The funeral reform in Suizhou City, Hubei Province is under way. From 0:00 on March 20, 2024, the administrative divisions under Suizhou will implement cremation of remains and burial of ashes in cemeteries. The reform has also caused a lot of controversy. Some people questioned the implementation of the policy in order to allow residents to buy new cemeteries; There is also a lack of human feelings for the stipulation that a husband and wife cannot be buried together with the previous burial party.
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Beijing News reporter Li Bingjie intern Huang Xinyue editor Hu Jie proofread Zhao Lin
Zhou Ming's mother died after March 20.
He failed to realize his mother's last wish to be buried with her husband.
According to the announcement released on the website of Suizhou Municipal People's Government of Hubei Province, from 0:00 on March 20, 2024, Suixian County, Guangshui City and Zengdu District under the jurisdiction of Suizhou will carry out cremation of remains and burial of ashes in cemeteries.
A staff member from a town under the jurisdiction of Guangshui City who was interviewed said that his township has achieved a 100% cremation rate and burial cemetery rate since March 20. At present, about 80% of the people in the town support the reform, and another 20% of the people need to continue to work.
The reporter learned that some residents did not want the dead to be cremated and tried to delay entering the cemetery; Some people also questioned the implementation of the funeral reform policy in order to allow residents to buy new cemeteries invested locally; Others believe that the rule of not being buried together with the husband and wife of the previous burial party is a lack of human relations. Under the heavy pressure, grassroots cadres are tired of dealing with it, and the new and old tension caused by the funeral reform happens from time to time.
A staff member of Suizhou Civil Affairs Bureau said that Suizhou's funeral reform followed the general policy of the State Council and Hubei Province and "needs an adaptation process."
Zhao Xudong, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Social Sciences of Renmin University of China, recognized the rationality of the funeral reform, but he believed that the policy should not be applied to both urban and rural areas in a "one size fits all" way, but should take into account the situation of various places to make the next policy.
Most old people are still used to burial
More than a month after his death, Zhou Ming's mother's ashes were still deposited in the Guangshui Funeral Home. In 2018, Zhou Ming's father died. On the mountain of his hometown, his family dug a double grave. After burying his father, they also reserved a place for Zhou Ming's mother a hundred years later.
On his deathbed, Zhou Ming's mother told him that his last wish was to be buried with his husband.
The mother's body has been cremated. Zhou Ming still hopes to take the ashes away and put them in the two person tomb prepared in advance, but Guangshui Funeral Home refuses to let Zhou Ming take the ashes away, "either deposit them or enter the cemetery".
Suizhou Municipal People's Government Website Launches Special Promotion Page of Funeral Reform Source: Suizhou Municipal People's Government Website
Suizhou City began to implement the funeral reform policy on March 20, which requires that from that day on, the whole city implement the cremation policy, and all ashes are buried in cemeteries.
On May 10, the staff of Guangshui Funeral Parlour replied to the Beijing News reporter that at present, all ashes can only be put in cemeteries or deposited. "Now the government policy is like this, and we are just policy implementers."
The reporter learned that before March 20, Suizhou City did not enforce the cremation policy. In the countryside, most elderly people are still used to burial.
A Suizhou citizen said that in the urban area of Suizhou, residents have a high degree of acceptance of cremation and cemeteries after death, but in towns and villages, elderly people are more resistant to cremation and cemeteries. He once asked people around him about cremation and entering cemeteries. "Everyone disagrees. Young people feel that it has increased pressure on them. The elderly in villages and towns are afraid of cremation."
An interviewed resident of Changling Town, Guangshui City, said that many old people in the local area have prepared their earthen coffins. Burial is still the mainstream idea in the local area, and some old people fear cremation.
A local grass-roots cadre told the Beijing News that before the new regulations came into effect on March 20, more people were cremated in the city, but in the countryside, they were basically buried. On the mountain in the village, there were ancestral graves of each family. If anyone was absent, they would be buried in their ancestral graves.
Wu Hongli, a village cadre in Guangshui, has no impression that someone buried her relatives in the cultivated land. "We have a small amount of land, about one mu per capita, and everyone cherishes the cultivated land." Grave plots are usually concentrated in the mountains. Previously, there was a dispute between people from other villages who wanted to be buried in the mountains of their own villages and people from other villages.
On March 20, Lu Meixia, who has been engaged in funeral business for more than 20 years, put away the unsold coffins and closed her coffin shop.
