One of the most honoured traditions of Chinese, reverence for one’s ancestors and tending of the family cemetery is going the way of so many old customs. But not if the people try and stand firm. However, there is no question that farm land is in short supply and so some new solution needs to be found. Is nothing sacred in China?
SCMP: “A city in central Henan province says it will push ahead with grave demolitions after the levelling of millions of tombs sparked outrage.
Two million tombs in Zhoukou, one of the oldest cities on the mainland, have been removed over the past few months under a new provincial government policy to make more land available for agriculture.
A spokesman from the city’s civil affairs bureau, which is in charge of the grave demolitions, said the city government had no intention of halting the campaign, even though the State Council last Friday struck out a clause from regulations that allowed for forced demolition of grave sites.
“We are still clearing graves for farmland and we will definitely continue doing that,” he said. The spokesman said the State Council announcement only meant the civil affairs bureau had no right to carry out compulsory demolitions. “The courts and the police bureau will instead take responsibility for execution,” he said.
The revised version of the funeral and interment control regulation removed a sentence in Article 20 that allowed for forced demolitions.
The amendment, which will come into effect next year, came after an online petition campaign by a group of scholars and thousands of people from Henan.
State-run Xinhua released a report earlier this month praising the demolition project. A Henan reporter said mainland media ignored the petition, launched days before the Communist Party’s 18th national congress.
Jia Guoyong, a playwright originally from Zhoukou, said the new regulation would not stop the demolitions. He said he was shocked to the core when he returned to his hometown at the end of last month.
“I felt I lost my soul,” he said, describing an atmosphere like “the end of the world”, with people crying as tractors demolished graves and buckets of bones spilled everywhere.
An official document released at the start of this year said the province would make cremation compulsory within three years.”
via Henan city refuses to stop clearance of graves to make farmland | South China Morning Post.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 
Leave a comment