Grieving Rituals and Beliefs of Chinese Families

Abstract

This chapter explores the general beliefs and rituals of grieving experience in Chinese culture. As the biggest population in the world, Chinese is not well understood and systematically studied in terms of their approaches to the death of family members. There is an urgency and necessity to explore this important and yet understudied phenomenon. The chapter is to introduce the general beliefs on death and grieving among the Chinese population, by exploring the primary philosophical and religious foundation of these beliefs such as ancestor worship, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. The combination of the diverse origins is believed to have influenced Chinese people for thousands of years, particularly in relation to death and grieving. Over the long period of Chinese history, beliefs and traditions have formed and evolved on the basis of these philosophies/religions. They have demonstrated surprising persistence as the Chinese culture itself for the past four millennia or even longer. It was also noticed that the integration of other sources, such as Christianity and western culture also helped reform or shape perceptions of death in modern Chinese society and how Chinese families deal with death and mourning. In addition to the review of existing literature, a stand-alone case study based on a concurrent qualitative study will give readers a closer look at how a Chinese family dealt with their loss.