In January this year, she and her colleagues received an official message asking them to get ready and clear away the remaining goods. On March 20, all coffin shops in Suizhou City were closed.
In the past 20 years, Lu Meixia, a small coffin shop, has been mostly engaged in business from nearby villages and towns. The price of a coffin is basically about 2000 yuan. If someone puts forward more customization requirements, the price can be higher.
After March 20, Lu Meixia lost her livelihood and had to sit around at home. There was no farmland in the village. She felt that she was old and "nobody wanted to work outside."
Lu Meixia's uncle died shortly after the implementation of the New Deal. She prepared a coffin for her uncle in advance, but it was not used in the end. Her uncle's body was cremated and then buried in the cemetery. What goes with entering the cemetery is the white matter that Lu Meixia seems to be particularly lonely. In the past, white matter was done in the village, with tents built, boasting and beating, and entertaining fellow villagers. Now, the ceremony is held in the funeral home.
"Three Steps" of Funeral Reform
In the context of some Suizhou people, Suizhou's funeral reform has become the top priority of the local people.
On May 11, the staff of Suizhou Civil Affairs Bureau explained that Suizhou's funeral reform followed the State Council's "Regulations on Funeral Management" and "Hubei Provincial Funeral Management Measures", and such reform is being carried out everywhere.
The staff member said, "Funeral reform is not sudden. The construction of municipal, town and village cemeteries has been going on for a long time."
According to the website of Suizhou Municipal Government, Suizhou's funeral reform has taken the "three-step" step: first, the provincial government will designate Suizhou as a cremation area in 2021, and the "two offices" of the city will print and distribute the Implementation Opinions on Promoting Funeral Reform; Second, 2022 and 2023 will be designated as the "Year of Funeral Facilities Construction", and all of them will be built into public welfare cemeteries at the county, town and village levels; Third, from 0:00 on March 20, 2024, the city will implement the cremation policy, and all ashes will be buried in cemeteries.
"The policy will take some time to understand and adapt, but we do implement it according to the regulations and policies of the State Council and the provincial level," said the staff member.
Shao Rongbo, president of Suizhou Funeral Association, recalled in an interview with local media that Suizhou had implemented funeral reform from the 1970s to the beginning of this century, and cremation was implemented in some regions. However, due to various factors, the reform was slow.
The reporter learned that in history, Suizhou once divided the area under its jurisdiction into cremation area and burial area. The cremation area includes the main urban area and some streets, while the whole area including Guangshui City is in the original burial area. In this reform, Suizhou City decided to implement the "one size fits all" cremation in the whole region, no matter in the plains or mountains.
Suizhou municipal government website has set up a special topic on funeral reform, and introduced the background of this funeral reform with relevant content: the old funeral customs in Suizhou have a profound impact, private burial, scattered burial, and burial of ashes in coffins are very common, burial land is becoming tense, the ecological environment has been damaged, mountain fires have occurred from time to time, and funeral activities focus on pomp The phenomenon of being more generous has caused a great burden to the masses.
Suizhou Municipal Government said in the "Questions and Answers on Suizhou's Funeral Reform Policy" that over the years, due to the deep-rooted traditional customs and insufficient construction of funeral facilities, many residents in cremation areas and non cremation areas compare with each other. After the death of their relatives, they also bury them in secret, or bury their ashes in coffins after cremation. The cremation rate in the original cremation areas in the city is only about 40%, It is far below the provincial average. Judging from the past funeral management in our city, it is difficult to implement step by step and the effect is poor. If our city adopts the way of plain first, then mountain area to promote the whole region cremation policy, because some towns have both plain and mountain area, it is impossible to accurately divide the scope. If it is carried out step by step, it may happen that the remains in the cremation area are transported to the burial area for burial without permission.
A staff member of the Department of Civil Affairs of Hubei Province said that cremation has been promoted for more than ten years in Jianghan Plain of Hubei Province. Suizhou is located in mountainous and hilly areas, and its economy is relatively underdeveloped. It has not been able to carry out funeral reform before. "In 1997, the state promulgated the Regulations on Funeral Management." Until this year, the local government has made a lot of efforts and made a lot of safeguard measures before officially implementing them. "
The Questions and Answers on Suizhou's Funeral Reform Policy also mentioned that in 2020, the seventh round of inspection feedback of the 11th Provincial Party Committee found that Suizhou had problems such as insufficient construction of funeral service infrastructure, weak public welfare of funeral services, slow progress of funeral reform, weak funeral law enforcement, and the adjustment and division of cremation areas did not adapt to economic and social development, which led to a growing gap with cities and prefectures in the province. All counties (cities) adjacent to Suizhou have implemented a nationwide cremation policy, with the exception of a few places that are starting.
