A woman in China advised her friend to keep his father's ashes in a parcel locker to avoid paying professional storage costs, as per a report in South China Morning Post. This move has caused outrage online. According to a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on July 18, the man did not have the funds to bury his father in a cemetery, nor did he have the space in his modest home to house the cremation urn.
"He followed my suggestion to leave the cremation urn in a Hive Box parcel locker. You can buy a membership fee for only 55 yuan (US$8) a year. They will not charge any other fees. Isn't that quite a reasonable price?" she said.
Notably, at least 100,000 yuan ($14,000) would be required to purchase a burial plot of less than one square meter in the suburbs of large cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Chinese people prefer to be buried in graves because they think that only when ashes or remains are buried in soil will spirits find peace. However, scattering ashes in a funeral home has grown in popularity because it only costs a few hundred yuan a year.
After her remarks went viral, the author of the post apologised for its "misleading and vicious impact" and closed her Weibo account. Many users also responded to her post.
"The woman who came up with this idea is so immoral. She did not consider the deceased person's feelings nor the interests of neighbours living in the same community and using the parcel lockers," a user said on Weibo.
Another added, "This father is so wretched to have such a son who put his ashes in the delivery box, rather than a normal place to store."
