Cross-Boundary Thinking is Karen's live broadcast program every other Wednesday, where we invite a guest each week to share their workplace story. On 5/8 at 8:30 PM, we're inviting ritual body beautician Yang Jue-En to share his story.
Jue-En is a funeral industry professional. He was originally just a makeup counter assistant at a department store, always having a strong interest in makeup. During high school, he actually thought about becoming a deceased body makeup artist, but being young, he switched to new aspirations every so often (after all, young people are still young!).
However, the idea of becoming a deceased body makeup artist kept flashing through his mind at different ages, until in recent years the thought became increasingly strong. So he applied to be an assistant at a funeral company in Chungli. I naively thought the funeral industry was just about applying makeup to bodies—who knew the industry was so specialized?
Most funeral companies don't have their ritual assistants handle body makeup and bathing/dressing directly; many outsource this work to external staff. That's how the company I joined operated. You only really get the chance to be involved in these tasks if you're assigned to a hospital morgue duty.
When I was working as a ritual assistant, I saw places that deceased families never see, for example: bathing and dressing…
The first time I saw a typical bathing and dressing procedure at the funeral home, I was truly shocked. So this was what general bathing and dressing looked like?
I saw so many deceased people lying face-down on iron trays, their buttocks lifted by the washing and dressing staff, their bodies forming a "V" shape, each person's buttocks held up high to make it easier for staff to dress them; at a glance... I saw a row of bodies, completely naked without any dignity or privacy lying on iron trays; I was truly shocked at that moment, not because I saw many bodies at once, but because... this so-called bathing and dressing of the deceased turned out to be so lacking in dignity and privacy, which is why funeral companies never let families watch. If... the person lying there were my family member, could I accept it?
Then suddenly a funeral company staff member rushed in pushing a deceased person, saying "hurry up, we're running late," and I watched as that person was taken out of the body bag and placed on the iron tray. After cutting open their clothes, the dressing staff sprayed the deceased with alcohol, wiped them dry with a towel, and directly dressed them in the funeral shroud. They didn't even remove the deceased's diaper before putting on the funeral outfit and pushing them out.
At that moment, I truly didn't know how to describe my feelings. I only felt deep sadness and heartbreak, because the elderly man who was sprayed with alcohol and pushed out had clearly been sick for a long time before passing away. For people with prolonged illnesses like that, they usually spend long periods bedridden and have never been able to bathe properly—at most they're only wiped down. But that elderly man didn't even get a proper bath after he died. At the end of his life, he couldn't even leave this world cleanly and with dignity. And then what? His funeral ceremony might be grand and impressive. But does this really have meaning? Is this really what filial piety means?
After this shocking experience, my thinking began to transform. What I hope to do is ensure that the deceased leave with cleanliness and dignity at the end of their life's journey. Every deceased person has family members who love them. If the roles were reversed and my family member were lying there, I absolutely couldn't accept such bathing and dressing treatment. No one wants their family members treated this way. I'm sure we all feel the same.
Eventually I left the funeral company and began engaging with ritual body beautification services—what's commonly called a deceased body spa. This involves applying aromatherapy oils to the deceased before bathing, with family members participating throughout. The process maintains complete modesty at all times—washing the feet, washing the face, washing the hair, and even massage procedures, with each step matching the standard of a real spa. After the body is cleansed, we then dress the deceased, and finally apply makeup, completing the entire ritual body beautification service. Family members can be present throughout, able to say their final goodbyes to their loved one.
After doing ritual body beautification, I noticed that when family members wash their loved one's hands and feet for the last time, every family member's face is covered in tears. During the funeral process, there are so many tedious matters to handle—dealing with funeral arrangements and receiving mourning visitors. Family members must suppress their grief temporarily because they need to maintain composure to handle subsequent matters.
The body spa usually takes place the day before the farewell ceremony. At this point, families suddenly realize how quickly time has passed. After washing, it's really time to say goodbye. During our washing process, family members finally release all their pent-up grief and sadness. Words they didn't have time to say can finally be properly communicated to their loved ones, and they can fulfill their final filial duty at this moment.
When family members thank us after the washing, that moment is truly more precious than anything else, because their loved one is our loved one too. We understand that desire to give family members the very best. Perhaps the concept of ritual body beautification hasn't been widely introduced yet, but I hope that in the days to come, more people will understand the significance of this practice, so that the final moment of life can be spent cleanly and with dignity, and families can have more time to properly say goodbye to their loved ones.
