Ministry of culture said it will work with police to prevent people from hiring erotic entertainment meant to celebrate the deceased and attract mourners

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

China is cracking down on funeral strippers after controversy over “obscene” performances in the east of the country.

In China, the bereaved often put on elaborate entertainment to send the departed off in style and draw more mourners to the ceremony – but recent funeral shows in Jiangsu and Handan have led the ministry of culture to announce it will work with the police to eliminate such performances.

Pictures of a dancer removing her bra in front of parents and children in Handan last month were circulated online, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Some funeral strippers performed with snakes, the WSJ reported.

The ministry’s crackdown will “focus on the commercial performance market”, it said in a press release, “and further strengthen rural cultural market regulation and law enforcement, and joint authorities will crack down on ‘stripping’ and other acts of illegal business performance market”.



Citing “pornographic performances”, the ministry fined the Red Rose Dance Ensemble about $11,300 for a two-and-a-half-hour performance on 15 February at the funeral of an elderly Handan city resident and arrested three others at a similar show on 27 February.

In parts of east Asian culture, the funeral is a sendoff party for late family members – a last chance for the family and the community to ensure that the deceased travels well into the afterlife. And a big funeral crowd is also a class marker, much like a big wedding might be. Stripping at funeral is widespread in Taiwan and is a regular feature on YouTube.



Everett Zhang, assistant professor of east Asian studies at Princeton University, has studied Chinese funeral rites and said the practice of hiring performers for lavish shows was expected when the deceased had lived a long life.

“In China, when the person who dies is very old and has lived a long life, this kind of occasion becomes purely a celebration,” he said.

It’s also a time when the community shows its gratitude to the dead by giving gifts to the family, so there’s pressure to show attendees a good time. “Everyone who comes to the funeral will present a sum of money to the host – a funeral is a time to collect money and hopefully cover the cost of the service,” Zhang said.

Zhang said he had not witnessed this specific form of funereal entertainment before, but he said he was surprised that authorities intervened.

“Local people would not be happy about the arrests,” he said. “That would be really intrusive and offensive.”