孝女白琴 (Custom)

If you ask me, what troubles me most living in Taiwan, I’ll say it bugs me most when someone in my neighborhood passes away and the family has a funeral with a孝女白琴(xiao4 nu3 bai2 chin2).

General speaking, living in Taiwan is pleasant. You enjoy the peace and freedom people in some other countries don’t have. But sometimes the tranquility is ruined when you hear a disturbing loud noise from the microphone with a woman crying and chanting in South Min dialect. You know that someone has died in your neighborhood. And you know you’re gonna put up with the noise for a while.

Funeral has been considered a big deal in our convention. People judge from the way a family has the funeral to see if they show 孝順(xiao4 nu3), filial piety, for their parents. To accuse someone of 不孝(bu2 xiao4) or 不肖(bu2 xiao4), neglect of filial piety, is a very serious one, which in the past might cost a man his post in the government. A government official had to retire from his work for three years if one of his parents or grandparents died, which was called 丁憂(ding you), unless the emperor ordered to discharge such a practice.

In many novels I read scenes like this: In a 靈堂(ling2 tang2), a mourning hall, where people place the deceased for people to mourn before the funeral, female family members stop whatever they are doing to howl and cry when having visitors to mourn. Or a woman comes to a靈堂, howling and yelling dramatically even though the deceased is a neighbor who she hardly cares about.

Women of the old times were in some way good actresses. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that everything you see in funerals was fake.

In short, funerals are supposed to be full of crying and mourning of the family members to show the offspring’s sorrow. But, what if someone dies with few family members or even without any offspring?

Thus comes an occupation—“professional mourners” who do the crying and howling for you. Usually it is women who do the work and we call them 孝女白琴.

It is said the name 白琴derives from a female character of a 布袋戲(bu4 dai4 xi4), Taiwanese hand puppet show 雲州大儒俠(yun2 zho da4 ru2 xia2), a hit some four decades ago. The character named白瓊(bai2 qong2) somehow was changed into白琴. She appeared in the show in a mourning dress howling for her deceased mother. The related workers thus named this occupation after her.

What bothers me is the noise they make. In a densely-populated city it’s really a pain in the neck to hear the piercing howling from a microphone, let alone the hypocrisy-tinged part.

I used to think this is an exclusive custom that is only practiced in Taiwan until I read online that in medieval Spain they have similar custom. Frankly speaking, I’m not very proud of this and I tend to be impatient when I hear such a ritual going on nearby, which rarely happens these days, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o32fBTHXeNM&feature=related

孝順=孝顺

丁憂=丁忧

靈堂=灵堂

布袋戲=布袋戏

雲州大儒俠=云州大儒侠

白瓊=白琼