When government officials in Anqing, a city in China’s southern Anhui province, passed a new regulation ordering that coffin burials would be banned starting June 1 to save scarce land resources, 91-year-old Wu Zhengde decided to take matters into her own hands.
For many Chinese, the idea of a cremation goes against generations-old traditions of tomb burials. For Wu, the denial of a coffin burial meant denying a chance to follow her ancestors into the after-life.
She was so aggrieved by the prospect that this week, days before the ban was to take effect, she took her own life. Wu was among six aged Chinese who have taken the drastic step of committing suicide — all for the opportunity to have the tomb burial that they saw as part of the tradition, according to a report on Wednesday in the Beijing News.
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Local officials have denied the claims, saying the suicides were unrelated to the unpopular measure, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Scarce land Authorities say they have no choice but to move towards promoting cremations because increasingly scarce land cannot afford to be diverted to tombs.
In rural areas, however, family tombs are seen as an integral part of local culture. In some areas, authorities have even moved to demolish tombs to reclaim land, angering many local families.
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