The Chinese and ghosts

It's not exactly a Christmas-y topic, but this long recent article in The Guardian about modern China, funerals and fear of ghosts is an interesting read.    The author notes this:

In 2013, I began interviewing people who worked in China’s urban funerary sector and visited funeral homes and cemeteries in many Chinese cities, with a particular focus on Nanjing and Hong Kong. I found that funerary practice in urban China differed considerably from that in rural locales. In general, people in rural areas appeared less afraid of death, dead bodies and places of burial than people living in cities.

I was interested to read that the same tradition existed in China as Japan - that the deceased could be kept at home for a couple of days after death (now in refrigerated casket) while family visited and stayed overnight with them.   Nowadays, though, the room to keep the body company is a service often provided by funeral directors.   The article notes that in China urban residents in a nice new apartment block would be horrified if a family tried to do that in the building. 

There's also this:

Urban funerary professionals often told families how to counter the ghostly energy, considered “yin” in the yin/yang dichotomy, that permeates places like funeral homes and cemeteries. This yin energy can be countered with yang activities, including drinking warm, sugary liquids, going to places that brim with people, or performing a fire-stepping ritual. In Shanghai and other cities, places for stepping over fire are built into the exits of funeral homes.        

After observing a funeral in Nanjing, I watched a funeral professional light a small grass fire on a metal platform they had set up in the parking lot. The mourners all stepped over the fire before leaving to absorb yang energy and counter the yin that comes from spending time around the dead. I never saw such a ritual at a rural funeral.

 Huh.