China is probably known to a lot of Westerners as the land of extremes. The same can be said for what foreigners think of other socialist countries like Cuba or North Korea. Who could forget China’s “one-child” policy back in the late ’70s? That move apparently produced a lot of problems for them at the turn of the millennium.
Now, China is yet again imposing another strict policy for its population. This time around, it’s the “zero burial” policy and is aimed at the dead instead of the living. Specifically, the policy prohibits people to bury their dead, urging the population to turn to cremation. This way, the country aims to save and conserve land.
As we are probably all aware, China is the most populated country in the world with 1.38 billion people and counting, hence they probably have millions of deaths each year. Due to the said policy, tons of coffins have since turned up being useless and had to be broken down and turned into furniture. Apparently, traders bought and sold them for very low prices because of their large numbers.
Some coffins in other cities and provinces in China were even smashed, seized, or exhumed since the official start of the “zero burial” policy is September– a few weeks from now. It was a predicament for some of the poor people who already bought the coffins since some of them spent their entire lives saving up to buy them. Meanwhile, some of the more traditional Chinese people were angered at the policy since it has been a long-standing tradition in their culture to be affectionate for the deceased.
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