Chinese Government Cracks Down On Funeral Strippers

The Chinese government doesn't want any more strippers performing graveside.

In a statement released Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Culture said it will work with police to enforce a ban on hiring women to dance and strip during funeral processions, according to The Wall Street Journal's "China Real Time" blog.

The statement condemned several "obscene" incidents, including one earlier this year in Handan, in Heibei province, in which six women were hired to perform an erotic dance at a funeral attended by small children.

Obscenity laws in China already prohibit public nudity. But according to a National Geographic video, the decades-old tradition of hiring funeral dancers to draw onlookers persists, linked to a cultural belief that "respect for the dead is measured in crowd size." In parts of China, a large crowd at a funeral is seen as an omen of success in the afterlife.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/23/china-funeral-strippers-crackdown_n_7129272.html