Think You’ve Got Problems? China Has A Strippers At Funerals Problem

There's an ancient Chinese proverb that reads, and I'm paraphrasing, the man with strippers at his funeral is a rich man indeed. China must be full of rich dudes, as there is a literal epidemic in that country involving strippers at funerals, and curiously, the normally permissive and tolerant Chinese government is trying to put an end to this plague. 

According to the Wall Street Journal (link below), it's gotten so bad that some strippers are even bringing snakes along for the ride.

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 were widely circulated online, prompting much opprobrium. In its Thursday statement, 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 the Handan incident earlier this year, the ministry said, six performers had arrived to offer an erotic dance at the funeral of an elderly resident. Investigators were dispatched and the performance was found to have violated public security regulations, with the person responsible for the performing troupe in question detained administratively for 15 days and fined 70,000 yuan (about $11,300), the statement said. The government condemned such performances for corrupting the social atmosphere.

The point of inviting strippers, some of whom performed with snakes, was to attract large crowds to the deceased’s funeral – seen as a harbinger of good fortune in the afterlife. “It’s to give them face,” one villager explained. “Otherwise no one would come."

No one came to my Pep-Pep's funeral, and you'd better believe that if a bunch of strippers had shown up, my Memaw would still be talking about that shit. Instead she talks about what a lovely service it was, despite the fact that even the priest had nothing positive to say about my Pep-Pep. 

Via Wall Street Journal