I was kept awake all night yesterday with a wailing with an accompanying band of musicians. What was going on? In the morning I asked my Vietnamese daughter in law to explain how in the rigidly rule based society, where all loudspeakers were turned off sharply at 10 pm, this dirge could continue till the early hours. "Dad", she explained, " this was a wife saying farewell to her dead husband. And sometimes they allow this still. Also it may not be the wife but some hired mourners". Hired mourners?
I remembered some years ago I was in Milan at an opera and found the program being interrupted by a group of people who got on their feet periodically and clapped and shouted "bravos" throughout the performance. Apparently these were a group of people, known as claques, who were paid to applaud during a performance, and that the practice was quite widespread in olden times. Roman emperors used soldiers to swell the crowds for speeches, ( as do modern day Presidents in the US) with the soldiers being instructed to cheer loudly when the emperor emerged. Claques also guided the audiences of Greek plays, and they were never really absent from performance halls, but in the 19th century, the claque was refined to an art form, with members of the claque guiding the audience, showing them when to laugh, applaud, or cry. The members of the claque would be smoothly integrated into the audience, ensuring even distribution to reduce suspicion. Rieurs would laugh at appropriate moments in the performance, while pleureurs would cry; many of the pleureurs would be women, who might find themselves without handkerchiefs, requiring assistance from an innocent bystander. Bisseurs would call for an encore at the end of a performance, while commissaires were hired to point out particularly interesting or notable points in the piece to the people around them. Together, the members of the claque would ensure an enthusiastic audience response to a performance. Claques are fine but hired mourners at a funeral? Really?
It seemed that this was an old custom both in Vietnam and China when funerals were both an occasion for grief and dancing. In parts of China, where rural pre-burial rituals are still observed, mourners
I remembered some years ago I was in Milan at an opera and found the program being interrupted by a group of people who got on their feet periodically and clapped and shouted "bravos" throughout the performance. Apparently these were a group of people, known as claques, who were paid to applaud during a performance, and that the practice was quite widespread in olden times. Roman emperors used soldiers to swell the crowds for speeches, ( as do modern day Presidents in the US) with the soldiers being instructed to cheer loudly when the emperor emerged. Claques also guided the audiences of Greek plays, and they were never really absent from performance halls, but in the 19th century, the claque was refined to an art form, with members of the claque guiding the audience, showing them when to laugh, applaud, or cry. The members of the claque would be smoothly integrated into the audience, ensuring even distribution to reduce suspicion. Rieurs would laugh at appropriate moments in the performance, while pleureurs would cry; many of the pleureurs would be women, who might find themselves without handkerchiefs, requiring assistance from an innocent bystander. Bisseurs would call for an encore at the end of a performance, while commissaires were hired to point out particularly interesting or notable points in the piece to the people around them. Together, the members of the claque would ensure an enthusiastic audience response to a performance. Claques are fine but hired mourners at a funeral? Really?
It seemed that this was an old custom both in Vietnam and China when funerals were both an occasion for grief and dancing. In parts of China, where rural pre-burial rituals are still observed, mourners
known as kusangren are hired to guarantee that a funeral is a spectacle in grief. Many of these hired mourners come to work with a full sound-system, multi-colour spotlights and a full fledged band.
An observer describes a typical funeral scene. The relatives kneel around the coffin, their eyes fixed on lead hired mourner as her wails reach a fever pitch. “Why did you leave us so soon? The earth is covered in a black veil for you. The rivers and streams are crying to tell your story – that of an honest woman. I shed tears for your children and grandchildren. We’re so sorry we could not keep you here,” she croons between sobs. “This is goodbye, with no return date. The path to the great beyond is arduous,
and beset by storms. Take good care of yourself.” She then dances for several minutes, falling to her knees and crawling several times before shaking the hands of the visibly moved family members. And then suddenly, the evening turns festive. Funereal chants are replaced with popular songs and comedy stories. A belly dancer performs ( I kid you not), followed by a woman in a leopard-print bustier, black leather
hot pants and fishnet stockings who writhes to a pulsating techno beat. But they explain that the spectacle should not be seen as a lack of respect for the dead. “Saying goodbye to the dead is a very important moment, and so the ceremony must be animated and vibrant. If not, the children would be seen poorly by the villagers, who would say they did not respect their elders. And how much does this cost? The most extravagant can cost as much as $30,000. A scaled-down event – something without a procession and floats – can cost $6,000. A typical mourners group charges $600 for a half-day's work. Of course the funeral ceremonies in the west cost many times as much and are far less colorful.
Vietnam News, the national daily, reported recently that at a funeral in Ha Noi's Cau Giay District last month, most of the many cries of anguish came from hired mourners, not bereaved relatives. The head of the hired group of mourners from Ha Noi's Thanh Oai District Nguyen Van Moc said his group was hired to cry for two whole days at the funeral. Under the contract, a female member of the group would make heart-rendering cries on behalf of the women in the deceased's household. Moc said members of his group were often hired to cry for people who were too busy or simply had trouble crying. "We can really earn money from this job," Moc said. "Besides the contract money, normally VND4-5 million (US$180-230) depending on ‘dry' or ‘wet' cry (those with or without tears), we also receive small tips for extra cries." He said that in the cold season, which normally has more funerals, his group could earn a steady income.
History professor Nguyen Quang Ngoc, head of the Institute for Vietnamese Studies and Development
Sciences, says crying was not compulsory as funeral customs could differ, but he said it was
understandable to have hired mourners. "There is a traditional understanding that a funeral is not a real one without crying," Ngoc said. "Many people believe the death of a person needs the cries, which show affection from the living and that without crying, the dead would feel lonely." Ngoc said hired mourners were traditional parts of many funerals, like the bands playing sorrowful sounds. "Originally, the band played to support the cries of the dead person's relatives," he said. "Gradually, the relatives give them money to mourn for the dead person through rhythmic verses." Kieu Van Thanh from Dong Ha Village in Ha Noi's outer district of Quoc Oai, is part of a family of paid mourners going back six generations. The Kieu family also has an eight-piece band and has created their own verses to cry to at funerals. "In months with many contracts, we have to mourn almost 28 days," he said. "In lesser months, we still work at 15 or 16 funerals."
But there are now dissidents who despise this practice. One said that since she and her little brother were too busy working out funeral arrangements, they couldn't cry. They were labelled "heartless" and "disrespectful" for the absence of crying. Though some relatives advised her to hire professional mourners to make it "more like a funeral", she refused. "Such affections should have come from our hearts, the fake ones don't count," she said "My mother knew exactly whether we loved her or not, regardless of tears." Besides tears cost extra.
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