Across China: Beijing residents adopt new approaches to mourn the deceased

BEIJING -- This year's Tomb-sweeping Day, also known as the Qingming Festival in China, which fell on Tuesday, has witnessed people turning to various non-traditional approaches to worship their ancestors and pay tribute to the deceased due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

At the Siqinyuan cemetery in Beijing's Fengtai district, a staffer was entrusted by a local resident surnamed Dong to sweep the tomb of her family member, lay flowers, and stand for a moment in silence. Dong later received pictures of the whole process from the staffer.

Substitute tomb-sweeping is not a new thing. Due in part to COVID-19 infection concerns, the number of people visiting tombs has been declining in recent years, while the substitute service has grown in popularity.

According to the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, from March 19 to April 3 this year, the substitute service was offered more than 3,500 times at the 231 tomb-sweeping sites in Beijing, a significant increase year on year.

"As a Chinese custom, people sweep the tombs of their loved ones in person. But the substitute service has become a safer and more convenient choice to mourn the deceased. Since the service was launched in 2020, the demand has been going up every year," said Zhu Hanwen, a staffer at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing.

"We offer customized services following the requirements of family members, which can comfort them to a great extent," Zhu added. "For example, according to their wishes, we put certain flowers or even a cup of a particular tea that the departed liked in front of their tombs.

To mourn the deceased in an environmentally friendly way, letters, paper boats and flowers made of water-soluble wood pulp have become popular in recent years, as a way to gradually replace the Chinese tradition of burning joss paper.

At the Babaoshan Funeral Home in Beijing, a paper floating ceremony was held during the Qingming Festival. The staff put paper boats and letters from the family of the departed in the water to express their mourning, the whole process of which was uploaded online for the family to watch.

"We hope we can pay tribute to the deceased through these heart-felt services be it substitute tomb-sweeping or water-soluble paper floating," said Zhou Weihua, a spokesperson at the Babaoshan Funeral Home.