Mangesh Hattikudur
China bans lap dances at funerals?!
by Mangesh Hattikudur - August 25, 2006 - 9:40 AM

china_flag_large.bmpReuters is reporting that five people were arrested in Donghai, China on Wednesday for organizing stripteases at funerals. Police were clued in to the unusual activity after two groups of dancers gave “obscene performances” at a farmer’s memorial service. But why strippers? Far from simply putting the “fun” back in funerals, the disrobing actually served a specific purpose—to make sure that the deceased didn’t go off to his grave in Willy Loman-style.
As one villager put it, “Striptease used to be a common practice at funerals in Donghai’s rural areas to allure viewers. Local villagers believe that the more people who attend the funeral, the more the dead person is honored.” And apparently the tactics work. Until recently, the two troupes of strippers were regularly employed by wealthy families, with 200 people showing up to last week’s event.
Aside from arresting the 5 strippers, local officials have also sent warnings to funeral management and issued a notice that village officials must submit plans for memorial ceremonies within 12 hours of a villager’s death. Further, the government has set up a hotline for residents to report “funeral misdeeds” should they witness any more graveyard salaciousness.

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Comments (8)

  1. See what Communism does to a country? I’m glad I live in a free USA so I can have Asian strippers at my funeral.

    posted by Hairy Carrot on 8-25-2006 at 9:47 am

  2. Strippers! Brilliant! You know how people often wonder what it’d be like to witness their own funeral? Well, mine just got a whole lot better.

    posted by Bill T. on 8-25-2006 at 10:11 am

  3. We’ll totally take any refugee strippers. Plenty of room for strippers — no congressional action needed there.

    posted by David C. Casey on 8-25-2006 at 2:27 pm

  4. This is the second time I’ve popped over here to find that we’re blogging the same wierd news. I’m not sure how I feel about sharing your sense of humor….

    posted by punkinsmom on 8-25-2006 at 3:50 pm

  5. heh… well, you know what they say about great minds!

    posted by Mangesh on 8-25-2006 at 4:00 pm

  6. The only graphic is a ChiCom Flag? Humphh. Reuters used to have some good photojournalists.

    posted by The Damun on 8-30-2006 at 5:28 pm

  7. Damun, I’m sure there’s at least one unemployed Reuters photojournalist who’d be happy to put together a NSFW pic for you.

    posted by Mary on 8-30-2006 at 5:47 pm

  8. “funeral misdeeds” – that should read ‘funereal misdeeds’

    posted by 克莱夫 on 9-1-2008 at 3:22 pm

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