Mourners for rent in China: More understanding needed

If a cup of tea, a pair of candles, a serving of fruit and a letter, along with a charge of 100 yuan, can constitute a new wave of mourners for rent, would you accept it? On Monday, some cemeteries in Chongqing, China pushed this new service for the Tomb Sweeping Festival. Nanfang Metropolis Daily comments on the trend.

Mourners for rent are nothing new in China. In the past few years, several online shops have offered professional mourning services for those relatives unable to return home. Nevertheless, this method of mourning has been controversial.

Traditionally, on the Tomb Sweeping Festival, people need to visit their ancestral villages to sweep the graves of their forebears by themselves, as it reinforces filial piety. However, the emergence of professional mourning services might lead to a meaningless tomb-sweeping tradition. This kind of mourning links a stranger with someone's forebears, which invites criticism in society.

In reality, professional mourning services are not merely a market-oriented phenomenon, but a new way to help those who cannot return home to honor their ancestors for different reasons.

Although the methods of mourning are changing, people's filial piety has remained constant. There should be less criticism and more understanding of mourners for rent as a respectful method for all.