Now and then: Changing funeral trends

Confronting outdated perceptions

Despite new trends there are still some who believe a decent and expensive cemetery is a necessity. Otherwise, they would probably be regarded as unfilial.

A woman has had to move three times in the past six years to avoid neighbors' harsh words because she agreed to her parents’ bodies being used for organ donations, even though her parents’ had willed it.

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"Neighbors and relatives asked me if I didn't have enough money to afford a decent burial for my father," Zhou Wenting said, adding that some even asked her to "return the body".

A sample of a shroud selling online.

For ages, death has been a taboo subject in Chinese culture and education. Parents barely talk about it, school curriculums provide rare discussion of it.

Xu Yi, the co-founder of Biian, has long wanted to make some revolutionary design changes to shrouds, which traditionally clothe dead bodies.

He told China Daily that no fashion designers have so far agreed to become involved .

"One designer said: 'If you got famous (from the new design of shrouds), I would die (meaning the designer would not get any work in the design field)'," Xi sighed.