Working at a funeral parlour

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By Pan Haixia, Shanghai Star. 2002-03-28

Attracted by the semblance of likeness to angels in white, a woman made an awesome decision

Zong remembers dealing with 120 bodies on her busiest day last year.

Zong Lei, 24, a cosmetician with Longhua Funeral Home, applies cosmetics to one of the deceased.

AFTER watching television dramas depict women as shrieking at the sight of a dead body, it is difficult to imagine any woman choosing to work in a funeral parlour.

Yet at Longhua Funeral Home, a group of young female university graduates engage in the special trade of funeral parlour cosmetician.

Zong Lei is one of them. After graduating from Beijing Civil Affairs University, the only university in China offering a programme in funeral cosmetology, Zong with her excellent university record won the opportunity to work at Longhua, one of the most famous funeral homes in China.

The job of funeral parlour cosmeticians involves dressing the deceased and then applying cosmetics.

"During my studies, I saw all kinds of frightful faces of the deceased in my textbooks - some of which were even smashed out of shape," Zong said.

So it did not take Zong long to get over her fear of real dead bodies. Yet there is something the textbooks understated.

"I didn't expect dead bodies would have such a strong smell, especially those that have started to decay. Something that happens if the body is not sent to the funeral home for several days," Zong said.

Liquid from the body

When changing clothes for the deceased, the liquid inside the body may also pour from the mouth as the body is being turned over, frequently running into the cosmetician's hands.

"We never wear gloves when changing clothes as it makes it difficult to button up the deceased's clothing," Zong said.

"At the beginning, I even vomited at the sight of the liquid, and completely lost my appetite. But now I'm gradually getting accustomed to it."

Zong once cherished a dream of being an angel in white, which in Chinese means becoming a nurse or doctor. After failing to get accepted into medical school, Zong chose her current job, which in her eyes "bears a certain resemblance to the angel in white", as both occupations deal with human bodies.

Usually it is during the most extreme weather conditions that the funeral parlour receives the highest number of bodies. Zong remembers dealing with 120 bodies on her busiest day last year.

Applying cosmetics to the dead can be a very tough job.

The first step is to wash the face of the dead person; second involves giving the body a simple face lift, for example helping to close the eyes and mouth; third involves applying cosmetics. Usually one team of four people handle each body.

As it is the last time that friends and relatives will see their beloved, the demands placed on cosmeticians is all the more tough.

Some may want lighter cosmetics, while some prefer heavier. Often funeral cosmeticians will find themselves doing the job over and over.

"These difficulties are not important as long as our work satisfies the families," Zong said.

"The best reward for us is to hear from loved ones that the deceased looks like they are sleeping."

Prejudice

Apart from pressures of the work, people choosing this profession must also deal with society's prejudice.

"Yet compared with the older generations of funeral home cosmeticians, we are lucky," is something Zong likes to say.

During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), those who were categorized as the "bad rightists" would be sent to work as funeral cosmeticians.

Although in recent years, people's prejudice has seen a reduction, "we sometimes still feel despised when telling others about our job," Zong said, eyes dropping.

"It seems that our devotion to society hasn't got its due respect."

It is also what the funeral home worries about most.

"Although the girls don't think their job is low, society's prejudice may have a negative effect on their enthusiasm," Bian Jinghua, a deputy chief of the funeral home, said.

Many people have the wrong idea about the salary of those who work in funeral homes, thinking mistakenly that these people receive high pay, and choose the work accordingly. "But in fact, the government's must subsidize these workers as the pay is very low," Bian said.