The Singapore River Festival (Photo : Getty Images)
While China’s Ministry of Culture has banned the hiring of female strippers during funerals, in Taiwan, the practice continues. On Tuesday, Jan. 3, the funeral procession for Taiwanese politician Tung Hsiang included 50 strippers pole dancing on top of vehicles.
The 50 women in their underwear and loud pop music attracted big crowds on Chiayi County while Tung Hsiang’s funeral parade passed. Tung Hsiang’s son, who organized the funeral, said he got strippers because his father, the speaker of the Chiayi County Council, “enjoyed a buzz,” What’s on Weibo reported.
EFC Industry
He hoped that the inclusion of pole dancers in the funeral procession would be a happy departure for his father. Because of the prevalence of the practice in Taiwan, there is an Electric Flower Cars industry which rents out vehicles that carry performers who dance, grind, sing and bump during the funeral procession.
Having strippers in a funeral in Taiwan is seen as an indicator of the deceased’s financial status. About one-third of the 2,000 funerals across Taiwan weekly have strippers.
China Bans Practice
In China, the practice was common in rural areas such as Hebei and Jiangsu Provinces. According to a CCTV report, in 2006, performing groups have about 20 dancing gigs monthly. They were then paid $322 per show.
In late April 2015, China banned strip dancers for funerals. Earlier that year, a funeral in Handan, Hebei Province, featured six female strippers who performed erotic dance at the funeral where there were small children. The tradition, which is decades-old, is based on a Chinese cultural belief that “respect for the dead is measured in crowd size,” Huffington Post reported.
