We’ve all been there. Standing graveside, paying respects to a dearly departed loved one we only now realize we spent far too little time getting to know, when suddenly that third cousin you’ve met once, twice removed, backs into the parking lot in a Chevy filled with half-naked 18-year-olds and a case of Bud Light.
I’m still sorry about that, Aunt Darlene.
An exaggeration, perhaps, but apparently an all-too-real problem in rural China, where Beijing has begun clamping down on "stripteases" meant to draw large crowds to memorial services.
"From time to time, 'stripteases' and other illegal performances have occurred in the countryside," reads a statement posted to the Ministry of Culture’s website.
One might think the Ministry of Culture’s prudish attitude toward countryside nudity might conflict with the wishes of the Chinese National Tourism Administration, but it has promised to "promptly investigate and punish" those involved with the practice.
Specifically, the government cited two examples. The first occurred during a funeral in Hebei province.
"Two strippers wearing revealing clothes danced on a stage at a public square in our village at night on February 15," an eyewitness told the Global Times earlier this month.
Evidently not looking away, the witness was able to provide further detail.
"They first danced passionately and then took off their clothes piece by piece,” he said. “Behind them, an electronic screen was displaying a picture of the deceased with elegiac couplets on either side."
Another burlesque burial transpired in Jiangsu province, which police officer Tang Jinyang described as featuring "erotic performances on the stage with sexual organs exposed and imitating sexual acts."
Participants in that presentation were detained by authorities after attracting a crowd of 500, but with those kind of numbers the whole troupe can probably find cozy jobs in Atlantic City.
The Ministry of Culture said that such shows "disrupt the order of the rural cultural market and corrupt the social atmosphere."
In one sense, they’re right. Death is something to be respected. The end of a person’s life is something to be respected. But death is also a natural part of that life, and in some ways goes hand in hand with birth. So perhaps it’s fitting, entirely appropriate even, that last rites be given surrounded by a bunch of strippers in their birthday suits.
