Taiwan Today

In Taiwanese culture as in many others, death is a taboo subject, and the public has traditionally held the mortuary industry at a distance. However, views have somewhat changed among the younger generation in recent years. A 22-year-old woman in Changhua County, nicknamed "Baobao," works as a cosmetologist for the departed. She has always liked to design hairdos and makeup for her friends and family, but although their smiles of satisfaction with the results gave Baobao a great sense of success, she never imagined that she would end up walking down the path of sprucing up the dead. Persuaded by a friend in the same line of work, Baobao began her involvement in the mortuary industry in 2008. At first, she felt frightened by the bodies of the deceased, and her hands shook as she applied cosmetics to their faces. She would scare herself so badly that she couldn't sleep at night, suffering from nightmares. But she held fast to what she had set out to do, and did it with an attitude of respect. "I try to make up the mouths a little lighter, and have them look like they're smiling a little," says Baobao. She painstakingly works on the face of each corpse, adding a little red. Today, Baobao has become accustomed to her "clients" and is no longer frightened. The families of the deceased often give her "red envelopes" with cash inside as a means of expressing their appreciation. The amount of the money does not concern her; instead, she sees her job as a way of expressing merit and virtue to others. During "Ghost Month" in 2009 – the seventh month on the Chinese Lunar Calendar – Baobao experienced a few ghost stories of her own. A coroner came to the mortuary to examine the remains of a woman who committed suicide. The coroner grabbed a big pair of shears to cut off all the clothing of the deceased, but the scissors got stuck and would not open no matter what efforts were applied. Everyone present was scared speechless and quickly apologized to the body, explaining that this was a necessary step. After that, mysteriously, the scissors operated normally. Baobao says that there was another elderly woman who died at the age of 93. When she was preparing to do the woman's final makeup job, the deceased's eyes opened and air was expelled from the mouth. The experience terrified Baobao. "You have to be respectful of the dead," she says. After getting a taste of the job, she has gained a better understanding of being a mortuary cosmetologist. It is, she says, to make people's last journey a beautiful one. Baobao does not regret her career choice, and she would still continue down the path she is on, leading to a life very different from her peers.