Researcher ORCID Identifier
0009-0002-0807-3119
Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Reader 1
Lance Neckar
Reader 2
Jo Ann Wang
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2025 Xinyi Wu
Abstract
The rise of bone ash apartments in China reflects a layered response to urban land scarcity, shifting funeral policies, and real estate speculation. As the state mandates cremation and restricts private cemetery development, traditional burial customs are increasingly reshaped by spatial limitations, economic pressures, and political regulation.
For some families, bone ash apartments function as modern ancestral halls—domestic spaces for remembrance and ritual continuity. For others, they represent a pragmatic investment strategy, offering long-term storage of ashes within assets that retain market value.
This thesis examines how urban planning, state funeral policy, real estate dynamics, and the disintegration of neighborhood relationships collectively give rise to this phenomenon. Rather than interpreting bone ash apartments as merely a cultural departure or financial tactic, the study argues that they embody a complex convergence of spatial constraint, ritual transformation, political governance, and socio-economic adaptation within the conditions of contemporary urban china.
Recommended Citation
Wu, Xinyi, "SPACE FOR THE DEPARTED: BURIAL, LAND SCARCITY, AND BONE-ASH APARTMENTS IN CHINA" (2025). Pitzer Senior Theses. 219.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/219
Included in
Civil Law Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Law and Society Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons
