Death has long been viewed as taboo and associated with bad luck in China. In Heze, Shandong Province, however, the coffin manufacturing industry has grown rapidly due to the abundant local supplies of lightweight timber.
Liu, 29, resigned in July 2023 due to exhaustion from job pressure, Personage magazine said. A chance interview later introduced her to the funeral services sector, an industry she had little experience in.
A business owner showed her around a local coffin factory and explained the full production process, from cutting and carving wood to assembly. She said workers there saw coffins as ordinary wooden products and some even use empty urns as storage containers at home.
She said the experience helped her gradually overcome her superstitions about coffins being “inauspicious.”
Coffins exported to Italy differ from the heavy, dark-colored models commonly used in China, the South China Morning Post said. They are lighter and feature religious carvings. In China, cremation typically involves only the body, while in Italy both the body and the coffin are cremated together.
The factory where Liu works exports about 40,000 coffins annually to Europe, mainly Italy, generating nearly 40 million yuan in revenue. Despite policy changes in the European Union and rising shipping costs, she said she was optimistic about the future of Heze’s coffin industry.
“People die every day, and everyone will eventually need a coffin,” Liu said.
Yang Lei, associate professor at the School of Sociology at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, told SCMP that the public is gradually approaching once-taboo subjects with a more rational mindset.
“The change could be seen as a ‘demystification’ of the perception of death,” he said.
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