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No one talks about death very often, but we do come across this ultimate question at some point in our lives.
More and more young people are aware of the transience and impermanence of life, but instead of avoiding death, they choose to accept the inevitable end and prepare in advance.
They made a will early and planned the outcome of their lives in a legally recognized paper.
01
Young people carefully plan for "afterlife"
In March this year, the China Foundation for the Development of Aging released the "2023 China Wills Database White Paper". Data shows that from 2017 to 2023, more than 18,000 young and middle-aged people have made wills in the will bank. Although the overall number of people is not large, its proportion of all age groups is increasing year by year. By the end of 2023, there will be 2,461 post-90s and more than 500 post-00s who have made wills here.
The China Will Bank is an institution that provides professional will services, and the wills kept here are not handwritten "testaments" like those in film and television dramas or news reports, but legal documents with high formal requirements. In addition to drafting documents, will registration also needs to go through facial recognition, audio and video recording, fingerprint scanning, psychiatric evaluation and other links to ensure its legal effect. For testators under the age of 60, a fee of several thousand dollars is generally charged. Therefore, every will is necessarily the result of careful consideration.
In the case database of the China Wills Database, the youngest testator is only 17 years old, and he is a web novel writer who often stays up late. He thought of making a will after seeing the news of the sudden death of a young man.
"I don't know which comes first, tomorrow or the accident", using a will to sort out everything you have in this world and ensure that they are distributed according to your own wishes, which is an early warning of risks and a guardian of the value of your life.
According to the data of the white paper, the biggest reason for young and middle-aged people to make wills is to "prevent the whereabouts of property from being unknown", accounting for 18.64%. In addition, there are "taking care of the family", "isolating one's own marital risks", "avoiding disputes", etc.
When it comes to high-priced properties such as houses, any single detail is enough to make a difference. Taking real estate inheritance in Shanghai as an example, if the property owner did not make a notarized will during his lifetime, and the heirs with inheritance rights did not reach an agreement, the family matter will inevitably have to go to court. Therefore, making a will in advance is also to not leave the trouble to others.
Wills often involve money, and most of the young people who make wills are people with stable sources of income in economically developed areas. The data shows that the occupation proportion of young and middle-aged testators is first "corporate executives", then "professional and technical personnel" such as lawyers and accountants, and "staff of institutions and institutions" such as teachers and doctors.
In recent years, the number of young and middle-aged women making wills is significantly higher than that of men, and the proportion is on the rise, reflecting that women are more conscious of protecting their property. In addition, although most of the testators are married, with the expansion of the single population, the number of unmarried and unmarried people who make wills has also increased significantly. As of 2023, there are more than 2,000 unmarried and unmarried people who have registered and kept wills in the China Will Database, of which nearly 70% are women.
02
Guarding the "Last Freedom" with a Will
According to the data of 2023, 97.14% of the wills of young and middle-aged people involve real estate, including commercial residences, office buildings, shops, factories, parking spaces and other types. Although the house is almost everyone's most important asset, it is worth remembering more than the house in a lifetime.
Among the "other" types of property other than real estate, bank deposits, etc., there are personal collectibles, safe deposit boxes full of personal belongings, and virtual assets such as WeChat accounts, QQ, game accounts, and virtual currency.
The case of the will database shows that at the beginning of 2023, a B station up owner with millions of followers made a will, planning to leave the account to a friend to operate after his death, and give the virtual assets worth 3 million to his parents to inherit.
More often than not, virtual assets are written into wills not because they are valuable, but because they store too many life tracks. Those who spend a lot of youth in games or social media accounts may prove a person's existence more than real property.
In a poll of 1,010 people conducted by Weibo user @UnRead, 53% wanted their digital heritage, such as Moments, to be permanently preserved as a memento of their loved ones, while 47% wanted the content to be deleted immediately.
Through a will, you can see not only the traces left by a person in the world, but also the social roles and relationships that he cherishes the most. Perhaps only by experiencing the examination of death can we see clearly the people and things in life that are most worth caring about.
