CHINA: County bans birthday parties for public servants

AUTHORITIES in a Chinese county have banned public servants and Communist party members from having birthday parties, housewarmings and other banquet celebrations.

Authorities in Funing county, in Yunnan province, also put caps on weddings and funerals, limiting guest numbers and food budgets. The measures, seemingly targeted at potential corruption, include bans on using official vehicles for business or collecting gifts and cash that are “obviously higher [value] than normal reciprocity”.

Party members and public servants were also ordered to dial back on extravagant weddings and funerals. Wedding motorcades must not contain more than 10 vehicles, and receptions must not exceed 20 tables or a total guest list of 200. The guest list and wedding cost must be reported to authorities prior to the event, and gifts are limited to values no higher than the previous year’s per capita disposable income of Funing’s urban residents.

Funerals should be simple and frugal, the directive said, with fewer wreaths and less burning of fake money. “During the funeral, it is strictly forbidden to hire crying teams, art teams, or lion dance teams to carry out memorial activities,” it said.

The measures were being implemented to “carry forward the fine style of hard work and thrift, cultivate and practise socialist core values, and to create a good urban and rural landscape of thriftiness, civility, and honesty,” officials said.

Weddings and funerals are often seen as signifiers of social standing and have become increasingly extravagant affairs. China’s central government has long called for citizens to restrain festivities in the name of frugality or to curb behaviour deemed dangerous.

In March, state media reported that several counties in Henan, Jiangxi and Shandong provinces had issues guidelines or rules in line with a pledge by the civil affairs ministry to mobilise community organisations to develop more modest alternatives, including group weddings.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/13/chinese-county-bans-birthday-parties-for-public-servants