By Cao Gang
In the movie, the female protagonist, Mi Xiang, questions her husband Da Wu: "Don't you feel ashamed of doing this kind of work?"
Da Wu counters: "Why should I be ashamed? Because I have to deal with dead people every day?"
Mi Xiang says: "I just want you to do a normal job."
Da Wu replies: "What is normal? Everyone will die, I will die, and so will you. Death itself is a very common thing."
Last year's Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language Film, "Departures," presented a special profession before the world. The undertaker in the movie, after artistic embellishment, moves the audience to tears. In fact, the real-life undertakers around us are even more diverse and fascinating.
Keyword 1: Calmness
"Isn't this my job? Are you afraid of your own job?"
Almost daily contact with death, accompanying stiff, rotten, and incomplete bodies - isn't it scary?
In the movie "Departures," the male protagonist Da Wu experiences his first corpse treatment. He witnesses a body that has been dead for two weeks, severely decomposed and emitting a foul odor. Unable to control himself, he vomits repeatedly. Back at home, seeing the chicken his wife had prepared triggers another bout of vomiting due to a conditioned reflex.
Even a tall and strong man like him reacts this way, yet a delicate 26-year-old girl like Chen Yu remains calm. Is there really not a trace of fear in her heart?
"In fact, this is my job. Are you afraid of your own job? We learned knowledge in school and after graduation, we entered our field of study. It's all very normal," said Chen Yu, who graduated from the Modern Funeral Management program at the age of 18 and has worked at Longhua Funeral Home ever since. She speaks softly, maintaining a gentle rhythm. "If you have sufficient mental preparation and professional training, your psychological resilience will be different." Chen Yu calmly said, "It's not that I'm particularly brave; rather, when facing a corpse, I observe more from a medical perspective."
In comparison, Wang Gang, who started working in the industry 5 years earlier and is 7 years older than Chen Yu, took longer to adapt psychologically. In 1997, Longhua Funeral Home recruited from society, and Wang Gang was selected. "First, you serve as an apprentice for a year, watching the master operate and learning the craft. Even though you don't directly touch the corpses, at first, seeing incomplete bodies still made me nauseous frequently."
It wasn't until 1998 that Wang Gang performed his first independent restoration of a corpse. "By then, I had already gotten used to it, having seen so much that I became numb." He recalled that during a routine inspection, he saw a corpse with its face wrapped in gauze. When he unwrapped it, he found the center of the face had rotted into a blur. He spent over 2 hours attaching a realistic nose.
Keyword 2: Professionalism
The bookshelf holds 21 books covering up to 9 professional categories.
Reconstructing a nose based on a deceased person's photo is not only about achieving realism but also involves many considerations before shaping begins.
"First, remove the rotting tissue; next, check the internal skeleton. If any holes are found, they need to be filled promptly to prevent bodily fluids from leaking and damaging the completed parts. Then rely on a frame for support to complete the repair," Wang Gang explained. The frame is generally made of bamboo or wood to ensure that the ashes remain uncolored after cremation.
After completing these steps, the shaping process can begin. "To choose the right material, we've conducted countless experiments and need to use specialized pigments to mix the most similar skin tone," Wang Gang said.
For 12 years, he has overcome countless obstacles. Most of the time, he faces more than just local adjustments but entire corpses that are severely damaged and unrecognizable.
"The first step is to take preservative measures such as refrigeration or injection of preservatives," Wang Gang explained. Injecting preservatives into the blood vessels creates an artificial circulation system, allowing the preservative effects to penetrate into the muscles and skin. "The second step is to correct deformities caused by twisted torsos, such as cutting ligaments to restore their original shape. The hardest part is still the third step, shaping. This requires the assistance of stereoscopic laser scanning and three-dimensional imaging processing software for drawing and modeling."
On Wang Gang's studio bookshelf, 21 books are neatly arranged, covering up to 9 professional categories: surgery, plastic surgery, sculpture, fine arts, hair design, computer graphics, anatomy, pharmacology, and folklore studies.
Hair design might seem surprising but is actually quite reasonable - when shaping, it inevitably includes restoring hairstyles. Wang Gang's 9-year-old son has almost never been to a barber shop; his father has taken care of everything since he was little. Many colleagues also seek his help for haircuts. "I've studied women's hairstyles, but few women are willing to be experimental subjects," Wang Gang joked.
Keyword 3: Busy
Working hours aren't calculated in 8-hour increments but in 24-hour cycles.
In the film, Da Wu frequently receives phone calls summoning him to provide services at homes. Since he is in his hometown town, he doesn't appear too busy. However, in real life, leisure has no place in the life of an undertaker.
Longhua Funeral Home receives an average of 30-40 corpses per day. Daily maintenance and repairs are mainly handled by the makeup department where Wang Gang and Chen Yu work, which consists of fewer than 30 people. Although there are two studios, they don't divide tasks under normal circumstances.
Some may ask curiously: "Since corpses have no life, can you bring them back to life?" Chen Yu replied: "We hope that through makeup and restoration, the deceased can regain their former luster, improving their resemblance as much as possible. Actually, corpses do 'have life,' because they contain so many active decay bacteria."
