Coffin makers in northern Shaanxi province are busy. We watched the skilled artisans as they carved elaborate decorations from the freshly cut wood. In recent months, he says, he hasn’t had time to stop.
A villager, a customer, told us that sometimes the coffins are sold out. Laughing with a dose of the black humor you find in the area, he added that those in the funeral industry were “making a little money”.
There has been much debate about the actual death toll from Covid in China, after the virus spread through its major cities.
About 80 percent of the population — more than a billion people — have been infected since China lifted restrictions in December, according to Wu Zunyu, a leading epidemiologist. Late last week, China reported 13,000 Covid-related deaths in less than a week, bringing the death toll to 60,000 since December.
But these deaths happened in hospitals. Only medical facilities are less in rural areas and most of the deaths at home are not being counted.
There is no official estimate of the number of deaths in the village. But JEE News found evidence of a remarkable, rising death toll.
We visited a crematorium and they were busy too, mourners dressed in white carrying the ceremonial casket that would eventually contain the remains of a loved one.
In another village, we saw a man and woman loading huge tissue paper birds into the back of a flatbed truck. “They are cranes,” said the woman.
As he packed up other elaborate, newly made Buddhist images from tissue paper, he said there would be an explosion in demand for his funeral decorations, two or three times more than usual.
People we met in this part of Shaanxi who are connected to the funeral industry told us a similar story about the increase in deaths, and they all attributed it to the coronavirus.
“Some of the sick people are already very weak,” a man said as he loaded the truck. “Then they get Covid, and their old bodies can’t handle it.”
We followed the truck to where the artworks were being delivered and met Wang Peui, whose brother-in-law had just died.
The mother of two, in her 50s, had been suffering from severe diabetes for years and then succumbed to the coronavirus.
“After contracting Covid, he developed a high fever, and his organs began to fail. His immune system was not strong enough to make it,” said Mr Wang.
The courtyard of the family home was filled with festive decorations. Mr. Wang told us that more photos, flowers and such are to come.
Standing in front of a tent in the courtyard where his body was draped, he explained that on the day of the funeral, 16 people would carry his coffin and bury him according to tradition.
He said that although the cost of funeral arrangements had skyrocketed due to the deaths due to Covid, he would pay extra in his honour.
“She was a great person. We should organize a grand send-off, the best we can afford,” he said.
Every year, millions of young people return to their homelands to celebrate the Lunar New Year at this time. It is the most important festival in China.
The villages they are going back to are now places where mostly elderly people live – people who are most vulnerable to Covid.