Among the testators under the age of 30, 77.39% chose to inherit the property by their parents. As the age increases, the proportion of children who choose to inherit gradually increases.
The change in the proportion of people who choose their spouses to inherit property is even more interesting. Compared with the 30-39 and 50-59 age ranges, the 40-49 age group has the lowest proportion of spouse inheritance. Based on the analysis of actual cases, the white paper believes that people in this age group are more concerned about marital risks and will consider whether their spouses will remarry after an accident.
In addition, not all wills are limited to blood and family. Some people leave part of their property to their first love, some to their girlfriends, and some to their childhood playmates. As a "last freedom", a will can protect only the interests of those you really care about.
No matter what age you are, the moment you solemnly leave your will, you have summed up your life, whether long or short. For them, a will is a preparation to face death. Only by arranging the aftermath can we face the rest of life more calmly.
In the face of death, humanity achieves the most complete equality. The will that leaves a huge fortune may only bring contention and entanglement, and a parting letter from ordinary people may contain more love and concern.
In addition to providing formal testamentary services, Chung Hwa Wills Bank has also opened the "WeChat Will" function on the WeChat Mini Program. "WeChat will" is mainly to convey the advice and entrustment between relatives and friends, and is not used as a will in legal sense. You can leave a message to relatives and friends with text, photos or videos, and you can also choose to send it to the person who wants to leave a message by the China Wills Bank after your death. According to statistics, among the nearly 100,000 WeChat wills received, 71.13% of them will attach photos of themselves, their lovers and family members. 34.89% of people will confess to their loved ones.
03
Feel life in thinking about death
For young people, death is not an untouchable taboo, and making a will is not the only way to face death head-on. On the Internet, some people "hold a funeral" for themselves and invite strangers to participate, some people design the urn in a beautiful pink color, and some people choose what song to put for the funeral in advance, such as a song "Leaving the Surface of the Earth".
Image source | Little Red Book
Although there is no urgent anxiety about death, reflection on life can be obtained by imagining death.
Xiaohongshu user @明歌 posted a note in October last year that "wrote a three-line suicide note for yourself", which has now garnered more than 20,000 likes and 13,000 comments. Among the more than 5,000 "suicide notes", which are either straightforward or literary, we see the way young people say goodbye to the world.
"Please put my QR code on the tombstone, which has memories of my life, and my camera records the people I love the most".
"A dutiful daughter, a gentle mother; It is a qualified lover and a reliable friend; He is not a man who comes into this world in vain."
"Don't put my ashes in a drifting bottle, it can't sink to the bottom of the sea, it can't float to the sky, I'm afraid."
"If life is compared to a desert, then I am a grain of sand in the desert, and when the wind called death blows, I will drift away with the wind."
By "writing a suicide note", they talk to themselves, give romance and handsomeness to death, and pay homage to life.
When thinking about death, they appear open-minded and calm: "The savings are left at home, the cats are handed over to friends, and they burn them and float into the sea."
When mentioning their loved ones, they reveal infinite attachment: "Don't be sad about Mom and Dad, I am very happy in this life, I will be a mother in the next life".
They are concerned about their pets, and they are always worried about the chat history and ugly photos on their mobile phones and computers: "Format my mobile phone and computer, delete all my photo albums, and finally give my resources to my girlfriends".
They use the words "freedom", "happiness", "happiness", and "liberation" to describe death, because they do not like the way they live in this life, so "at that moment, you can finally stop being anxious".
There are also people who think that they have experienced a very happy life, so they also hope that relatives and friends will "not be sad for me", "maybe we will meet again at some time", "please treat my funeral as a party".
Some might say that it is precisely because death is so far away from young people that they can talk about it freely. But every day of life is a process of "living towards death", and the more we discuss death, the more we can understand the preciousness of life, and the more fully prepared we are for death, the more courage we have to meet it calmly.
May we all dance lightly on the road to death.
(Source: Tencent News)
References: [1] Official website of China Wills Database, official brochure, "Application and Funding Measures for China Wills Database" [2] China Wills Development Foundation, "2023 China Wills Database White Paper"