GOVERNMENT OFFERS CASH FOR COLLARING FUNERAL STRIPPERS

The practice of hiring funeral strippers in rural China faces tighter curbs after the government announced cash rewards for people who report them to a special hotline. The ministry of culture said it was targeting “striptease” and other “obscene, pornographic, and vulgar performances” at funerals, weddings and traditional new year public gatherings. Authorities started clamping down on the practice in 2006 and began a second campaign in 2015. The latest is focused on 19 cities in the provinces of Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hebei, the ministry said. Communities in rural China reportedly believe such shows encourage bigger attendance at funerals to honour the dead and bring them good fortune. The media blamed it on increasing materialism as the country opens up to the West, while experts say the shows pay tribute to fertility. The Global Times reported that rural households were showing off their disposable incomes by hiring “actors, singers, comedians, and most recently strippers to comfort the bereaved and entertain the mourners”.