New book looks at the solitary life of the funeral cryer
Set in a remote village in contemporary rural China, The Funeral Cryer by Cambridge author Wenyan Lu is a tragi-comic tale of one woman's mid-life reawakening.
The funeral cryer in the story — the novel’s main protagonist — long ago accepted the mundane realities of her life: shunned by fellow villagers because of the stigma attached to her job as a professional mourner and under-appreciated by The Husband, whose fecklessness has pushed the couple close to the brink of breaking up.
But just when things couldn't be bleaker, the funeral cryer takes a leap of faith — and in so doing things start to take a surprising turn for the better…
“When I started writing a new book, I wasn’t sure what I should write,” says Wenyan, who is originally from Shanghai. “However, I was always interested in the funeral rituals in China. Then since I moved to the UK, I’ve been thinking about what I should write. Do I just want people to be curious, or would I like people to feel something? That’s the idea.”
She continues: “I thought people might not want to read something like that because death is kind of taboo. In my culture at least, we don’t talk about it. I’m a teacher and I have some Mexican students, and once they were celebrating Day of the Dead, so I was curious.
“The students showed me pictures of their offerings and some activities and I saw some similarities and was intrigued. I did some more research and obviously funeral crying wasn’t that unique in China in the past. Of course these days you don’t really hear about it.
“I’m from Shanghai so actually I have never seen any funeral crying in my life. I did some research and found some articles writing about funeral crying in China, so I thought it was quite good to actually use this as a medium.”
Wenyan, winner of the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2020, expands on the ‘outsider’ status of the funeral cryer.
“Of course people don’t really want to be near her,” she says, “so she is always on her own, and she’s the outsider of most things. And because of that, she is observing everything and she is on her own and can think about things.
“She witnesses people’s sorrow and also there are things, like secrets in families, and she sees people’s true colours more than other people.”
One thing that’s unique about the story, Wenyan explains, is that the characters don’t have names.
“The protagonist I write in the first person,” she says, “and also The Husband and there’s a barber in the book who’s quite important as well. In the end, something happens between the barber and the protagonist.”
Wenyan says she wrote the book before the pandemic (it took her “eight or nine months” to write), later going back and adding to it, and noticed parallels between the main character and what was happening during 2020-21.
“Later, when I was reading it again, I thought it’s funny the people don’t want to be near her — social distancing and everything,” she observes. “In one chapter, I, the protagonist, is talking to a friend and the friend is standing under her porch and they’re quite far from each other and are shouting to each other,” she says.
“When I wrote it, I didn’t realise that, but now when I look at it…”
Wenyan adds: “This story happens to the protagonist in a remote village in China, but actually it could happen to anyone. I hope people from different cultures will understand it and will also feel it — human beings all have the same desires and destination.”
An experienced teacher and wordsmith, Wenyan, who has been living in Cambridge for 15 years, holds a master of studies in creative writing as well as a postgraduate certificate in teaching creative writing from the University of Cambridge.
Her unpublished historical novel, The Martyr's Hymn, was also longlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2018 and Bridport First Novel Prize 2019.
The Funeral Cryer is published by Allen & Unwin and is out today (May 4).