The authorities in the Chinese province of Jiangxi are pushing for people to favour cremation over the traditional burial to reach a target of having all dead be cremated by Sept 1
The aim according burial reform is to reduce the space needed for graveyards and to discourage people from spending excessive amounts on ornate coffins,.
Jiangxi, however, took a rather heavy-handed approach by collecting all of the coffins in the region, including those already bought and paid for, the authorities set about destroying them.
Family members and the coffin’s planned future occupants were devastated after having saved for years to afford the hand-crafted caskets.
Report by the asiancorrespondent.com said the burial process is steeped in tradition in China and convincing people to forego these rites can be difficult.
Authorities have been trying for decades to move people away from ground burials as China’s population boomed to now 1.4 billion.