Grass roots cadres commit difficulties
In the "one size fits all" reform, the former burial area was divided into cremation areas, and cadres at all levels are facing enormous challenges.
Yuan Yongyi, a party secretary in a village in Guangshui City, has been a grass-roots cadre for decades, and has also faced difficulties in the funeral reform.
In January this year, according to the requirements of the superior government, he began to publicize Suizhou's funeral reform policy to the villagers. Guangshui City also sent a letter on the funeral reform to the people of the whole city. Yuan Yongyi and his colleagues distributed the letter door to door, and the villagers also kept a copy of the letter to ensure that the migrant workers could see it.
Yuan Yongyi said that he and his colleagues had interpreted the policy in various ways, but they still got a lot of scolding.
"The ideological work of the masses is difficult to do, and the customs and habits of thousands of years are certainly not to be changed." The workload of village cadres has increased significantly. In order to avoid someone "sneaking into the mountain" at the beginning of the policy implementation, village cadres regularly feel in the village. Once someone dies, immediately send two village cadres to the deceased's home, from cremation to cemetery, all the way to supervise and follow.
When talking about the funeral reform in the village, Wu Hongli couldn't stop sighing. After more than ten years as a village cadre, when she was elected as the director of the village committee, everyone said that she was kind-hearted. By this year, she and the village cadres were pointed at the nose and scolded by the villagers. When a village cadre entered the house to assist the bereavement family in dealing with the aftermath, he was driven out of his home by the people.
Town level cemetery in Luodian Town, Guangshui City Source: Suizhou Daily
On the evening of March 19, Wu Hongli heard that there was an old man in her family who had "left the shop". According to the custom, in rural Suizhou, the old man would be carried from his bed to the ground by his children when he was dying, and people would die in the place closest to the land.
This is the first deceased old man in the village after the funeral reform document came into effect. Wu Hongli is worried that she can't sleep. She and her colleagues need to arrive at the funeral home as soon as the old man dies, do the villagers' work well, help contact the funeral service center in the town, transport the iced coffin, and wait for the funeral home to finish the funeral, send the body to the funeral home for cremation, and finally enter the cemetery.
That night, Wu Hongli's colleagues went to the bereaved family's home, but the bereaved family expelled them from their home.
Even though she persuaded her son and daughter-in-law by various means, the old man was cremated and entered the cemetery, Wu Hongli still felt that her work was extremely difficult.
Wu Hongli remembers that in about 2022, she received the news of funeral reform from her superiors and returned to the village. She first opened the two committees of the village, and then the representative meeting of the party members and the masses. The notice was posted at the entrance of the village committee, the small square, and the public toilet wall. The villagers were unwilling to paste it on their own walls. "People felt unlucky." Even if it was posted in public places, the notice would be torn off from time to time.
Yuan Yongyi's family has an old mother who is nearly 90 years old. The old mother also hopes to settle down in a hundred years. Outside, he works for the masses. When he comes home, he has to work as a mother. "I can only say that people are implementing it now, not just for whom."
Yuan Yongyi's village cemetery was built last spring. The villagers didn't make much noise, which made him feel relieved. Other villages that have been building cemeteries have encountered various obstacles
Cemetery becomes the focus of contradiction
According to Suizhou local media, in order to better implement the funeral reform, all counties and cities have invested 270 million yuan in the past three years to build public welfare cemeteries at the county, town and village levels. Cemetery construction costs and a one-time 20-year management and maintenance fee will be charged for cemeteries, and both fees will be paid in a lump sum. According to the preliminary accounting, a single cave in a village public welfare cemetery is generally not more than 3000 yuan, a single cave in a town public welfare cemetery is generally not more than 4000 yuan, and a single cave in a county public welfare cemetery is generally not more than 10000 yuan.
