2024-04-06 10:53:14
[New Tang Dynasty News, Beijing time, April 6, 2024]China’s economy is in recession, the unemployment rate is soaring, and it is difficult for young people to find jobs. Some young men and women studying broadcasting and acting have chosen to work in funeral parlors, which has attracted attention.
“Xiaoxiang Morning News” reported that a group of new employees wearing black uniforms came to Changsha Mingyangshan Funeral Home, all young faces born in the 1995s and 2000s.
Li Zhijie, a boy born in 1998, graduated from Guizhou Normal University majoring in broadcasting and hosting, and Peng Qiqi, a girl born in 2000, graduated from Tianjin Normal University majoring in performance. They had never known the funeral industry before.
On February 3 this year, the Changsha Funeral and Burial Affairs Center issued a recruitment announcement to recruit 27 staff including emcee, scrivener, etiquette, decoration and other positions.
“In the beginning, it was my elders who encouraged me to apply following seeing the job announcement, and my first reaction was that I was very surprised.” Peng Qiqi said that her grandfather, father and boyfriend all supported her, and she decided to give it a try.
Peng Qiqi, who successfully applied for the job, is engaged in a special profession – the master of ceremonies in the funeral parlor. Currently, she is learning how to conduct ceremonies with her master. The first farewell ceremony she saw was to bid farewell to a man who died of cancer.
She said that she had some hosting experience when she was in college, and she thought hosting was a job that would be easier for her to start. “Now I realize that what is more important to me is to learn how to take good care of the emotions of my family members and become familiar with the process of the ceremony more quickly.”
Li Zhijie is also from Hunan. He hopes to find a stable job and marry his girlfriend as soon as possible. Li Zhijie has been working for more than ten days. He believes that the work intensity and pressure of the master of ceremonies are easier than his previous job, and the salary is acceptable.
There are also professionals in funeral homes who specialize in sweeping funeral rites. Jining News reported that this Qingming Festival, Hou Fengzhu and Liao Wenwen received more than 30 orders to help pay homage to more than 30 deceased people.
Hou Fengzhu, a girl born in 1991, and Liao Wenwen, a boy born in 2001, both graduated from the modern funeral technology and management major of Changsha Civil Affairs University. They are now partners and work as mourners and sweepers in Anxian Garden.
Surrogate sweeping means that family members are unable to do the sweeping in person due to various reasons and ask professionals to help with the sweeping.
Hou Fengzhu went to Hangzhou to engage in funeral services in 2016, and started doing funeral sweeps in 2020. She feels that her work is becoming more and more accepted.
During the ceremony, the two people take turns, one person performs the ceremony and sweeps, and the other is nearby to help take photos and records. After the memorial scan, the photos taken will be sent to the family members via text message.
Both said that when they applied for the funeral industry, they were opposed by their families, and they were worried that this profession would be looked down upon and would make it difficult to find a partner.
According to the unemployment rate data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Communist Party of China in February this year, the unemployment rate of the 16 to 24-year-old labor force in urban areas nationwide, excluding school students, was 15.3%, an increase of 0.7% from January. Compared with other age groups, the unemployment rate among youth aged 16 to 24 remains relatively high.
However, experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party’s official data often conceals adverse situations, and the actual data may be worse.
Fang Chongyan, an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research Institute of Taiwan, told Radio Free Asia that the data released this year mainly excludes university and college students. Judging from this number, it is shrunk. The accuracy is questionable. Whether external comments reflect the overall unemployment situation of young people? The accuracy is questionable.
In July last year, Zhang Dandan, an associate professor at Peking University, stated in an article that if the approximately 16 million non-workers, such as those lying flat or living in poverty, were considered unemployed, the actual youth unemployment rate in March last year would have been as high as 46.5%.
(Comprehensive reporting by reporter Luo Tingting/Editor in charge: Wen Hui)
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