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民政部官网消息，为更好地贯彻落实2月13日国务院印发的《国家职业教育改革实施方案》文件精神，完善高职院校人才培养体系，深化殡葬专业"教师""教材""教法"三教改革，进一步推进高等职业教育高质量发展，全国民政行指委殡葬专指委整合全国殡葬专业教学、行业资源，在2018年启动殡葬专业系列教材筹备工作后，于2019年4月20日成功召开现代殡葬技术与管理专业教学指导委员会2019年第一次会议暨第二次教材编写审定会。民政部专家咨询委员会委员、中国殡葬协会顾问朱金龙、民政部101研究所高级研究员肖成龙、秦皇岛海涛万福环保设备股份有限公司董事长孙智勇、民政部职业技能鉴定指导中心办公室负责人孙钰林、北京八宝山殡仪馆副馆长周卫华、石家庄古中山陵园董事长赵志国、化工出版社职教分社社长李植峰等行业领导、以及来自全国七所民政院校殡葬教育领域的教师代表等41位领导、专家和老师参加了此次会议。会议分为两个阶段，由北京社会管理职业学院生命文化学院副院长何振锋主持。

第一阶段会议中，与会领导、专家和各院校老师就第十届全国职业院校民政职业技能大赛殡葬类赛项举办时间、地点、比赛工种、奖项设置等工作展开了讨论，并达成了共识，经研究确定2019年第十届全国职业院校民政职业技能大赛殡葬类竞赛将于5月31日-6月2日于秦皇岛海涛万福环保设备股份有限公司举办，比赛工种为殡仪服务员、遗体防腐整容师。与会领导指出职业院校的办学目标是培养高素质的技能型人才，办好职业技能大赛对提高教师教学能力、学生专业素质和实践能力，加强校企合作具有更加重要的意义。

第二阶段会议中，生命文化学院副院长何振锋介绍了殡葬系列教材建设的基本情况，自2017年下半年至今，教材编写审定经历了酝酿、研讨、确认、推进等一系列工作，对教材名称、主编、体例样章、出版批次等多次进行讨论和沟通，保障教材编写的科学化、规范化。同时，提出争取将本系列教材纳入新一轮国家规划教材，进一步提高殡葬专业教材建设水平。会上，各教材主编对教材的编写情况、存在问题及下一步工作思路进行了汇报，并听取了与会专家、领导的意见。化工出版社专家就印刷批次、展示形式、出版合同等问题也与主编们进行了沟通，对教材的顺利出版起了重要的推动作用。

本次教材编写审定会的成功召开，为第一批教材的出版工作进行了部署，推动了殡葬教材建设的步伐，落实了《国家职业教育改革实施方案》文件精神，对提高教育教学质量、完善教育教学相关标准、深化职业院校"三教"改革具有重要的意义。

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第二次殡葬专业系列教材编写审定会在京成功召开|界面新闻 · 快讯

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民政部官网消息，为更好地贯彻落实2月13日国务院印发的《国家职业教育改革实施方案》文件精神，完善高职院校人才培养体系，深化殡葬专业"教师""教材""教法"三教改革，进一步推进高等职业教育高质量发展，全国民政行指委殡葬专指委整合全国殡葬专业教学、行业资源，在2018年启动殡葬专业系列教材筹备工作后，于2019年4月20日成功召开现代殡葬技术与管理专业教学指导委员会2019年第一次会议暨第二次教...

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She was petrified about death, so she shot a film in a Chinese funeral parlour

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British filmmaker sought to overcome her fear of death by shooting a documentary about a young trainee mortician in central China learning to master her own fears. The result is award-winning documentary Almost Heaven.

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Xu Jun prepares for an embalming operation at the Baoxing Funeral Parlor in Shanghai. Provided To China Daily

Technological advancements are changing the way practitioners use their traditional skills

Xu Jun, an embalmer for 21 years at the Baoxing Funeral Parlor in Shanghai, has been recognized as one of the 94 Shanghai Craftsmen for 2017 for his superior skills in a profession he sees as "noble" and "rewarding".

