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Ritual gives way to precautions as China mourns Covid-19 victims

Inkstone

發布於 2020年04月03日16:04
A photo released by Xinhua News Agency shows a cemetery worker in a protective suit makes an offering at a grave site in the Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing on March 28.
A photo released by Xinhua News Agency shows a cemetery worker in a protective suit makes an offering at a grave site in the Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing on March 28.

Kyle Hui never got to see his mother one last time.

He had planned to travel from Shanghai back to Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus outbreak was first reported, for the Lunar New Year holiday, a time for family reunions. But his mother fell ill before he arrived.

She had symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, but test kits were not readily available at the time.

Hui's older brother saw the last glimpse of their mother through a glass door as she was being wheeled into an isolation ward on January 11.

A few days later, she was wheeled out wrapped in a yellow body bag that the family was forbidden to open because of infection concerns.

Her burial arrangements were hurried. A funeral home picked up the body and cremated it. The same day, the family took the ashes to a local cemetery where the remains were buried instantly and without a ceremony.

"What we did was extremely irregular," Hui said. "Normally in Wuhan, we would hold a memorial service in the morning for family and friends to say goodbye to the deceased, before cremating the body. After the ashes are buried, the family usually hosts a luncheon, then it's considered complete."

A man carries a box containing the ashes of a deceased next to a funeral house in Wuhan on April 1.
A man carries a box containing the ashes of a deceased next to a funeral house in Wuhan on April 1.

The burial happened so quickly there was no time to prepare a tombstone. Today, a black-and-white picture of Hui's mother leans against a bare stone plate that her family has decorated with incense, fruit and flower petals.

The coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than a million people around the world, has forced families like Hui's to make do with such burial arrangements, leaving them little time to say proper goodbyes to the deceased.

Traditionally, people across China visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects on the Ching Ming, or Qing Ming, festival, known as the tomb-sweeping day, which falls on Saturday this year.

However, strict rules restricting people's movement to prevent the spread of the virus are still in place, even as the Chinese government has declared April 4 a national day of mourning for those who died in the coronavirus pandemic.

These restrictions include the closure of public spaces such as cemeteries.

According to a February notice by China's National Health Commission, bodies of those who died from Covid-19 needed to be disinfected and sent for cremation immediately.

The bodies were to be picked up by funeral homes closest to the hospital and travel through designated roads. All bodies would be cremated and there would be no burials, no funerals and no transporting to other cities. Bodies could not be stored, and body bags could not be opened.

Thousands of Wuhan residents queued to collect the ashes of loved ones from funeral parlours after the government reopened them for families on March 23, reports Tim Wang, 41, on Weibo.
Thousands of Wuhan residents queued to collect the ashes of loved ones from funeral parlours after the government reopened them for families on March 23, reports Tim Wang, 41, on Weibo.

Picking up the ashes of relatives has also proven difficult. Last week, photos circulating on Chinese social media showed crowds of people " some wrapped up in protective gear from head to toe " lining up at local funeral homes, waiting to pick up the ashes of their loved ones.

Chen Huishan's family saw the pictures and decided to wait a few days before picking up the ashes of her father-in-law, Yang Wanzhou.

Yang, 72, was infected with the virus at Wuhan Central Hospital. He went there every week to pick up medicine for Parkinson's disease, which he suffered from for more than 10 years.

He became ill quickly but could not be admitted to the hospital because of a bed shortage. For a week he went to the hospital and stood in line for hours at a time to get injections for the symptoms.

On January 23, his health took a turn for the worse. The family made a dozen phone calls for an ambulance but they were all too busy to pick Yang up. He died the following morning, on Lunar New Year's Eve.

The family called a funeral home and spent the evening of the New Year holiday there. Yang's body was cremated immediately.

Local community workers came to the family's door a few days ago, telling them a car would be sent for families to retrieve a loved one's ashes. Otherwise, people are still restricted from free movement in Wuhan.

"Community workers will go with us to the burial and supervise that there are no funerals," Chen said. "But it's understandable. It's to prevent large cross-infections."

A few of her friends who had lost relatives in the outbreak received 3,000 yuan ($422) from the local government as compensation.

Funeral home workers remove the body of a person suspected to have died from the coronavirus in Wuhan on February 1.
Funeral home workers remove the body of a person suspected to have died from the coronavirus in Wuhan on February 1.

In early February, when the outbreak was at its peak in Wuhan, many funeral homes were appealing online for donations of protection gear, rubbing alcohol, goggles and body bags.

They were short-staffed and had to work through the night to take care of the deceased.

The process left little time for the families to mourn or adjust. Some were stressed and feared getting sick themselves.

After Yang died, Chen's family was on extreme edge about possible signs of illness. Chen and her husband, who had visited Wuhan Central Hospital with Yang, said they were scared when they started feeling pain in their lungs and short of breath.

Her mother had had a fever and put herself in isolation, while taking medicine. "I was so scared in February I lost 5kg (11 pounds)," Chen said.

They also saw other family members become ill. Chen's aunt had an accelerated heartbeat and the hospital treated it as heart disease before noticing lung infections on a CAT scan. She is being treated for Covid-19.

According to a Wuhan government notice last week, all cemeteries in the city will remain closed until April 30. For the Ching Ming festival, families can make bookings for cemetery staff to sweep the tomb for them.

Cemeteries have also started offering online services. Users can click on "offerings" to decorate the tomb image on the page with fruits, flowers and incense. They can also write the names of the deceased on the tomb and leave messages.

A photo released by Xinhua News Agency shows cemetery workers cleaning tombs at the Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing on March 28.
A photo released by Xinhua News Agency shows cemetery workers cleaning tombs at the Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing on March 28.

Darren Chen, a man in the southern city of Shenzhen whose mother died in Wuhan in January, said he would only mourn online, in accordance with what the government wanted.

For him, personal closure would only happen when his mother was recognized as a Covid-19 victim.

"The cause of death on the certificate is only 'pneumonia,'" he said. "That's not giving the deceased justice, that's irresponsible diagnosis. As long as that stays unchanged, this will never be over."

His cousin, Shang Manqing, said he found a friend to help hang prayer flags around the holy lake of Namtso in Tibet as soon as restrictions were lifted, as a way to mourn.

"It's for the deceased. For our loved ones, for strangers, and for our city," Shang said.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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