China Cracks Down on Funeral Strippers

Surely, by now, we’re all used to hearing stories about how Chinese culture is more advanced than American culture. I’ll admit, I have not been to many funerals in my life, but whenever I’ve gone to one, there was never a stripper there. This does NOT sound like something that America should be behind on.

Fortunately, China’s Ministry of Culture is trying to put a stop to the thriving funeral stripper business, because, according to their report on the matter, “such illegal business activities disrupt the rural cultural market order, ruining the social atmosphere.” Maybe if we start this tradition now, we can eventually move ahead of China in something.

The Ministry of Culture is taking this pretty seriously. In one incident cited in their investigation, six performers had arrived to offer an erotic dance at the funeral. The person in charge of the “Red Rose Dance Troupe” was detained for 15 days and fined 70,000 yuan (about $11,300) because the performance violated public security regulations.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “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.” That sounds like some pretty good fortune for those in the current life who happened to be in attendance.

Plenty of people have special requests for their funerals. Usually it’s a specific song that had a significant meaning to the deceased. But if that special song is “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” how are you not supposed to have strippers at your funeral?