"The people can't afford dying" has become a bizarre refrain among the Chinese public that has been repeated in recent years almost every Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day. In metropolises like Beijing, the cost of a cemetery burial, ranging from 40,000 yuan ($6,500) to hundreds of thousands of yuan, is far from affordable, according to the recently released annual Green Book of Funerals: Report on Funeral Development in China, from an institute affiliated with the Ministry of Civil Affairs. What's more, the media has reported on rampant of profiteering in the death care industry. For example, a funeral urn will often be sold at a price of 1,000 yuan, even though its cost is less than 200. Investigations and revelations like these are ramping up public fear about dying a "tombless" death because their family cannot afford to bury them.

It is estimated that China's funeral market will surge in value over the next two years, to over 100 billion yuan. According to the Economic Observer, the overall gross margin of China's cemetery company Fu Shou Yuan has been over 80 percent for two years in a row.

The exorbitant fees and charges are partially caused by the industry's government-controlled monopolies. Public money, although allowed to foray into the industry, is somewhat limited by some local authorities, which corner the market for themselves.

For example, according to Xinhua News Agency, in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, two of the three funeral homes in the downtown area were found guilty of conspiracy or "group corruption."

Reaping profits from the dead doesn't sound good, but the administration shouldn't take all the blame, because it is making every effort to reduce the price bubble. The government has never ceased introducing economical, convenient and modern ways to provide death care. In order to alleviate the financial pressure on low-income families, some local governments have offered special sections in public cemeteries, and suggested "eco-funerals," such as planting a tree in the ashes.

However, in a culture which values lineage and overstresses piety, which can become "saving face" from the offspring's perspective, these novel ways of burial are usually given a cold shoulder.

High funeral costs are the outcome of the administration's improper commercialization of the funeral industry, and society's obsession with some rigid ideas about a proper burial. The government should do more to scale back officials from overstepping their role of guaranteeing affordable basic funeral offerings to the public.

In addition, the public should refrain from indulging in pride and extravagance, and rediscover the real meaning of memorial.