important for many.

"We all realize that sea burials do the least harm to our environment," said Ms. Ren from Harbin, who attended the sea burial in Dalian to see off her late mother. "So we just decided to give up the idea of buying a grave."

China's latest policy on burials, unveiled in late February, promotes eco-burials, including sea and tree burials, to ensure a harmonious relationship between humans and nature.

Eco-burials save land, reduce funeral costs and do less harm to the environment, according to the document jointly released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and eight other departments.

"We hope more people will understand eco-burials through the events," said Hu Lizhong, a civil affairs official from east China's Jinhua, Zhejiang, site of several sea burials last Wednesday.

Nevertheless, some still have reservations about sea burials. Many Chinese worry that without graves, they will struggle to find a place to honor their loved ones on Tomb-Sweeping Day.

"On one hand, sea burials are widely encouraged," said Zhang Yiwu, professor at Peking University, "On the other hand, people do need a place to pay tribute to their ancestors. It's a rooted tradition."

"Shitoumi" on Weibo agreed. "If we don't even have tombstones for the deceased, our traditions will be in jeopardy."

For people in south China's Guangdong Province, where sea burials are also popular, that might not be a concern for long.

With a biannual sea burial held on Tuesday, Guangdong's Shenzhen plans to build a memorial park with tombstones for those who undergo sea burials, said Chen Yakai, secretary of the discipline inspection commission of Shenzhen, last week.

According to an announcement issued by the government of Jiangmen, also in Guangdong, the city will set up a memorial wall by the end of the year for the deceased whose ashes are scattered at sea.

"Such measures connect sea burials with the tradition of tomb-sweeping," said Zhang Yiwu, stressing the importance of setting up more public memorial sites. "They mean a lot to the future of sea burials in China." Endi