Chinese cracking down on Strippers at funerals

 

China is cracking down on strippers who perform at funerals.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Culture on Thursday, the government plans to work closely with the police to eliminate “obscene” performances, which are held with the goal of drawing more mourners.

Pictures of a funeral in the city of Handan in northern Hebei province last month showed a dancer removing her bra as assembled parents and children watched. They went viral in the internet, prompting much condemnation. The Ministry of Culture cited “obscene” performances in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, as well as in Handan, and pledged to crack down on such lascivious last rites.

In 2006, the state-run broadcaster China Central Television’s leading investigative news show Jiaodian Fangtan aired an exposé on the practice of scantily clad women making appearances at memorial services in Donghai in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.

The point of inviting strippers, some of whom performed with snakes, was to attract large crowds to the deceased’s funeral – to herald good fortune in the afterlife. There are about a dozen funeral performance troupes offering such services in every village in the county, performing 20 shows a month at a rate of 2,000 yuan ($322) per show.