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The Chinese beliefs on death and dying will be discussed for this post. Traditional Chinese beliefs death and dying stem from religious beliefs of the three most dominant religions – Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (Fersko-Weiss, 2017). People of the Confucianism religion believe that if a person lives a moral life then there should be no fear of death as the person will arrive in heaven after dying (Fersko-Weiss, 2017). People of the Taoism religion believe that life is a illusion and death is a awakening and that if a person follows the path of Tao, mediates daily and lives a moral life then they will be granted immortality (Fersko-Weiss, 2017). Additionally, Chinese place a high importance of taking care of parents and elders, so it is not uncommon for the Chinese to try everything in their power to save a parent or elder. Many older Chinese believe dying at home will bring bad luck and if a person does die at home there are certain rituals, such as burning clothing of the deceased, repainting walls, discarding all possessions of the deceased, that will be implemented to cleanse the home of any lingering bad spirits (Fersko-Weiss, 2017).

Other interesting facts are quoted here  “Symbolic paper money is often burned at a funeral to make sure the deceased will be financially taken care of in the next life. Paper money is also thrown at funerals to keep hungry ghosts away who may be attracted by the dead and can bring illness and mischief to the living. If a wake occurs in the home of the deceased, all the mirrors will be covered, because seeing a reflection of the casket may cause a death soon in the family of the person who saw the reflection. Wreaths, photos, and gifts will be placed at the head of the casket; food will be placed in front of the casket as an offering. The person’s comb is broken, half placed in the casket to be buried with the person and the other half kept by the family. Rice may be spread around the house to lead the hungry ghosts outside away from the family. (Fersko-Weiss, 2017).  In accordance with Confucianism, it is considered to be taboo to discuss death. Current Chinese laws do not allow assisted suicide and in conjunction with the taboo of talking about death makes it near impossible to even broach the idea of assisted suicide (Chen, Huang, Yi, Deng, Liu, Zhang, Wang, Zhang,  Jiang, 2016).

Chen, H. P., Huang, B. Y., Yi, T. W., Deng, Y. T., Liu, J., Zhang, J., Wang, Y. Q., Zhang, Z. Y.,

Jiang, Y. (2016). Attitudes of Chinese Oncology Physicians Toward Death with

Dignity. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4982948/

Fersko-Weiss, H. (2017). The Chinese Approach to Death and Dying. INELDA. Retrieved

From https://www.inelda.org/the-chinese-approach-to-death-and-dying/