China and Coffins

Earlier on this blog, I discussed how Chinese manufacturers are gaining ground in the United States coffin market.  Although they entered the market only three years ago, they already have about 2% of the market and are starting to worry the domestic funeral industry.  The made in China caskets are typically 25% cheaper than those produced in the United States. The markup on domestic caskets may be as high as 600%! 

It is interesting to note that the selling of coffins within China is against Chinese policy.  As explained in Keith Bradsher, More Than a Billion Chinese but So Few Coffins, NY Times, Nov. 10, 2005,

The ban on coffins shows that when the Chinese government really tries to enforce regulations, it can still effectively do so. The suppression of coffin sales and the requirement that the dead must be cremated instead of buried began soon after the Communist takeover in 1949; it was aimed in part at preventing ostentatious funerals and preserving land for other uses.  * * *

Few tasks in any society are as sacred as the disposal of the dead, and that is even more true in a society with traditions of ancestor worship and Confucian respect for parents. So despite the general ban, the tradition remains alive, if only barely. A few cedar coffins are still being made, almost entirely by hand, in backyard workshops in places like Liudao, a tiny village nearly two hours’ drive from Liuzhou.

Craftsmen there follow techniques handed down over hundreds of years, but even in Liudao, burials are strictly prohibited. They are allowed only in remote parts of China.