Outrage after Chinese woman asks cash-strapped friend to put her father’s ashes in parcel locker

A Chinese netizen who advised her friend to store her father’s ashes in a parcel locker to avoid paying professional storage fees has sparked outrage on mainland social media.

According to a post on Weibo on July 18, the man had no money to bury his father in a cemetery, nor space to place the funeral urn in his small house, mainland media outlet The Cover reported.

“He followed my suggestion to leave the funeral urn in a Hive Box parcel locker,” wrote @zhuzaiyueliangshangdeningmengjing.

“You can buy an annual membership for just 55 yuan (US$8). They won’t charge you any other fees. Isn’t that a reasonable price?” she said.

Buying a grave of less than one square meter would cost at least 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) in the suburbs of major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

A tomb is the preferred choice of the Chinese because it is believed that souls will only be at peace when their body or ashes are buried in the ground.

However, leaving ashes at a funeral home has become a popular option because it is relatively inexpensive, costing a few hundred yuan per year.

Authorities have advocated unconventional burial methods, such as scattering the ashes at sea or burying them under a tree, but the mainland population has not shown much interest in these alternatives.

After the online post attracted attention, Hive Box, the continent’s leading delivery locker provider, told media that it must be a rumour as neither human or animal ashes or bones, nor animal bodies are allowed to be placed in the lockers.

Hive Box said renting a locker would cost between 240 (US$35) and 420 yuan per year, depending on the size.

The netizen who wrote the post closed his Weibo account after apologizing for its “deceptive and vicious impact.”

The story sparked anger on social media across the continent.

“The woman who came up with this idea is really immoral. She did not consider the feelings of the deceased or the interests of neighbors living in the same community and using the parcel lockers,” said an online observer on Weibo.

“This dad is really unhappy to have a son who put his ashes in a delivery box, rather than a normal place to store them,” another person said.