In the past, "working in a funeral home" used to be a secretive statement, but with the continuous advancement of modern social concepts, more and more people are beginning to understand the profession of "mortician", which is not at all low in professional requirements. However, for people engaged in the profession of mortician, in order to avoid the psychological knots of others as much as possible, they will still refer to the place of work as "civil affairs department".
Because people instinctively reject death-related information, they often have a mentality of reluctance to contact the staff of funeral homes and crematoriums. Because they do not understand or even fear, some people will collectively refer to these staff members as "burning people".
With the continuous progress of modern social concepts, more and more people gradually understand the profession of "mortician". In particular, literary and artistic works with this profession as the theme, such as Yojiro Takita's film "Entering the Mortician Division", have become an opportunity for many post-85 and post-90s to enter the industry.
In fact, the modern funeral industry pursues professional operations, and the division of labor in the industry is very fine, for example, the post responsible for transporting the remains is called "corpse transporter", the post responsible for makeup and grooming is called "body plastic surgeon", and the post responsible for operating the cremation machine is called "cremation chemical industry".
These positions have their own skill requirements and operating standards, and they also need to be examined. The Ministry of Civil Affairs hosts a national funeral industry professional competition every year, which is also awarded according to different positions. The "mortician" is only a more formal common term for the above work.
Among the colleges and universities that train professional funeral practitioners, Changsha Civil Affairs College has the title of "Whampoa Military Academy for Funeral Industry". This institution was founded early, the teaching staff is strong, and every time it wins a large number of awards in the professional competitions led by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the reputation of the industry is naturally getting higher and higher.
In addition, for example, Beijing Vocational College of Social Management, Wuhan Vocational College of Civil Affairs, Chongqing Institute of Urban Management and other colleges and universities have opened relevant colleges and majors.
The school is not only committed to cultivating students' professional skills, but also needs to guide them to have a positive and peaceful attitude towards the profession.
In many colleges and universities, the first lesson of the funeral profession will be used to play related literary and artistic works, such as the aforementioned Japanese movie "The Mortician", the purpose is to let students understand: funeral-related occupations are only one of the occupations, do not have to look at it with a special eye. A funeral college also designated "Compassion for Compassion, Serving All Sentient Beings" as a motto and hung it on the wall of the teaching building.
Although the teachers and students in the class are trying to maintain a normal mind, just looking at their class schedules will still make people feel "too unusual". In addition to college English, funeral regulations, modern funeral management, modern funeral public relations etiquette, tie writing, body collection and other professional courses are all out of reach of ordinary professional students.
Some students of this major once joked with themselves that their courses are numerous and easy to make people who do not understand daunted; the only advantage is probably that when they go to the canteen to eat, "as long as the textbooks are put on the table to occupy the seats, there will be no one to grab the three or four seats around, even if the whole canteen is crowded with people."
From the perspective of professional settings, "funeral professional" is only a general direction, which at least includes four major sections: funeral services, anti-corrosion and plastic surgery, funeral equipment, and cemeteries.
In layman's terms, if an old man enjoys his old age and dies in peace, then in the process of posthumous ceremony, the staff from these four professions will be responsible for the farewell party of the deceased, the cremation process and the entire process of burial in the cemetery.
Although it is said that "the art industry has a specialty", in fact, the practitioners responsible for a certain link often need to have a clear understanding of the whole process, customs, and many knowledge and taboos in culture. That's why funeral professionals also offer flower arrangement, folklore and even feng shui courses.
Because during the funeral process of the deceased, family members and friends are often in a depressed and sensitive psychological state. Maybe the staff just inadvertently did not speak properly, or misplaced inappropriate flowers, will leave a thorn in the hearts of the family, so that the effect of the previous hard work has been discounted.
The whole four years of study and training are hard, but they are not in vain.
Social concepts do not evolve automatically and consciously, and many ordinary people's views on the career change of "mortician" that they usually lack understanding often begin with attending a funeral and seeing the performance of professionals with their own eyes.
Imagine that when people see funeral practitioners dressed in black formal clothes, acting professionally and efficiently, showing full respect for the deceased, and showing considerate care for their families at the funeral, they are often touched, and some of the previous prejudices are naturally self-defeating.
Funeral professions have been offered in colleges and universities since 1995. Now it seems that this is also one of the steps for China's funeral industry to move towards specialization and humanization.
At the beginning of the program, outside comments were mixed. Some think that there is no need to open a major for this, some feel "terrible", and some speculate that this industry is "rich in money and less profitable". Posts such as "1500 a day of moving corpses" and "funeral home daily salary of 1300" also appear on the Internet from time to time, and they are spread with noses and eyes.
In real life, those who choose to apply for this major and eventually enter the industry have much more complex and realistic ideas.
