Funeral strippers are exotic dancers, usually young women, who sing and dance and remove clothes at a funeral or in a procession to a funeral as a way to celebrate the life of the deceased and to attract mourners.
Funeral stripping originated and is most common in Taiwan but it is unknown how the tradition came to be.
Although, according to Metro, the unusual practice may have originated in the 1980s, when gangsters assumed control of the mortuary industry and offered strippers from their clubs to mourners at a respectfully discounted price.
Today, this is still popular in Taiwan and rural areas in the east of China where limited access to entertainment make funerals one of the few occasions locals can enjoy a little titillation.
The practice of funeral strippers, in fact, has its roots in Chinese custom and culture.
It is traditional for interments to be large-scale affairs, as having lots of people in attendance is thought to be a good portent for the newly deceased.
It also reflects their status and popularity and is a sign of honour. And if there is one thing guaranteed to draw people to your funeral, it’s strippers.
The celebration is an important part of this, especially for anyone old.
Their life is feted rather than mourned and a big, joyous funeral is intended to give the deceased a last hurrah before they shuffle off this mortal coil.
Families in rural areas customarily receive gifts and cash from the community to cover the costs, which often puts the grieving relatives under pressure to ensure all the guests are having a good time.
Once the official part of the funeral is over, strippers add cheer and lightness to proceedings.
They are also cited as being necessary to ‘appease wandering spirits’ – and herein lies the contradiction, given that the affront caused to moral and religious sensibilities formed the basis of a police crackdown on the custom in 2015.
In 2017, 50 pole dancers performed during the funeral procession of former Chiayi City county council speaker Tung Hsiang in Chiayi City, southern Taiwan causing huge traffic. It was said that the official before he died had told his family members to cause a stir with his funeral which they sure did.
Another theory is that the practice of funeral strippers is based on a “worship of reproduction” as a way to honor the deceased wishes to be “blessed with many children,” according to a report in BBC News quoting Huang Jianxing, a professor at Fujian Normal University.
However, the Chinese government has attempted to end this practice, deeming it offensive and obscene.
In some cases, authorities have meted out punishments to try to deter the activity, but not before a similar crackdown attempt 9 years earlier.
In a documentary titled ‘ Dancing For The Dead: Funeral Strippers In Taiwan, Marc L Moskowitz captures young women dressed in skimpy bikinis, bum-skimming skirts, and sky-high heels gyrating alongside caskets and atop Electric Flower Cars, which are now an industry in their own right.
These vehicles are ‘mobile stages that carry performers who sing, dance, bump, and grind as they accompany the dead during the last rites and in procession to the graveyard’.
As for the performances – the girls don’t hold back on the raunch.
Although Moskowitz’s film does not show nudity explicitly, he claimed ‘almost everyone’ he had spoken to reported seeing ‘full stripping’.
