TIANJIN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- In a workspace of just over 10 square meters, Li Ying, 41, started her work routine by sorting her toolbox. Inside the toolbox are brushes, foundations and oil paints for restoring the facial appearance of the deceased.

Li has been working as a mortuary restorative artist for nearly a decade at a funeral service center in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

Li's job is usually deemed mysterious in the Chinese social-cultural context. In the days surrounding Qingming Festival, a time of the year when Chinese people pay tribute to the dead, the job of a mortician is thrust into the spotlight.

Li takes pride in her work, believing it restores dignity to the departed through meticulous facial restoration and cosmetic care, and offers solace to the living.

"Restoration focuses on natural serenity, not beauty," Li explained. "Facial work is key." Most bodies that need restoration have sustained severe damage, especially facial injuries.

"At first, I thought the job would be simple, but it's actually very complex," Li said. Taking skin suturing as an example, the way the needle is held, the entry points, and the depth and angle of the stitches all affect the final results, she explained.

Li still remembers her first restoration job with her mentor Xu Qiang. The body had been severely damaged in a car accident. Upon seeing the corpse, Li felt no fear, only compassion for the deceased's suffering.

"All I could think about was the pain he must have endured," Li said.

For Li, every task is a conversation with life. Compassion and empathy are essential qualities for morticians. "Only with these traits can we truly take responsibility for the final leg of the journey of each passing life," Li said.

After two weeks of effort, Li and her colleagues completed the restoration work. When the family saw the restored body, a teary-eyed relative looked at Li with gratitude. "That look made me realize the true value of this job, that is to help every life depart with dignity," Li recounted.

The work of these restorative artists holds immense value for grieving families. In a heartfelt letter of gratitude to the Tianjin civil affairs bureau, a father shared the tragic story of losing his seven-year-old daughter in a road accident in October 2023, and how the postmortem restorative work carried out by the city's morticians brought him a sense of solace amid unimaginable loss.

"Our entire world shattered in an instant, and we were consumed by grief. The moment I saw my daughter's disfigured face from the collision, I simply couldn't accept such a cruel reality. The thought of my child leaving her family and this world in that condition was unbearable," wrote Li Ming, the grieving father from Tianjin.

Staff at the funeral home helped Li Ming get in touch with Xu Qiang's team to carry out postmortem facial reconstruction for his daughter. According to the father, Xu took great care to learn about the child's life and paid close attention to every detail while restoring her appearance. Beyond his meticulous work, Xu also offered heartfelt emotional support to the grieving family.

At the funeral, the moment the family laid eyes on their lost child, they broke down in tears. "My daughter looked as if she were merely sleeping peacefully. She had the same clothes, the same hair, the same eyelashes, and a clean face. She truly appeared to be asleep. How I wish I could wake her, just to say: It's time to go home with daddy," Li Ming said.

The tragic story offered a poignant glimpse into the comfort that Li Ying and Xu Qiang's work can bring to a devastated family.

In recent years, the proliferation of social media content has demystified the funeral industry. More and more young people have even joined the profession of morticians.

China has also regulated the mortuary restoration industry through laws and industry standards to protect the dignity of the deceased and the rights of their families.

In 2021, China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly issued national occupational skill protocols for four funeral service professions: funeral attendants, embalming and restorative artists, crematory operators and cemetery administrators.

In Tianjin, for instance, the city's civil affairs authorities decided to build a talent pool of embalming and restorative artists by offering training and organizing professional skill competitions to help enhance their proficiency.

In a national contest of occupational skills in the civil affairs industry hosted in 2023, the tissue suturing segment of the embalming and restorative art competition required participants to complete a 10-cm wound closure within 40 minutes. Participants were judged on suture aesthetics, functional integrity, waste disposal and hygiene.

The development of China's mortician profession reflects the society-wide commitment to safeguarding the dignity of the departed and offering comfort to grieving families. It also reflects the Chinese society's respect for human rights, said Shi Weishang, vice president of the Tianjin funeral industry association. Enditem

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