When there is barely room for the living, where do the dead rest? Cemetery space in Hong Kong is few and far between, but public cemeteries do exist around the city. Although they offer no final peace.
In regards to public burial, the Hong Kong Food and Environment Hygiene Department Web site explains: “Burials in aforesaid public cemeteries are not permanent, but exhumable. Every year, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will issue an exhumation order in the Government Gazette, requiring the removal from graves of all human remains which have been interred in the aforesaid public cemeteries for more than six years. If the remains are not exhumed after expiry of the exhumation order, the Government will disinter the remains, cremate them, and re-inter the ashes in the Communal Grave at Sandy Ridge Cemetery. However, one can arrange, through an undertaker, to have the remains exhumed, and either cremated, or reburied in an urn grave in the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery.”
Sounds harsh, but the practice follows traditional Cantonese burial custom. B. D. Wilson explains the relationship in his article titled “Burial Customs in Hong Kong:”
After the initial burial, “remains are normally fit for exhumation after a minimum of five years of burial (…) In Chinese public cemeteries, the same principle of exhumation is practiced.”
Wilson notes that he is an amateur in the field of local burial rites. Still, he outlines many interesting tidbits about local burial practices. If interested, I recommend reading the brief article.
He mentions that white is the traditional mourning color - a marked contrast to the black clothes associated with funerals in Western culture (although Joyce says that a small black cloth - or white flower clip - is worn as tribute during and after the funeral). Loud firecrackers and gong banging - normally celebratory - could be common at the event to call the spirit to the burial. A pile of trousers might be placed on the coffins of the deceased (man or woman). Wilson writes that the practice is based on a Cantonese pun. The word for “trousers” in Cantonese sounds like “riches.” Neither Joyce nor her mother has heard of this one, though. But Mrs. Choi says it is common to throw rice or soil to symbolize riches.
The Hong Kong Food and Environment Hygiene Department explains protocol for importing bodies to mainland China. Wilson’s article explains why this is important: “The deceased is considered to be in a better position to watch over his earthly descendants if buried close to his native place, where it is also, of course, easier for his family to pay their respects to him. This has led to the practice of conveying the deceased back to the place in China whence he came and interring him in a traditional burial ground.”
Hillside burials aren’t too common in my native Nebraska, and on the plains of the Midwestern U.S., but in Hong Kong and China, they are much desired. Wilson explains that “commanding a view of water, and on a ridge or spur which represents, for instance, a dragon, snake, shrimp or crab in its formation,” is ideal for burial. Feng Shui is a big factor, but also that the sloped terrain is not practical for construction.
The Chinese Christian Cemetery follows suit with a commanding view of the ocean. The hillside is adorned with Christian and Chinese imagery, such as the Chinese lions guarding crucifixes.
After leaving the cemetery, I wander through the Western District, and I pass a mass of shops specializing in incense and burnable paper replicas of everyday products (from miniature homes to cell phones to cigarettes to dim sum). These shops are present on the edge of Mong Kok, around Causeway Bay and all over Hong Kong.
Joyce says that the paper products can be burned, along with paper money and folded gold paper, to respect the dead. People believe, by burning, the spirits from the other world will receive the gifts. However, she says there is a duality to the concept; at home or when visiting the grave, you often bring fresh items like crispy pork or fruit. As a child, she asked a relative about the idea, “Why don’t you burn the fruit or pork too?” The response was, “The spirits come to lick and sniff the food. That's how ghosts eat. Then, they're full.” Then, “it’s basically like a picnic for the family,” she says.
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