"This job involves not only being a guardian of dignity for the departed, but also providing comfort for their family members by making the deceased look peaceful at the funeral," the 46-year-old embalmer said.

For the past two decades, Xu has prepared countless bodies for funeral services - replacing blood with embalming fluid, performing complex reconstruction to disguise damage, and applying makeup to create a peaceful appearance.

On average, Xu deals with 20 to 30 bodies a day. Nevertheless, he is meticulous, regardless of how difficult and pressing it is - such as cases when the deceased are victims of fires, car accidents or have fallen from high buildings.

Cai Qi, one of Xu's colleagues, recalled how Xu once spent hours restoring the body of a person involved in a car accident. Cai said in order to reconstruct an eyebrow, Xu enlarged a photo of the deceased on his computer and counted the number of hairs required.

"I remember that he said more than 260 (hairs) were needed," Cai said. "He is a detail-oriented person."

In 2015, the sinking of the Eastern Star in the Yangtze River shocked the nation. Xu and his team were assigned the task of preparing the bodies of the 96 dead. Xu worked for 11 days and nights consecutively and finished the job to a high standard.

"During the Eastern Star assignment, Xu was required to prepare five bodies that were badly decayed. He worked for more than five hours without rest and finished the task at 4 am," said Liu Feng, an apprentice of Xu.

Liu said the bodies of the deceased from the accident had deteriorated. Initially, they had to clean silt from the bodies, before reshaping, embalming and applying makeup.

"No matter how difficult the task is, Xu can always finish it to a high standard," Liu said.

The sinking of the Eastern Star is not the only large-scale accident he has helped with. Xu was also involved in preparing bodies from the Bund stampede in 2014 and the Tianjin Port explosion in 2015.

"This is my job. I just try my best to do it well," Xu said.

One of the major difficulties embalmers face is that they need to restore the appearance of people they have never met. The only way they can do it is to refer to photos and talk to the family of the deceased.

Xu said a good embalmer has to be a good communicator.

"You must be extremely sensitive to the feelings of others and be able to feel empathy for the grief and stress they are experiencing," Xu said. "It takes time and experience."

When Xu started his career at the Baoxing Funeral Parlor in 1996, he was offered a choice of position. He chose the hardest job that few were interested in - to get in touch with the dead every day, which, Xu said, he felt comfortable with from the start.

He has taken to embalming because it is the most demanding job in a funeral home and he enjoys challenges.

Xu worked hard and learned quickly. By 2001, he had won several competitions for applying makeup and embalming in Shanghai.

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Science is revolutionizing the art of embalming

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Technological advancements are changing the way practitioners use their traditional skills Xu Jun, an embalmer for 21 years at the Baoxing Funeral Parlor in Shanghai, has been recognized as one of the 94 Shanghai Craftsmen for 2017 for his superior skills in a profession he sees as "noble" and "rewarding".

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Despite being only 20 years old, Wu Yujiao knows of death, suffering, tragedy, and loss like few others her age. She has seen babies who died after being born with birth defects and young women the same age as her killed in car accidents, but she has also seen those lucky enough to peacefully pass away after a long, happy life.

In the three years she has been studying in the funeral service department of Changsha Social Work College, in the capital of central Hunan province, Wu said that she must have helped embalm and prepare more than 500 bodies for funerals.

Funeral services during which family members cry their eyes out are one of the hardest parts of her job. "It's heartbreaking to see those scenes," she said.

The funeral service students at Changsha Social Work College all agree that their career choice wasn't an easy one, and that they will face social stigma and emotional stress throughout their working lives. The one thing they don't need to worry about, however, is job security. While many university graduates struggle to find suitable positions, graduates of funeral service departments usually get multiple job offers.

A young mortician registers personal information of the deceased at a funeral home in Qingdao, Shandong province, April 1, 2015. A Mu/VCG

In 2014, a total of 10.4 million people died in China, a country whose funeral industry was estimated to be worth 93.5 billion yuan (then $15.4 billion) in a 2013 report by market research firm Euromonitor International.