The price of the cemetery in Yuan Yongyi's village is 2600 yuan for a double tomb and 2000 yuan for a single tomb. Guangshui has also issued a policy of "five exemptions and one award" for people's funeral. One way fee, body disinfection fee and plate furnace cremation fee will be exempted for transporting the body to the municipal funeral home. According to the needs of the family members, the freezing fee for the freezer within 3 days and the deposit fee for the ashes within one year will be reduced or exempted.
Villagers of a village in Suizhou took pictures of the interviewees from the village cemetery
The staff of a town under the jurisdiction of Guangshui City told the Beijing News that the single tomb of the town's first level cemetery was 2600 yuan, and the double tomb was 3200 yuan. In order to dispel the misunderstanding of the masses to the greatest extent, "our town decided to take the first three years as a transitional period, and no fees will be charged for the funerals entering the cemetery."
The staff member introduced that the construction of public welfare cemeteries was coordinated by the Civil Affairs Bureau of Guangshui City, and the funds for the construction of cemeteries were allocated to villages and towns, which then allocated the funds to villages.
Yuan Yongyi remembered that in the spring of 2023, their village built a village level public welfare cemetery covering an area of about one mu with 60 graves. The village committee was responsible for bidding, the third party organization was responsible for construction, and acceptance would be carried out after the completion of the construction.
The construction of cemeteries is mainly at the village level. The village committee contacts a third party. After the completion of the construction, it needs to be checked and accepted at the town and city levels. If it does not meet the requirements, it will order rectification. Only when it is qualified, will the funds be allocated in place, "For example, the graves must use natural marble to ensure long-term storage for decades. Each cemetery must have greening and tree planting. In addition, a drainage system must be built, and fences, signboards, roads and other supporting facilities must be built."
The funeral service center at the township level has a place for condolence. "Funeral owners can choose to hold a farewell ceremony at home or in the funeral service center according to their own wishes."
In addition, village cadres will also be responsible for the management of village level cemeteries in the future. Wu Hongli said that at present, the village cemeteries are managed by the village committee, and "we should often go to see them and clean up weeds".
Some villagers are not satisfied with the cemetery environment. Zhang Dong's clansman died during the May Day holiday, and his village has also built a cemetery. According to the video provided by Zhang Dong, the cemetery environment is simple, and there are many weeds around. He is worried that in a few months, he will not even find a specific location for ancestor worship.
A local villager told the Beijing News that the cemetery built in the village "was surrounded by a ring of green garden nets, and a half meter square table was set aside for the ancestors. The surrounding trees and weeds were not removed, and the overall environment could not accept it." Another villager described the cemetery as "a barren mountain with several cement pits."
Some people have posted photos of cemeteries on social networks. There is still water in the one meter square cemetery. Some respondents said that when it rains, water will spill into the tomb.
Yuan Yongyi heard that some cemeteries in some places will accumulate water on rainy days. He had specially inspected them on rainy days. "Our village cemetery is built on the mountain, which is OK."
Photos taken by local villagers showing water accumulated in the cemetery on rainy days
After nearly two months of work, Wu Hongli came to the conclusion that the real contradiction lies in entering the cemetery. In Wu Hongli's village, the price of public welfare cemeteries is nearly 3000 yuan for single graves and more than 3000 yuan for double graves. "This is not a small amount for rural people." In order to continue the funeral reform, the village exempted the cemetery fees, "There is no way. We also want to ask the family members to collect the money. No one is willing to pay."
Wu Hongli said that in their village, the elderly can get a pension of more than 1000 yuan a year. To get this money, they need to pay more than 200 yuan of pension insurance every year for many consecutive years before they are 60 years old. An old man's pension of two years can afford a cemetery.
During the construction of cemeteries, the village collective land was occupied. The village committee spent nearly 50000 yuan on land acquisition. Now, it has to pay for the purchase of cemeteries. Wu Hongli is worried that the more the village committee owes, the more the village population, and the more people die each year. In a few years, the cemetery will be occupied. What can we do next? "Our previous suggestion was to use the money from these cemeteries to build the next batch of cemeteries, but now we can't collect the money."
"The general direction of reform is right, but we should pay attention to the ways and means"
Suizhou's funeral reform has aroused public attention. A staff member of Hubei Provincial Department of Civil Affairs replied to the Beijing News that the Provincial Department of Civil Affairs is also paying attention to this matter at present, and the local authorities will also respond positively in the future.