Chen Yu admitted that the decay process of corpses cannot be reversed, only slowed down. "Therefore, the first step after receiving a corpse must be preservation. During the days of storage, inspections must be carried out multiple times daily to monitor changes in the corpse and update preservation measures accordingly." This adds even more busyness to their workload.
When receiving special assignments or going on business trips, it's the busiest time.
Not long ago, employees of a Shanghai state-owned enterprise encountered a major car accident in Gansu Province, resulting in four fatalities. After the bodies were transported back to Shanghai, they were sent to Wang Gang's studio. They spent five days and nights successfully restoring several severely deformed corpses.
Due to their leading corpse restoration techniques nationwide, Wang Gang and his colleagues often travel to handle sudden accidents in other regions. For instance, on June 16, 2006, an explosion occurred at a chemical plant in Dangtu, Ma'anshan, leaving 16 people dead. Wang Gang went on a two-month business trip and continuously restored corpses in a hotel. "When they arrived, most were already shattered, resembling pieces of charcoal. Only four were relatively intact, retaining trunks. Through DNA comparisons, the identities of the corpses were confirmed, and then we restored their basic facial features according to photos, providing some comfort to the bereaved families."
Keyword 4: Warmth
"Today is her most beautiful day, and I am truly very grateful."
On the silver screen, the embalming ceremony begins - the president of the funeral home gently applies the deceased woman's favorite lipstick, moving slowly. Da Wu suddenly realizes: the embalmer brings vitality to those who are already cold, giving them eternal beauty. Calm, precise, and full of gentle emotions, all actions are so beautiful.
Chen Yu's elegant and dedicated demeanor does not fall short of the role on the silver screen. Her daily work is far more genuine and abundant than what is depicted in the movies.
Corpse preservation starts with preservation, followed by bathing, changing clothes, and applying makeup.
There is nothing unusual about the shower gel, shampoo, and showerheads, except for the posture of the bather - lying flat, accepting the undertaker's gentle caress.
When changing clothes, movements remain gentle. If stiff muscles or joints make it impossible to wear clothing, brute force is never used. Patient massages and therapies are performed again and again until muscles and joints gradually return to normalcy. Such actions are rarely attempted even by the deceased's closest loved ones.
Makeup concludes the preservation process. Before applying foundation, shaving the messy beards of grandfathers and filling the sunken mouths of grandmothers takes place. On the day of the interview, witness undertaker Zhong Rui applying makeup to a 92-year-old elder. His teeth were completely gone, but after makeup, cotton was inserted into his mouth, restoring the fullness of his jawline.
Makeup doesn't always go hand-in-hand with beauty. "Mouths open or eyes wide open may be signals that 'cleaning' is needed. Removing vomit from the mouth, wiping away tears with cotton, and helping close the mouth and eyes are necessary before continuing with the next stage of makeup," Chen Yu introduced. During makeup, attention must also be paid to blending different facial patches to maintain consistent results. "Foundation, blush, and lipstick are essential, helping to restore vitality. As for eyebrows and eyeshadow, they are applied according to the deceased's habits."
Chen Yu feels that her work is filled with warmth. She once wrote in her diary: "We help him with makeup, bathe him, treating him like a living person, letting the family feel that he is still remembered and respected, which is also respect and understanding for life."
Keyword 5: Resilience
"Family members make many requests, sometimes harsh, but my self-expectations are even higher."
Longhua Funeral Home has four special reception rooms named "Spring Vine," "Summer Cherry," "Autumn Chrysanthemum," and "Winter Green." Here, family members watch through floor-to-ceiling windows as undertakers apply makeup to their loved ones.
"Some pressure doesn't come from the deceased's family," Wang Gang recalled. Four years ago, while restoring the bodies of victims from an explosion in Anhui, a young girl left him with deep regret.
"That was the last body I processed, as the family was never satisfied. They viewed it five times, rejecting it each time without clear reasons, only saying 'it doesn't look like him,'" Wang Gang sighed helplessly, "I also hope to pass the test the first time. Each revision increases the family's pain. But sometimes, technical limitations prevent perfection."
In general, Chen Yu does not actively shake hands with others or introduce herself. Coming from Fujian, she has lived in the unit dormitory alone for seven years. "Regarding matters of the heart, I believe in fate," she confessed openly that her profession is a disadvantage in finding a partner.
Wang Gang is already a father, and his wife works at Longhua Funeral Home. He said that within this industry, "internal solutions" among peers are more common, "mutual understanding is easier."
"Family members may make requests, some even demanding, but my self-expectations are definitely higher," Wang Gang said, "After each restoration, I am never satisfied." He has an ultimate goal in his heart: high simulation, "I hope my works resemble real people identically."
Chen Yu's ideals are less specific, but from the details in her eyebrow reconstruction, one can see her pursuit. She and her companions never tattoo eyebrows on the deceased. Instead, they pick up broken hairs less than 1 centimeter long with tweezers, compare close-up facial photos, carefully study the depth and direction of the eyebrows, and implant them strand by strand.
Completing a pair of eyebrows takes seven to eight hours.