Graveside and funeral home gatherings have been, over millennia and across cultures, a cornerstone of grieving. The space and time devoted to these rituals have, for countless mourners and bereaved, facilitated expression of and opportunities for support and commiseration. On Wednesday, the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong announced its contribution to the modernization of mourning and its expansion into cyberspace.

The public can now, free of charge, commemorate departed loved ones at an official memorial website (Memorial.gov.hk) developed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).

Cheuk Wing-hing, director of the FEHD, in a Wednesday press conference at which the activation of the website was announced, said that online mourning has many benefits, compared with traditional memorials in which people have to perform ceremonies in front of the tombstone or niches in person.

"Without limits of time and space, it's good for maintaining families and groups," he said.

Cheuk particularly stressed the measure was not a reply to the current appeal of increasing bone ash niches. He also denied the online mourning service will promote scattering "cremains" at sea.

The service is available to the deceased who used public after-death services provided by FEHD. Either a family, relative, or friend of the deceased may create a webpage for him/her, as long as several particulars of the person are known. They can post the deceased's life story on the webpage, for which thematic layouts of different styles are available for personalization. Photos and videos can also be uploaded and shared on the webpage.

In addition to leaving messages on the pages, visitors can also send digital flowers, candles, fruits, and other food to the deceased, much as the rituals of traditional memorials permit.

Cheuk is confident that the website will easily have several thousand users in the coming years. However some citizens voiced doubts about the website.

An elderly woman named Au said it was impossible for her to memorialize her ancestors in such a "fashionable" way, because she doesn't even know how to use a computer.

A middle-age man, surnamed Ma, also has no plan to try the website. "It's just too abstract, too unreal. Actually seeing their pictures and completing the rituals mean something, and feel quite different," he said.

However, 25-year-old Gloria Wang understands the website is "well-intentioned". "I understand there is not much land for burial. The idea is environment-friendly and deserves support. But I really doubt the website could actually provide emotional and spiritual sustenance; a website is just too rigid," she said.

The website is able to support as many as 100,000 such webpages. FEHD has spent HK$2 million to launch and HK$80,000 annually to maintain the website, Cheuk said.

Cheuk didn't exclude the possibility that some may make practical jokes, leave inappropriate messages or upload improper photos to the website. As the webmaster, the FEHD will reserve the right to clear the contents, he said.

The FEHD will review the user numbers and the operation of the website a year from now.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/10/2010 page1)