“Electronic Funerals” attempting to break into the traditional sector

 “Electronic Funerals” is attempting to break into the traditional sector

 

When AI meets death, young people in Wenzhou use electronic funerals to subvert the thousand-year-old funeral tradition, triggering fierce confrontation.

 

Against the backdrop of the digital years sweeping across all industries, young entrepreneurs in Wenzhou are actively exploring the emerging market of using codes and programs to make a digital funeral platform. By running technologies such as QR code memorial services, AI remembrance videos, and virtual memorial halls in the metaverse, they are reshaping the traditional funeral industry.

 

Yi Lu (The Road of Remembrance) is not only a path to remember the deceased, but also a difficult path for traditional industries to undergo technological transformation. 








Guests and staff at the offline experience event of the Yilu platform in Wenzhou are communicating. May 2nd. 2025 [Photo/Zhu Yiying]

 

The platform is called "Memory Road" and was launched by several "90s" entrepreneurs in 2023, achieving "digital immortality". The platform's data shows that currently, over 5,000 users have registered, with the group under the age of 30 accounting for 65%.

 

"My ideal scenario is that in the future, every deceased person will have a permanent and inheritable digital life archive, preserving all their memories - from photos, text, to sounds, 3D scans. Family members can access it at any time and on any device, continuing to write new chapters in these memories, ensuring that the deceased do not simply disappear," said one of the founders, Xuan Zhe. He mentioned that the platform also offers digital legacy management services to help the deceased manage assets such as social media accounts and virtual currencies.

 

Digital immortality is not a reality. The "permanent data preservation" claimed by the electronic burial industry has fundamental flaws: Social platforms like X have repeatedly deleted inactive accounts, including memorial accounts; cloud service providers such as Google Photos have suddenly terminated the free unlimited storage policy, forcing users to migrate their data; and new technologies like blockchain tombstones face risks such as soaring storage costs and the loss of private keys resulting in permanent loss of access rights. History has shown that no digital platform can truly guarantee "permanence". When electronic burial platforms market themselves as "eternal", they are essentially selling a digital illusion that is destined to be false by physical laws and commercial rules.

 

However, this innovative model has encountered fierce opposition from the traditional funeral industry. The person in charge of a funeral service company in Wenzhou stated bluntly: "The core of a funeral is 'burying the body to rest peacefully', and electronicization is a desecration of tradition." Some practitioners are even more concerned about the loss of economic benefits - the average price of traditional funeral services is several thousand yuan, while the price of electronic funeral packages is only a few hundred to a thousand yuan.

 



The physical condition of the Xueshan Cemetery in Wenzhou

May,10th.2025 [Photo/Zhu Yiying]

 

Industry manager Li Hua believes that in the future, the funeral industry may adopt a "traditional and digital coexistence" model. This clash between the old and new business models reflects the deep-seated contradiction between technological change and customs.

 

Technical optimism collides with folk reverence. Perhaps the true path lies not in replacement, in creating a "mixed reality of life and death" that can both accommodate digital memories and retain the dignity of rituals — after all, humanity's desire to resist extinction has never changed; it's just that the tools have evolved.

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The WuZhen Theatre Festival

Image
  The Wuzhen Theatre Festival With its unique geographical and cultural background, the Wuzhen Theater Festival has attracted the attention of domestic and foreign tourists. As an ancient water town, Wuzhen combines its traditional cultural atmosphere with modern theater facilities to create an artistic festival environment. This profound cultural heritage has become an important selling point for publicity. At the same time, the publicity of the Wuzhen Theater Festival is mostly carried out through social media and online platforms. With the help of channels such as Weibo and Douyin, the festival successfully reaches young audiences and enhances exposure and participation. However, Wuzhen's advertising still has room for improvement compared with some internationally renowned theater festivals. Although social media has strong communication capabilities, due to its localized characteristics, the visibility and participation of foreign audiences are relatively low. Moreover, despit...
Read more

“Disco Bus”

Image
 “Disco Bus” Recently, many netizens in Hefei, Anhui Province, posted videos of their experience riding the newly launched "disco bus". "A mobile party, stop when you wave, this is too urban!" The video shows that the bus is labeled with words such as "Stop when you wave, jump when you get on the bus", and it is clearly visible that young men and women in the bus are bouncing and shaking to the music. This matter has attracted the attention of many netizens. Those who praise it regard it as the vitality of the city, while those who criticize it criticize it as inappropriate. From the online comments, some people see it as cool and novel, while others worry about affecting traffic safety. No matter which city, the pursuit of cross-circle integration and innovation must follow the rule of law and not exceed the legal framework. The first thing to consider for integration based on public transportation is the bottom line of traffic safety. The primary task of...
Read more

Aunt “Wheat” ’s “Poetry and Distance”

Image
 Aunt “Wheat”（Maizi） "I will go south after planting wheat." "I will go south after planting wheat." This sentence, which started from the live broadcast connection with Da Bing, resonated with countless people and let netizens know about a girl from Henan. Aunt Maizi has attracted widespread attention and discussion. The reason for her popularity must be that her desire to "go south" is romantic, beautiful, and brave, and it also proves to the public that life has infinite possibilities and it is never too late to "set off". Although wheat and land are her responsibilities, they are not her obstacles, so she chose to "go south after planting wheat". Aunt Maizi does not easily set limits on her life, but maintains her desire to explore the world and pursue her own poetry and distance. Recently, a 60-year-old Henan aunt interacted with the well-known anchor Da Bing in a live broadcast and shared her yearning for the magnificent rivers an...
Read more