Let’s talk about death: Hong Kong funeral planner wants people to discuss taboo subjects openly
- Pasu Ng devotes about two days a week to life education to help city’s residents break old beliefs
- His efforts have earned him a nomination for this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards
Pasu Ng Kwai-lun is not afraid of breaking taboos.
“I encourage people to talk about death openly,” said the 40-year-old, who runs a social enterprise providing after-death care and funeral planning services.
In a recent talk given at his Sham Shui Po office, Ng discussed with attendees what should be said to someone who had lost a loved one. Platitudes should be avoided, he said, citing the expression “I know how you feel” as an example.
During the session, he also shared with his audience an extensive list of Cantonese euphemisms for “die”, which, in his view, attested to Hong Kong people’s aversion to talking about death explicitly.
But Ng, who was in the embalming business, and formerly in charge of the dissection laboratory at Chinese University, is eager to help the city’s residents overcome such squeamishness.
As the founding president of the Hong Kong Life and Death Studies Association, he now devotes about two days a week to life education to help break this old belief.