Some people decide to work in the industry because of life encounters, such as the funeral of a loved one, some people have feelings because they have seen literary works, and some people simply because they "have a good score" or "want to try a new major."
The service objects of the funeral industry determine that this industry has its own special features. The first is working hours, and the eight-hour workday system of only scheduling the main shift is obviously unrealistic, after all, no one can predict when death or accident will come.
Funeral homes and cemeteries mostly implement a single holiday system, or a "quasi-single holiday system" with 6 days off per month. Workers often need to keep their phones on 24 hours a day, and in many cases receive calls in the early hours of the morning and then go to work immediately. For some positions, such as the transportation of mortal remains, a 24-hour shift system is implemented.
Secondly, the salary level of the funeral industry is far less mysterious than that uploaded online. Some media have conducted statistics and found that the average salary of the funeral industry is mostly around 6,000 yuan, tens of thousands of people are rare, and the workload is often larger.
For most practitioners, the daily work consists of several trivial links: the first thing to go to work every day is to see whether the operation of the truck is normal, whether the number meets the possible needs, and wait until the deceased is transported to the funeral home, followed by a series of processes such as parking and cremation.
As for the process of makeup and plastic surgery, memorial service, etc., it is not necessary to take steps, it depends on whether the family chooses the relevant services.
These tasks seem to be completely unsurprising, but because they are faced with a group of depressed and emotionally unstable family members and friends, there has always been a tradition of "the dead are great" in our culture, requiring staff to be careful and thorough to be competent.
As the saying goes, everything is hard at the beginning, especially for students who have spent four years studying funeral professionals and finally entering the workplace.
One of the main reasons is this: according to the regulations, among all the majors in colleges and universities, the medical school and its majors are the only ones that are allowed to touch the body, which is the origin of the "general teacher" called by the teachers and students of the medical school.
Although the funeral students are also from the class, they use dummies to simulate operations in the process of learning and internship, and they will not really come into contact with the remains until they go to work, cleaning, dressing, makeup, carrying and other services for the remains.
The psychological shock brought about by this step can be imagined.
Perhaps as a result of years of psychological construction, most of the morticians did not feel afraid in the face of the remains, but instead witnessed the depressed and sad scenes of their families during the memorial service and cremation operation, which made them feel even more sad.
Some morticians said that the first time they touched the body, it felt like touching a cold beer, cold, and the other party seemed to be asleep.
Some morticians said that the first time they brushed the deceased's hair, they did not dare to move a little heavier, for fear that the other party would feel uncomfortable.
Some morticians say that I have seen more bodies in a day than many people have seen in their lifetime.
Some morticians said that even if they have been employed for a long time, every time they see the state of their families, they still feel uncomfortable, and they want to say to everyone that they should cherish the living people more.
The shock of accidental death is more intense and more difficult to accept than the death of a person who has died peacefully.
The "Oriental Star" shipwreck that occurred in the waters of Jianli in Hubei Province and the train accident that occurred in Wenzhou all had morticians go to the funeral home to be responsible for sorting out the faces of the victims, and even these professionals felt that they could not bear the tragic scene at that time.
In such a situation, they also need recognition, encouragement and encouragement from others.
Generally speaking, morticians themselves and their families have a very positive attitude towards the profession.
This is also more or less related to China's cultural tradition of "going into the soil for safety." There are many examples in history, some are heroic emperors, some are monks who are free from the world, as long as they promote or facilitate the action of burying bones, they will be regarded by public opinion as a kind of virtue and good deeds.
The mortician himself often takes "allowing the deceased to leave the world with dignity and alleviating the suffering of the family to a certain extent" as the source of work achievement.
More than one mortician has said in various interviews that sometimes it takes hours or more to repair the face of a deceased person who has died accidentally or is physically damaged. After high-intensity work, if you can get a word of affirmation from your family, you can feel "immediately resurrected with full blood".
There have also been morticians who went to make up the bodies of the victims of the Wenzhou train accident, and they could hardly support themselves in the face of the tragic picture. Later, when the mortician's family saw footage of her work on television, her mother and brother immediately called to express support, saying she had done the right thing and praising her as "the pride of our family."
It is also by relying on the support and affirmation from the service recipients and family members that practitioners in this profession have the strength to fight against prejudice and stereotypes, and use their knowledge and experience to help more deceased people and their families.
Unfortunately, cases of the funeral industry being considered "unlucky" and choosing to stay away from it still occur. In some places, taxi drivers are often reluctant to go when they hear that the destination is a funeral home; the marriage opportunities of practitioners are more restrictive than in other industries.
Changing the inherent prejudices against the funeral industry and morticians, and looking at each type of profession with a more objective eye, still requires the joint efforts of the industry itself and the whole society.