Space for the Departed: Bone Ash Apartments as an Alternative to Cemeteries in Urban China

13/11/2025 16 min

Listen "Space for the Departed: Bone Ash Apartments as an Alternative to Cemeteries in Urban China"

Episode Synopsis


This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by xinyi wu can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2025/11/space-for-the-departed-bone-ash-apartments-as-an-alternative-to-cemeteries-in-urban-china/. About the post: The Bone Ash Apartments are at a grey zone of policy because turning residential units into burial sites is not allowed. As per the civil affairs official, "It goes against the residential function of housing and public norms." But in reality, the state is under-invested in accessible, meaningful funerary alternatives that are low in price. Bone ash apartments therefore are a private solution to a public infrastructure failure—a way for people to stay connected to their dead in a system that has prioritized efficiency over intimacy. (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)

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