It's an increasingly profitable business for companies like Fu Shou Yuan, one of the nation's largest premium cemetery providers, which priced its 2013 initial public offering at $215 million. "China has the largest number of deaths in the world, and thus has the largest potential consumer base for death care services," the company said at the time.

As the population ages, demand for trained morticians grows. In 2010, state news agency Xinhua reported that more than 8,000 additional morticians were needed.

Wu and her classmates - young professionals with strong work ethics - are in high demand. In 1995, Changsha Social Work College became the first institution to start offering such professional training. Since then, only three more programs have opened across the country. Slowly, the graduates are altering the landscape of China's funeral world, hoping to provide more considerate service to both the dead and the ones they leave behind alive.

As the industry is growing, it is also modernizing. Before, most morticians were retired soldiers or other members of society who chose to enter the profession due to a lack of alternatives. Funeral homes were not even required to be properly licensed until 2009.

Some of Wu's classmates said that during their internships, they saw their older colleagues handle the dead carelessly. Some didn't wash their hands or put on gloves before they touched the bodies. Feng Lei, one of the Changsha school's young graduates, said that he was shocked to see funeral home staff accepting gifts from the families of the deceased, including cigarettes and liquor.

The young generation of professionally trained morticians, Feng said, are more professional and hardworking. At school they learn technical skills like dissecting and embalming a body, but they also take courses that focus on cultural elements of the funeral service.

Students practice standing in a way that shows respect at the department of funeral services at Changsha Social Work College, Hunan province, Sept. 20, 2016. Cai Yiwen/Sixth Tone

Every night after class, the students practice how to stand and welcome customers with a posture that shows respect. Sometimes they do mock funeral rituals, trying to perfect the smallest details, like how long their steps should be when they walk.

But high demand and professional training haven't translated into better salaries for this new generation of funeral workers. While it's easy for them to find jobs, the pay tends to be only slightly above the local average.

Most said that in addition to having a safe job, they genuinely want to help the dead and their mourning relatives. Lu Tong, an 18-year-old freshman, said she hoped her work would help people find closure.

In the students' eyes, morticians provide a service to society that everyone should respect and care about - but Chinese society doesn't always share that view.

"Morticians are facing huge social pressure," Lu Jun, director of the social work college's funeral service department, told Sixth Tone. Some shopkeepers won't touch a mortician's money, he said, and will even use a stick to push the money toward the cash register instead. "The money is thought of as belonging to the dead person, so handling it could bring bad luck," he explained.

Some students, particularly those from rural areas, told Sixth Tone that their parents opposed their decisions to become morticians on grounds that they would never be able to find suitable partners and have their own families.

After graduation, Feng Lei took a job at a funeral home in Anji County, in eastern Zhejiang province. Like most funeral homes, Feng's workplace was located in the suburbs. If he wanted to go into town, he had to take a taxi. However, he quickly found out that many drivers wouldn't take him, while others would only agree if he offered to pay double the fare.

Eventually, the emotional and social pressure became too much for Feng. He said that his parents helped him get a new job as a city official, although he had already been using this as his job title, given that his funeral home technically belonged to the municipality. "When people find out I'm a mortician, they generally try to treat me with respect," he said. "But then I start to feel that they're avoiding me and don't want anything to do with me."

Some of his classmates, Feng said, also thought about changing careers, although this often was not a viable option unless they had family connections. "Many do not know anything other than funeral service," Feng said. "But more importantly, the moment a hiring manager sees what we majored in at college, we are rejected."

An instructor gives a presentation on embalming at the department of funeral services at Changsha Social Work College, Hunan province, Sept. 21, 2016. Cai Yiwen/Sixth Tone

Regardless of whether they stay or try to move on, the young students feel that their years of study and practice as morticians have left an impact on their lives. Most of Wu's classmates have changed a lot over the past three years of their training, even becoming more considerate toward their parents and the people around them.

Wu said she has also learned that death doesn't differentiate between the rich and the poor, and that - perhaps most importantly - lives can end abruptly and should be cherished while they last.

