By IPS Correspondents
BEIJING, Apr 21 1997 (IPS)

Even in death, China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping tried to set an example of a pragmatic-minded leader who would sacrifice tradition for the sake of reform.

By choosing cremation and having his ashes scattered over the sea instead of an elaborate, traditional burial, Deng was trying to carry through one of numerous reforms designed to transform China from a backward, feudal society into a modern and prosperous one.

Funerary reform in China started in the late 1950s, launched by Chinese communists to eradicate “undesirable feudal customs” such as traditional burial rites.

Such burials, denounced as an example of “old-fashioned thinking”, were banned in urban areas and cremation declared compulsory for city dwellers.

But cremation was widely ignored in the countryside, where people continued to believe that “burial brings peace” and arduously preserved the plots of land where the remains of their ancestors lay.

For rural folk and many Chinese, their ancestors’ burial sites provide a sense of roots and identity as well as the reassurance of the clan’s continuity. Some families even build tombs for three generations as a material symbol of patrilineal continuity.

So when Deng’s leadership in the early nineties tried to expand funerary reform into the countryside, China’s farmlands became a battleground between life and death: Officials wanted greater use of land for agriculture, while the number of cemeteries grew.

More and more land was being swallowed up by cemeteries that were springing up. Many luxurious tombs appeared to have funded by wealthy overseas Chinese, who wanted to be buried in the motherland.

For instance, a 1996 survey showed there are 513 cemeteries in the coastal city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, which is known for its long tradition of building extravagant tombs.

Some of these tombs cost their owners a small fortune, costing an average of 1,205 U.S. dollars to build and covering an area of hundreds of square metres each.

But as a country that feeds one-fifth of the world’s population on seven percent of its arable land, China is well aware that every scarce plot of land is invaluable. The new push for funerary reform in the 1990s was not only ideologically, but economically motivated, as well.

Civil authorities began issuing severe warnings to people who built cemeteries or sold burial plots on state lands. They called on provinces to get rid of cemeteries built without permission, pledginh to restrict luxurious tombs funded from overseas.

“The move is deemed essential to protect arable land which is badly needed for growing food,” says an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The government’s propaganda machine did not delay in its campaign to change burial practices and ardently promoted simplified cremation ceremonies, while charging corrupt officials for holding extravagant funerals.

Last year, several senior local officials were punished by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party for arranging “extravagant and superstitious funerals”.

In one case, finance and tax officials from Dehui city in Liaoning province spent more than 6,200 dollars, mostly public funds, to organise a grand funeral for their late boss.

Some 400 people attended the funeral using more than 100 cars, most of them public-owned. Commenting on the case, Xinhua News Agency called it “a phenomenon of serious corruption, which poisons the social mood and damage the image of the Party and government”.

As if to serve as counterpoint, Deng’s funeral in late February was a model of simplicity, without a procession or any other rituals.

In accordance with Deng’s wishes, some of his organs were donated to science, his remains were cremated and his ashes scattered in the sea days after he died February 19 from Parkinson’s disease.

But Deng’s example is unlikely to be followed voluntarily by too many people. “This is really courageous”, commented Xiao Wang, a Beijing rickshaw driver. “But I would never do the same.”

Though the ‘conflict’ between the dead and the alive is prominently featured in local media, which presents the dead as a threat to the living space of those still alive, majority of Chinese still favor the ancient traditions of burial.

To denounce age-old burial customs would mean to reject one of the most traditional festivals in Chinese calendar — the Tomb- Sweeping Day in early April. For centuries, this has been the day people go to visit their ancestors’ tombs.

Indeed, just as many people as in previous years trooped to cemeteries across China during this year’s Tomb-Sweeping Day, which fell on April 5.

For now, tradition seems to be more compelling than the inspiring example set by China’s late patriarch.

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