A package of offerings featuring a model of the iPhone6S sells for 10 yuan ($1.6). (Photo: China Daily/Zou Zhongpin)
A Beijing undertaker is offering China's first space burial service, with the cheapest package starting at 5,600 yuan ($896.4).
The most expensive, at 75,000 yuan ($12,000), will "launch the ashes on a voyage through deepest space on a permanent celestial journey."
Offerings represent modern tastes
Although the cheapest deal costs no more than the popular iPhone 6S, Biian has not had a single client since being authorized two years ago by Celestis Inc. which introduced memorial spaceflights in 1997.|
Xu Yi, one of the founders of Biian - which literally means "the other shore" - said many enquiries came from retirees who formerly worked in the aeronautical and space technology industries, "who wish to rest in space", but that no firm reservations have been made.
He thinks opposition from family members made the pensioners give up on the idea. "Chinese traditionally want to keep the ashes and not be separated from them," Xu said.
People with traditional thoughts usually reject the idea of giving up the ashes of their loved ones but this has inspired some innovative companies which turn ashes into diamonds.
Since October last year, Biian has tailor-made more than 100 diamonds from ashes. Xu Yi said his company has even had enquiries from college students. "They called to ask about the price and procedure," Xu explained.
"They were not asking for their family, but for themselves," he said. "It might be too early to talk about issues after death, but it shows the changing attitudes among young people."
Although iPhone7 and Samsung Galaxy Note6 have not been launched yet, their paper models are already available in Guangzhou for the deceased.
A package of Apple's products, including an iPad, iPhone6S, earphones and a charger, sells for 10 yuan ($1.6) at a store that specializes on offerings for the deceased on Chaoxing Street in Guangzhou.
Wireless services are provided by "Underworld Communications Corp".
Huang, a store owner on Guangxiao Road in Guangzhou, is seeing robust sales of new products, often favored more by younger customers.
Older buyers prefer the more traditional incense and candles, she said, adding each of her customers is spending about 200 yuan on average.
Confronting outdated perceptions
Despite new trends there are still some who believe a decent and expensive cemetery is a necessity. Otherwise, they would probably be regarded as unfilial.
A woman has had to move three times in the past six years to avoid neighbors' harsh words because she agreed to her parents' bodies being used for organ donations, even though her parents' had willed it.
"Neighbors and relatives asked me if I didn't have enough money to afford a decent burial for my father," Zhou Wenting said, adding that some even asked her to "return the body".
For ages, death has been a taboo subject in Chinese culture and education. Parents barely talk about it, school curriculums provide rare discussion of it.
Xu Yi, the co-founder of Biian, has long wanted to make some revolutionary design changes to shrouds, which traditionally clothe dead bodies.
He told China Daily that no fashion designers have so far agreed to become involved .
"One designer said: 'If you got famous (from the new design of shrouds), I would die (meaning the designer would not get any work in the design field)'," Xi sighed.
