In recent days, the villagers of Jinsha County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, have been staging continuous protests against the government’s mandatory cremation policy, sparking an “anti-cremation” movement.
According to a disclosure from X platform that monitors mainland China social events, with the support of the villagers, from September 6th to 10th, the villagers of Jinsha County successfully conducted three burials for the deceased.
Jinsha County is home to more than 30 ethnic minorities including Yi, Bai, Dai, and Zhuang people, making it a multi-ethnic county. About ten years ago, the local government started promoting cremation and prohibited villagers from conducting traditional burials. The villagers believe that cremation goes against tradition and imposes a heavy financial burden on them.
Recently, to protest against the authorities’ mandatory cremation policy, the villagers in the county launched an “anti-cremation” movement and held continuous protest gatherings for several days.
The incident began in August this year when a resident surnamed Hu in Baixi Village, Guihua Township, passed away, and the family decided to keep the body at home in protest against the cremation policy. Their action garnered support from fellow villagers, with over a thousand people gathering in the village to show solidarity with the Hu family, successfully conducting a traditional burial on September 6th.
The success of Baixi Village inspired the entire Jinsha County. On September 9th and 10th, over a thousand villagers from Hushuicun in Pingba Town and Shanggou in Shichang Town gathered twice to protest, successfully conducting burials for two deceased individuals.
Video footage shows that with the support of thousands of villagers, the family members of the deceased held traditional funeral rites and carried the coffins to the gravesite for burial, with villagers chanting slogans, creating a powerful scene.
Due to the large gathering of villagers, the local government did not respond to the villagers’ protest activities.
As reported previously, in January this year, in order to enforce cremation, the authorities in Anlong County, Guizhou Province, sent hundreds of armed police officers to violently confiscate the ashes of elderly people from villagers’ homes, resulting in all the angry Miao villagers capturing them. After an official apology, the police were released.
In August, the government of Anshun, Guizhou, also dispatched a team of over a hundred fully armed police officers and government officials to Yan Shang Village to seize the bodies of deceased villagers, leading to a fierce clash with protesting villagers. The police used batons to beat the villagers, while the villagers fought back with sticks, bricks, and ignited fireworks, eventually repelling the body-snatching team.