"After you have seen so many deaths, you start to appreciate life and the things you have in any given moment," Wu said. "Our experience is a difficult thing to explain."
(Header image: Students practice funeral rituals during a mock service at the department of funeral services at Changsha Social Work College, Hunan province, Sept. 20, 2016. Cai Yiwen/Sixth Tone)

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Fresh Blood Hopes to Revive China's Funeral Homes

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Despite being only 20 years old, Wu Yujiao knows of death, suffering, tragedy, and loss like few others her age. She has seen babies who died after being born with birth defects and young women the same age as her killed in car accidents, but she has also seen those lucky enough to peacefully pass away after a long, happy life.

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Outcry as coffins crushed in Chinese 'zero-burial' campaign

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Videos circulate showing villagers in Jiangxi province crying as coffins are removed

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China sets target to promote eco-friendly burial - Xinhua | English.news.cn

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BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Eco-friendly burial shall account for more than 50 percent of all burials in China by 2020 in order to conserve land, according to a guideline released by the government.

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The ashes of six people, in degradable urns, are placed into holes for burial during a group green funeral at the Yinlongshan Cemetery in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, last week. [Photo by SONG NING/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Gao Yihuan is only 27 but she's already decided how she wants to be buried after she dies.

"I want to have my ashes scattered at sea, or some other environmentally friendly method of burial," said Gao, who is from Xiamen, Fujian province. "Cemeteries are depressing. I'd rather be closer to nature."

Chinese are increasingly choosing so-called green funerals, such as burial at sea or having their ashes scattered or buried near trees. The trend is being fueled by government efforts to encourage more people to abandon the traditional practice of interring ashes in the ground or in a tomb, which takes up considerable land.

In Beijing alone, eco-friendly funerals accounted for 44 percent of all burials last year, with 3 percent being burials at sea, according to the capital's Civil Affairs Bureau.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a guideline this month that set a national goal to have green ceremonies make up 50 percent of the annual total by 2020.

"Ecological methods that occupy less or no land, consume fewer resources and use degradable materials will be greatly promoted," the guideline said.

Independent research shows a pressing need to convince more people to abandon the traditional methods and save space.

China is adding about 3 million burial plots a year nationwide. Yet Ouzi, an industry analysis and data service company, estimates that all available spots will be occupied by mid-2022, roughly 18 months earlier than predicted in a 2014 report by the ministry.

Last year, the country had about 64.7 million plots, and 42.2 million of those were occupied, according to Ouzi.

However, the promotion of green funerals is not easy because Chinese tend to stick to traditional ways-burial in a tomb-to show filial piety and respect to their ancestors, said Sun Shuren, secretary-general of China Funeral Association.

"The most frequent green funeral people adopt now is storing ashes in cells-storing the urns in the boxes of a special room in a funeral home with cheap rent," he said, "which is also the method the country is promoting now and which saves a lot space.

"Right now, not keeping the ashes-including burying the ashes while planting a tree as a memorial, or a sea burial-is being adopted by quite a few in the country," Sun said. "It takes a long time to transition from traditional tomb burial to abandoning tombs or even no longer keeping the ashes all. It requires a change in deep-rooted thoughts."

To encourage more people to accept new burial methods, the country will construct more green facilities, under the ministry's guideline.

A financial incentive will be introduced: paying money monthly to people who choose sea burial. That system was put into place on Jan 1 in Wenling, Zhejiang province.

Under the policy, people over 70 in Wenling who sign a contract for sea burial will receive monthly remuneration based on age-from 100 yuan ($15.80) per month for those over 70, to 400 yuan for people over 100, according to local civil affairs authorities.

A previous policy, issued in 2004, offered 2,000 yuan for a family that chose sea burial.

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Burial trend in China is moving against tradition

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Gao Yihuan is only 27 but she's already decided how she wants to be buried after she dies. "I want to have my ashes scattered at sea, or some other environmentally friendly method of burial," said Gao, who is from Xiamen, Fujian province. "Cemeteries are depressing. I'd rather be closer to nature."

