DEATH SPACES; TRANSIENCE AMIDST THE LIVING AND DEAD IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD

Abstract

The following is a study of death spaces of the Chinese community in Singapore. It is how we mitigate death and its occurrence in the ordinary setting of our mundane lives and surroundings that reveals the most about our cultural lives and beliefs on death. The research probes into the spaces that reveal the manifestations of death, identifying the Chinese funeral; gatherings on Qing Ming festivals and the various ancestral worshipping activities as the most obvious signs of death around us. These are some of the spaces belonging to the ordinary Chinese in their beliefs on death culture.

Using the ordinary landscapes of our surroundings to understand the relationship between the living and dead, it is possible understand the quality and meaning of spaces for the dead. It reveals how death spaces and culture continues to persist around us even under the desacralized eye and authority of the non-religious modern man. It is this transience quality in death spaces and how man interacts with the spaces that reveal a lot about our stance on death culture and how it continues to remain relevant around us.