Xinhua Insight: China dead serious about novel funeral services

A Shanghai funeral home has started offering customers the chance to have their loved ones' cremated remains turned into crystal-like accessories like rings and pendants.

Shanghai Municipal Funeral Home is marketing the service as a solution to a shortage of land for graveyards. It announced the service this week, the first in China, in the run-up to Tomb-Sweeping Day on April 4, when Chinese traditionally mourn their late family members.

The funeral home's Liu Fengming said it uses high-temperature combustion to turn ashes into a compact structure that is as hard as a crystal and can be colored.

The funeral industry across China is responding to government calls for space-saving and eco-friendly alternatives to conventional internment of bodies. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and eight other ministries jointly released a circular on this issue in February.

With space at a premium in Chinese cities, death is becoming an expensive business, as the price of land for tombs is almost keeping pace with that for houses.

According to an official report, the average cost of a funeral service in Beijing was 70,000 yuan (about 10,000 U.S. dollars) in 2015.

Wary of the rising costs, many people have been rushing to buy tombs for themselves.

Chinese traditionally believe that souls only rest in peace if their bodies are covered by soil, and the practice is also considered more respectful to the deceased. In this context, the ministries' circular has not been popular. Undertakers have been obeying the orders nonetheless.

TECH BRINGS ALTERNATIVES

Mourners at Shanghai Municipal Funeral Home can have their loved ones' remains made into a piece of jewelry for 17,900 yuan. Liu Fengming said the price will drop if business becomes swift.

Nianshiqing, a company in Chongqing Municipality, provides a similar service, contracted out to a U.S. firm. A member of staff with Nianshiqing said it had received orders from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The method used abroad only extracts carbon elements from the cremated remains while the remainder is discarded, which may be hard to accept for Chinese, according to Liu. The Shanghai home's method retains all elements of the remains.

It is not the only Chinese funereal practice hitting the headlines.

This week, Shanghai Longhua Funeral Home began marketing its use of 3D printing to manufacture missing parts from dead bodies.

Again, the funeral home is thought to be the first in China to use this technology.

"In cases of unnatural death -- for example, if people have died in a fire or explosion -- bodies may be damaged or incomplete. However, families will always want their loved ones to look presentable at funerals," said He Zhaomin, head of Shanghai Funeral Service Center.

The 3D printing is not perfect, particularly when it comes to hair. "But with a little bit of improvement, we will be able to turn out a model with 90 to 95 percent likeness of the original person," said He.

DEATH IN AN AGING SOCIETY

The body part printers will get chance to perfect their service, and China is likely to see more unusual practices in a funeral industry bracing for a lot of business.

There were 212 million people aged 60 or over in China at the end of 2014, accounting for 15.5 percent of the population, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Last year, Shanghai recorded 129,000 deaths, in a fifth consecutive annual rise. The trend is forecast to continue until 2050.

More than 666 hectares of Shanghai's public graveyards are currently occupied by tombs.

Burial alternatives gaining popularity in China include sending ashes into space or scattering them into the sea, in ceremonies in which the remains are often mingled with flower petals. Endi