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China will make a shift to push for eco-friendly burials, according to a recent announcement by the country's Ministry of Civil Affairs, released just ahead of the Qingming (Pure Brightness) Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, which falls on April 5 this year.

The holiday, which has been celebrated in China for centuries, is meant to commemorate and pay respect to ancestors. On each Qingming Festival, cemeteries are crowded with people who come to clean up their family tombs and leave offerings.

The recent release urged all local governments to encourage more environmentally friendly funerals by offering subsidies and promoting the use of biodegradable urns, as well as scattering of crematory remains at sea and tree burials.

Longstanding Chinese tradition holds that the dead should be buried in coffins beside their ancestors, but the custom has put a strain on the land resources of the most populous country in the world. Late Chinese leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping set examples for modern funerals by having their ashes scattered in the mountains and at sea.

Reports show that although the number of cremation cases rose from about 3.87 million to 4.82 million between 2001 and 2017, the cremation rate remained relatively steady, fluctuating around 50 percent. This is partly due to the deeply rooted custom of traditional burials.

Statistics from the China Funeral Association show that nearly 10 million Chinese people die each year, with a growth rate of 7‰. Given the cremation rate, assuming that each coffin uses 0.5 cubic meters of wood, then about 2.5 million cubic meters of wood are used for coffins each year. Beyond that, if each tomb takes up 10 square meters of land on average, then traditional burials also require 50 million square meters of land each year.

People nowadays often build tombs with cement, which breaks down very little over time. This may be an excellent material for buildings and bridges, but it will make tombs that last forever. If 50 million square meters of land is used for tombs annually over a very long period of time, tombs will be taking over land from forests and plants, leaving no farmland for the living.

A report released in 2015 on China's funeral industry predicted that cemetery plots in most of China's provincial-level regions will be depleted in ten years.

Waning cemetery space is not only squeezing arable land, forests, grassland, and other environmental resources, but also pushing up prices for traditional funerals.

Statistics from China's biggest funeral service company, Fu Shou Yuan International Group, show that the average price for a single cemetery plot rose from 87,400 yuan to 102,400 yuan in 2017, up 17.16 percent, a growth rate higher than that of housing prices in most cities during the same period.

In fact, the Chinese government started promoting eco-friendly burials back in the 1990s. But it is not easy to change people's minds on funeral customs, and many Chinese people see traditional burial as an obligation of filial piety toward their elders.

Against this backdrop, 16 departments, including the Ministry of Civil Affairs, released a guideline in early 2018 aiming to gradually raise the cremation rate year by year in the country and also setting an ambitious target of making eco-friendly burial account for over 50 percent of all burials in China by 2020.

According to the guideline, eco-friendly burial includes storing ashes in cells, tree burial and sea burial. By 2020, there will be funeral parlors with crematoriums in all counties that will meet national environmental protection standards, and public eco-friendly burial facilities will be available in all villages and towns, the guideline specified.

In 2014, only 3.5 percent of burials in 15 of Beijing's government-administered cemeteries were conducted using eco-friendly or land-saving methods, according to a report by Xinhua in 2015. Meanwhile, a report from China News Agency in January 2018 showed that 43.85 percent of all burials in the capital were eco-friendly in 2017, due to consistent promotion efforts including free funeral services and subsidies. This was the highest reported ratio in the country.

If this trend keeps growing, and I am sure it will, we Chinese will definitely have fewer tombs to sweep in the future, but we can scatter petals in the sea, where our loved ones rest in peace.

After all, if you don't change the traditional mindset, you are neglecting the developmental potential of future generations. Needless to say, we don't want our mountains in the future covered with white bones.
If you would like to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.

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Fewer tombs to sweep yet greater space for future generations

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China will make a shift to push for eco-friendly burials, according to a recent announcement by the country's Ministry of Civil Affairs, released just ahead of the Qingming (Pure Brightness) Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, which falls on April 5 this year.

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Sixth Tone looks at China's changing attitudes toward dying.