The above staff said that the provincial civil affairs department has sent a working group to the local area to investigate, "There is no problem in the local work direction. The funeral reform was proposed by the central government in 1956. Suizhou's funeral reform is backward in the province. Some problems may appear in the process of implementing the policy, but the general direction is not wrong."
The staff member believed that there was a steelyard in the hearts of the people. "Many people must be supportive. We often receive phone calls saying that people are burying and burying in disorder. The economy of this place is backward, and it is not easy to do such a thing. We are worried that the government will not withstand the pressure and fall back."
A staff member of the town under the jurisdiction of Guangshui said that, according to the past customs of Suizhou City, it would cost at least six or seven thousand yuan to do white work
Despite many difficulties, Wu Hongli also admitted that cremation and entering cemeteries also have advantages. Last Tomb Sweeping Day, village cadres dared not sleep all day and all night. Suizhou has many hills, most of the graves are built on the mountains, and there are many trees in the mountains. Every year, there are fire accidents caused by burning paper in the city. Village cadres are scheduled to patrol to try their best to prevent fires.
Wu Hongli calculated that if the burial was to be carried out, in addition to buying coffins, eight to ten people would have to carry them. The person who carried the coffins could not be her own family, but had to hire someone, plus the money for digging graves, it would cost 10000 to 20000 yuan. We also need to put up tents and set up seats, and we also need 10000 pieces. Wu Hongli said that the above asked not to let the funeral parade be held. "In fact, the villagers accepted it. In order to save face and make others feel filial, some people needed to bite their teeth to support the scene. Most people in the village are not so good."
Dong Leiming, professor of the School of Sociology of Beijing Normal University and head of the Department of Sociology and Social Work, has been engaged in rural sociology research for many years. He believes that the general direction of funeral reform is right, but attention should be paid to ways and means. Adhering to land conservation ecology and providing public welfare funeral services for the masses are worth advocating. The problem is that the reform of funeral and interment in many places is too radical, and compulsory measures have been taken against the will of the masses. "There is no problem with policy oriented advocacy of cremation and ecological land saving burial. Local governments need to work hard on policy publicity and implementation, so that the masses can understand first, and then gradually get support."
According to the Regulations on the Administration of Funeral and Interment promulgated by the State Council in 1997 and revised in 2012, the policy of funeral and interment management is to actively and step by step implement cremation, reform burial, save land for funeral and interment, eliminate the bad customs of funeral and interment, and promote civilized and thrifty funeral. Cremation shall be carried out in areas with dense population, less arable land and convenient transportation; Burial is allowed in areas where conditions for cremation are not yet available.
Dong Leiming said that the national level has never required compulsory access to cemeteries. However, some local governments are used to making mandatory requirements in a "one size fits all" way due to the impulse to "flaunt their achievements" and the lack of governance means.
Zhao Xudong, a professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Social Sciences of Renmin University of China, has observed and studied the rural funeral reform for a long time. He has noticed a series of conflicts between the masses and the local government due to the funeral issue. "Funeral involves life and death, and involves the traditional ideas of the people. I believe that the local government should conduct policy formulation on the premise of full research. ”
Zhao Xudong can understand the concerns of the masses about various problems arising after the funeral reform. "In addition to the most basic traditional ideas, whether the construction of cemeteries can be sustainable, and whether local finance can permanently support the construction of public welfare cemeteries are all problems."
Zhao Xudong said, "If the mandatory requirement is uniform, it may bring bad results in the end. From the perspective of social stability, the reform should be moderate and gradual."
For the future development of funeral reform, Dong Leiming believes that first, we should adhere to the public welfare attribute and provide convenient and affordable funeral public services for the masses. Second, while emphasizing ecological land conservation, we should explore ways to allow local people to use forests, grasslands and wasteland for burial, and regulate the burial area and materials. Do not enter cemeteries "one size fits all". The third is to strengthen the top-level system design. Relevant departments should timely revise the administrative regulations of the funeral industry, further refine the standard documents in the field of funeral and interment, and let the grassroots have laws to follow.
On May 11, Qian Yuankun, secretary of Suizhou Municipal Party Committee, led a team to Guangshui to investigate and hold a meeting to promote the funeral reform. The meeting pointed out that it is imperative to change customs, do mass work carefully, and actively, steadily, forcefully and orderly promote the reform.
(Zhou Ming, Zhang Dong, Yuan Yongyi, Wu Hongli and Lu Meixia are pseudonyms)
