For years, Xiao Hu made a living working in a family business that offered boat trips to tourists visiting Zhushan, an archipelago off the mainland’s east coast. China.

However, in recent years, her work, due to its proximity to the sea, but to the temples of Mount Putou, one of the four sacred mountains of Buddhism, began to attract attention. unexpectedly diverse audience.

The first time someone asked her to scatter the ashes of a loved one at sea from one of the family’s boats, Xiao Hu flatly refused. He admits that he was “unpleasant” to work with the dead. However, according to her, the elderly Buddhist “repeatedly asked me if I could arrange a sea funeral for him.” After much deliberation, I “decided to grant his wish.”

In March 2022, Xiao Hu left the family business to start her own, capitalizing on the world’s growing interest in marine burials. The norm is to go out two or three times a week, but sometimes he does. more than 30 burials per month. As he says after Jiang Zeminthe former prime minister of China, decided to scatter his ashes over the Yangtze River last December. applications for sea burials in its business have tripled.

Funerary symbolism in China

Most Chinese are not Buddhists. In a culture that reverently reveres ancestors, burial in the ground and the installation of a tombstone is considered an extremely important part of the funeral ritual. Taking care of these spaces is the main way to show eternal respect for those who have passed away.

However, in recent years, rapid urbanization And demographic aging led to drastic reduction in burial sitesespecially in cities with prices skyrocketed – in many cases over 100,000 yuan (US$14,550). For example, in Shanghai, the competent authorities have estimated that, based on today’s statistics, the available burial sites will be exhausted within the next 15 years.

Given the situation in overcrowded cemeteries, the government has started to encourage citizens to find alternative burial solutions. The cremation rate reached 59% in 2021 (compared to 47% in 2015), according to China’s Ministry of the Interior. However, citizens they kept burying the urns with the ashes of their loved ones in ordinary graves. Somehow, authorities in many areas have begun to offer monetary rewards to those who decide to scatter the ashes at sea or bury them in an “environmentally friendly” way, such as in biodegradable containers.

State media also started promote the term houyang bozangwhich means “big care, little funeral”, arguing that respect is better shown while alive than after death.

For those who wish to be buried at sea, the cost is as high as 10,000 yuan, or doubles if more than one family member is present at the ceremony. However, the cost is much lower than a regular funeral.

Source: Guardian