In contemporary china, having funeral rituals in the traditional way is a rare thing in big cities,
In contemporary china, having funeral rituals in the traditional way is a rare thing in big cities, but it is not that uncommon in some distant areas.-I did these three illustrations few years ago. The intention of this series is to recapture my experience of a burial that took place in a village two decades ago. Although my painting skill was amateur at the time, I still find the delivery interesting even now.-Chubin is a process in the traditional Chinese funeral ritual, in which the eldest son of a family has to escort the funeral procession to the burial ground. Prior to the Chubin, the door to the house’s vestibule of the deceased will be tear down to let the coffin pass through, then the corpse will be placed in the vestibule from 3 – 7 days depends on the traditions which differ from place to place, within in which, the relatives and friends of the deceased come to mourn. The relatives will sit around the corpse and mourn in white linen garments, which is called “Pi Ma Dai Xiao”. After this, the ritual continues with Chubin. The process of Chubin is rather complicated as well as the preparation before it. During the course of the Chubin, the eldest son of the deceased must wail fiercely while holding willow wood in hand until the coffin is buried. If he can’t get the tears flowing everywhere, he’ll have to make it loud enough. If male descendants is absent in the family, a relative’s son can be “borrowed” for this task, since all females are not qualified to do so. In Chinese traditional view, a family without male descendants is a family without future, which perfectly reflects the patriarchy’s view.-I got many interesting discoveries from traditional Chinese funeral.-First thing first is that most villagers actually enjoy participating funeral affairs. They can be playing and laughing throughout the whole course of the funeral, except the Chubin, in which they can cry a river, only making believe, of course. Unlike the deceased’s relatives, no one else really fells any grief, they participate the funeral just for fun and killing time, along with showing off their marvelous acting skill. Be in a funeral without making crying sound will be considered extremely impolite, thus, you’d better whine loudly even if you don’t feel any grief.-During the funeral, joss paper, paper-made servitor or coach, and things alike will be burned in front of the grave. People believe that through the incineration, those paper-made replicas will be delivered to the hades for the deceased to use. People still believe so up to this day, and many more things were added to the list of the paper-made replicas, such as automobile, iPhone, power bank or even microwave oven.-As aforementioned, the deceased’s body will be placed in the vestibule for a few days, within these days, funeral-specialized carny will be invited to perform folk song and dance in the house, and such performances are usually very vulgar. However, no carny will be invited if the deceased is 他too young or died a violent death.-Although I was young at the time, and I haven’t been to any similar funerals ever since, the aftershock that funeral left on me lasts to this very day. It was like what was described in Albert Camus‘s The Stranger, although my disgust cannot be suppressed, it only made me feel like an outsider, who observes their deeds while staying aloof, some are sad, some are antic and some are loathsome. All the drama is just a show for the living, some people would even compete the ostentation of the funeral they host, all in all it’s just an absurd farce. -- source link
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