Bone Collector

choi

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Amber Wang, Taiwan's teen bone collector carries on family craft. AFP, Jan 26, 2011.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20110128-260877.html

My Comment:
(a) burial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial
("In Southern Chinese culture, graves are opened after a period of years. The bones are removed, cleaned, dried, and placed in a ceramic pot for reburial (in Taiwan), or in a smaller coffin to be taken home by the rest of the family (in Vietnam). The practice is called jiǎngǔ in Taiwan, or boc mo in Vietnam '揀骨 “digging up bones” and is an important ritual in the posthumous “care” of children for their deceased parents and ancestors. Failure to carry out this ritual is considered a failure of filial piety")

China is not mentioned further in this Wiki page, implying that this is not done in China any more.

(b) 客庄影音. 行政院客家委員會, undated (a video clip).
http://archives.hakka.gov.tw/new/video/videoAction.do?method=getDetailVideoVO&videoId=TTIwMDgxMjA1Njg=
("生命禮儀-陳能旺  陳能旺，新竹縣新埔人，1935年生，自幼即隨父祖為人揀骨，從擇時辰、座向，到開棺、挖土、曬骨、清理、入甕等流程，每一個環節都必須遵循「男左女右、坐姿就位」的嚴格程序。由於做工謹慎，禮節有序，陳家揀骨頗受鄉人倚信，即連當地的天主教修女神父與教友，甚至是遠在南部屏東一帶的客家庄也慕名前來禮聘。")

(c) ”揀骨”的問題?  Yahoo!奇摩知識, Feb 27, 2005.
http://tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=1005022703706

(d) Clifton D Bryant, Handbook of Death and Dying. 2003, at page 815.
http://books.google.com/books?id=3z9EpgisKOgC&pg=PA815&lpg=PA815&dq=bone+coffin+taiwan&source=bl&ots=3SBckU5PPt&sig=nGkKKw0v03BzyyO4ELARhvctEaU&hl=en&ei=6rJFTcuWGIGclgfgh-zoDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=bone%20coffin%20taiwan&f=false
(TAIWAN AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD: "After the 7th year, the coffin is exhumed and opened, and the bones are cleaned and arranged in a ceramic pot, which is then palced in the grave (Ahern 1973: 165)")

(e) To be frank, I did not hear of the custom while in Taiwan.

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