MCLC: Five Years in the Crematorium

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Five Years in the Crematorium
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Source: China Daily (8/13/14):
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2014-08/13/content_18299846.htm

Death on his hands

A former crematory operator talks of life and love in his unusual career,
Xing Yi reports.

It was a job that required facing death every day. A job that felt creepy
at times. A job that paid little. But former crematory operator Li
Nansheng tried to make the most of it, and he explores the meaning of
death and life in his fiction My Five Years of Working in the Crematorium.
Li, 36, seemed to be destined for the job. Both of his parents were
specialized musicians who performed at traditional funerals; they not only
sang funeral songs and incantations, but also performed religious rituals.
His wife is a mortuary makeup artist. Li himself was born during a funeral
session.

"When I was born, my ears were filled with music," Li says. "The first
sound I heard was a dirge."

His first name "Nansheng", given by Li's father, literally means "birth
during the incantations". When Li decided to take the job at a crematorium
in 2004, his parents readily agreed. It is no easy job, as it requires
being physically and mentally strong. "To learn how to operate the
crematory is one thing," he says. "But to overcome fear is another thing."

Every day, Li had to deal with corpses, and sometimes he would have to
fetch a corpse as late as midnight.

In his book, Li recounts many stories that were inspired by mysterious
cases he encountered in his work. Some of them have scientific
explanations while the reason for other "strange" happenings remains a
mystery.

Occasionally, Li felt prejudice and discrimination. Many Chinese people
think that working in this area brings "bad luck", which makes it
difficult for people like Li to find love.

Most of the practitioners usually marry their colleagues, and so did Li.
His wife used to work in the mortuary makeup department at the same
crematorium.

"The marriages among people in this trade are mostly blessed," he says.
"We have seen too many departures between life and death, and learned to
cherish each other."

Li started posting his fictional stories on an online forum tianya.cn in
2011, and soon received enthusiastic responses - millions of clicks and
thousands of replies.

"At first, I wrote my stories about the crematory house just to kill
time," Li recalls. "Then many readers asked me to write more, so the short
stories ended up as a novel."

Li has now quit the job and become a businessman; writing is his part-time
hobby. His first book was done without a plan in advance, and Li doesn't
have the next one fixed in his mind. "Maybe the next book will also come
up in a way I never expected," he says.

His book was published in Chinese in 2012 and sold more than 10,000 copies.

Sharing thoughts on life and experiences with the dead, Li's novel has
thrilled some readers while touching their hearts. One reader told Li that
he once had thoughts of committing suicide but changed his mind after
reading Li's posts online. "He said he realized the value of life, joking
that he didn't want to see me that early," Li adds.

Contact the writer at xingyi at chinadaily.com.cn