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Farewell to the dead
St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Happy Valley.(Penelope Yau)
By Winki Kwok
Death. This is a word that affects people in different ways. It brings relief to those suffering from terminal illnesses. It represents sadness for families of the deceased.
Every year, during the Ching Ming Festival on April 5, the Chinese visit the graves of their loved ones and perform customary rituals such as grave-sweeping, cleaning of the headstones and burning incense.
During the rest of the year, however, talk of the dead — or funerals — is avoided. The Chinese believe that it is inauspicious to talk about funerals.
According to recent statistics from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, there are seven funeral parlors and 82 funeral suppliers, or “coffin shops”, in Hong Kong.
Since the ’70s, funeral businesses have not been allowed to operate in newly constructed buildings. Therefore, funeral parlors and coffin shops are located in old areas in Hong Kong — for example, in Hung Hom and Diamond Hill.
Nowadays, funeral businesses provide all-in-one services, from applying for death certificates to offering meals, or ying hung yin, after funeral rites.
Said Ng Yiu Tong, dean of the Hong Kong Funeral Business Association: “In the past, different funeral shops had different responsibilities. Nowadays, people pay one shop and receive all the services.”
Funeral companies have had to modernize themselves to survive in this demanding and competitive market.
Kenneth Leung is a manager of Leung Chun Woon Kee Company, a funeral service consulting company with a history of over 100 years.
He said, “In my father’s generation, we used calligraphy brushes to do bookkeeping. Now, we use computers to record transactions.
“If clients cannot visit our company personally, they can contact us by visual telephone.
“We can also give PowerPoint presentations in their offices to introduce our services and show them how a funeral is organised.”
Funerals have also become more innovative. In 1997, space funerals became the buzzword when Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s and Harvard professor Timothy Leary’s ashes were launched into space along with the ashes of 22 other space enthusiasts.
Here in Hong Kong, some companies are using such tactics to attract customers.
Po Fuk Hill in Sha Tin started offering space funerals in 2000. In space funerals, a portion of a deceased’s cremated remains is put into a capsule and launched into space.
The capsule travels in space for several weeks until it disintegrates, and during this time, the capsule can be seen from earth at night. The cost of a space funeral at Po Fook Hill ranges from $46,800 to $54,600.
Besides space funerals, Po Fuk Hill emphasizes its modern management and hotel-like facilities. Cremation at Po Fuk Hill costs from $30,000 to $100,000.
However, funeral services do not come cheap, and some unethical companies take advantage of their clients during their mourning period.
Mr. Leung said he heard of a case in which a company doubled their price to cheat some customers.
“Many people do not know much about funeral services. Some dishonest companies make use of this to charge their clients unreasonable prices.
“People will only realize they have been cheated if they compare prices with other companies. However, most of them are not in the mood to do these things.”
There is no standard charge for funeral services, said Mr. Ng, because services provided by different companies vary.
At Leung Chun Woon Kee, burials cost about $300,000. Cremations cost from $70,000 to $80,000.
According to Mr. Ng, more than 90 percent of the deceased are cremated.
“This is because the government has not provided land for building new cemeteries in the past 10 years. The supply of cemeteries cannot meet the demand.
“Because burials are so expensive, people are also discouraged from choosing this method.”
Apart from the high burial fees, families also have to pay for graves in the cemeteries. A permanent grave costs $280,000, and a non-permanent grave costs $21,600.
“Moreover, cremations are much simpler,” added Mr. Ng. “Therefore they are more popular.”
Despite their popularity, Mr. Ng said, there are also problems within the cremation system in Hong Kong.
“Every day about 100 people die in Hong Kong. But the existing crematoriums can only handle a maximum of 80 corpses a day. So it takes at least 15 days before a corpse is cremated.”
After cremation, ashes can be kept in any of the 12 crematoriums in Hong Kong.
Since death is something that is inevitable, the funeral business enjoys a rather stable sales volume. However, it still faces certain difficulties.
Said Mr. Ng: “We are worried that if redevelopment occurs in old urban areas, some funeral shops will have nowhere to continue their business.”
Getting people to work in the funeral business is another problem.
According to Mr. Ng, there are about 5,000 morticians in Hong Kong. But the industry is facing the problem of attracting new blood to the workforce. Most employees working in the business are found through personal networks.
“There are two criteria for employing someone,” said Mr. Ng.
“Firstly, they should have enough courage to face corpses for a long time. Secondly, they should be able to accept a job that has no holidays and no friends.”
Mr. Ng said that, unlike the Mainland or Japan, Hong Kong does not have schools for morticians.
“Funeral businesses practise apprenticeships, which means novices follow masters and learn from them.
“It is difficult to organize formal training for morticians. The main reason is that, even though some people are willing to pay the high school fees, we will not be able to guarantee them a job after graduation,” said Mr. Ng.
Mr. Ng said he knows people who are interested in becoming embalmers.
However, each funeral parlor only needs embalmer.
“You cannot get the job unless the original one leaves or dies,” he said.