The Ongoing Persecution in Komland

While the world has astonishingly witnessed an unscrupulous genocide targeting Uyghur people and their religion, another equally notorious, yet far less known to the West, ethnic persecution and cultural genocide is taking place on the other side of East Asia. Her name is Komland.

As another occupied ex-politically-independent-entity, Komland, later relegated as Jiangxi Province, was invaded and colonized by Chinese communists after 1949 and suffered from the Leninist coercion politically, religiously and culturally since then. Komland was once famous for her porcelain production and tea industry as well as her rich culture of Taoism and Buddhism. Well known for her indomitable personification, Komland, though pervasively under the threat of genocide, repression, and discrimination, survived with the perseverance of Komlish Clans, which is a unique form of community in Komland for at least 1100 years. Komlish clans, similar to their Polynesian cousins, believe in the connection between the deceased and the living, therefore considering a decent funeral and posthumous honor one of the most important events in life.

However, the only decency left for Komlish people was now being sabotaged and destroyed, when Chinese authority enacted the so-called “Funeral Reform”, forcing Komlish people to denounce their custom and cultural identity. The elderly of Komlish clans use to buy their own coffin when they are still healthy. Since the coffin symbolizes the tunnel linking the living clan members with their ancestry, this custom is considered a bliss and the auspiciousness for longevity. However, now the Chinese government deemed the long-enduring tradition a superstition and started a new round of persecution to Komlish in April.

The document of “Funeral Reform” in Ji’an county

In the recently issued document of “Funeral Reform” in Ji’an county, it wrote:”Before September 1st, 2018, all bodies in the county must be cremated. The rate of the cremation must reach 100% and the cremains must be kept in (province-owned) public ossuary”; “Bodies are strictly forbidden to be placed in coffins and coffins are strictly forbidden to be interred. Those buried before must be disinterred and cremated before the deadline.”; “Funerals must not be carried out in case superstition is disseminated. No funeral music can be played, or it will be considered a violation of laws and a threat to public security.”; In addition, no coffins are allowed to produce any more.

In 2017, several state-owned enterprises, including Jiangxi Dacheng State-owned Property, Jiangxi Province Building Material Group and Jiangxi Province Military Industry Group together funded Jiangxi Funeral and Interment Group, aka Jiangxi Mingde Guihou Humanities Co.Ltd. The state-owned funeral juggernaut is widely believed to be the economic motive in the persecution whereas the political motive is to eliminate the potential dissents in Komlish clans.

To extinguish the cultural identity and traditional heritage of Komlish, the communist police force is sent to villages and farms where clans mostly lived. Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of coffins are despoiled from the ancestral hall, the most sacred place for Komlish, and piled up outside the villages, waiting to be further disposed of. Probably they will be burned down to ashes. According to the reports of the Chinese government, the communists have ransacked Ning’du, Shang’rao, Gao’an, Yi’yang, Zhang’shu, Nan’chang and many other regions and cities in Komland. In Shang’rao, Chinese colonizers announced over 5000 confiscations of coffins in a month; In Gao’an, by 23rd June, they claimed “5871 voluntary turn-in of coffins”.

Piled-up Coffins in Komland

Voluntary as the shameless Chinese asserted, the persecution has reportedly led to several suicides of senior Komlish. In a recent video, it even showed that a devastated senior Komlish lay in the coffin and refused to leave, saying that he would rather die in the coffin right now than hopelessly “die without a burial”. The senior citizen of Komland was then brutally dragged out of the coffin by the Chinese police force and silently wept in front of the camera. In other videos, a senior Komlish in Ning’du guarded his coffin effortlessly, and another senior Komlish in An’fu was slammed to the ground by communists and left there crying for the loss of her last dignity.

Crying senior Komlish in coffin

The senior Komlish who is guarding his own coffin

A female senior Komlish, slammed to the ground, crying for the loss of her dignity

The Chinese communists even reached their hand to the ongoing funeral. In a conference held by Chinese colonists in Yi’yang on 19th April, a total 40 cases of “mandatory cremation” were praised by the communist government. Additional applause was given to a “successful intervention of an ongoing funeral”, where the coffin was disinterred and sent to the ossuary for mandatory cremation. Communists claimed that “the whole process was a success and the associated clan was by far emotionally stable.”

An appraisal report of mandatory cremation

Fully-armed Chinese escort the ransack of the deceased of Komlish

In the most notorious video clip, fully armed Chinese troops escorted three communist officers who carelessly pulled a deceased Komlish into a truck. The angry but unarmed crowd of Komlish clan members were pushed and shoved by the troops, who were apparently ready to shed the blood of the angry clan. In fact, confrontation is now proceeding and spreading in Komland. From a recent video posted on 27th July, we can see the brave clan members of Le’an were now, using home-made weapons and even farm tools, confronting the Chinese intruders.

The confrontation between Komlish and Chinese communists

The ethnic persecution and cultural genocide are still taking place as you read this article. As the tension of the confrontation upgraded, Chinese would undoubtedly intensify the level of persecution. The communist authority has a long history of killing and torturing the clan members in Komland. Hence, people in the free world, I ask you and beg you for your attention to this forsaken land because your attention matters. Komland and its beauty have not lost, and with your acknowledgment, she will never again.