China’s Ministry of Culture resumed its crackdown against funeral strippers

Beijing. February 22. Silkroadnews - China has taken another effort to combat striptease at a funeral, popular in rural areas, The Telegraph reported.
The Ministry of Culture said it was targeting “striptease” and other “obscene, pornographic, and vulgar performances” at funerals, weddings and traditional Chinese New Year public gatherings, the publication reads.
Chinese authorities started clamping down on funeral strippers in 2006. The second campaign against this phenomenon took place in 2015. It was mainly focused on 19 cities in four provinces: Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hebei.
Reports said, some communities in rural China believe the bigger attendances at funerals help bring more fortune to honor the dead.
With this some experts believe that erotic shows pay tribute to fertility.
“According to the interpretation of cultural anthropology, the fete is originated from the worship of reproduction. Therefore, the erotic performance at the funeral is just a cultural atavism,” the agency quoted media professor Kuang Haiyan saying.
The new campaign involves a monetary reward to those who reported on funeral striptease cases using a special “hotline”.
According to Chinese media, payment to actors, singers, comedians, strippers, etc. at the funeral at times exceeded the annual income of families of mourners.