A Chinese man has been sentenced for desecrating an ancient burial site by live-streaming himself opening coffins, rearranging bones, and even kissing a skull. The 21-year-old, surnamed Chen, had traveled 2,000 kilometers to the site, located in Guizhou province, with two friends to live-stream his activities in an attempt to make money.
The site, a naturally formed cave, features a traditional form of burial used by the Miao ethnic group and dates back to the Ming dynasty. Chen and his friends raided the site with the intention of opening up the coffins and showing the contents to their audience. They opened up three coffins resting on the ground and removed the bones from one of the coffins to pose for the camera. Chen even took a skull from the burial site and kissed it live on video.
The live-streamer was caught by villagers trespassing at the ancient Guoli cave burial site in March last year. He was live-streaming on a lesser-known video platform called Anmo using an unidentified account, according to a report published by the Longli County People’s Procuratorate, which pressed charges against him on February 16.
Police initially considered not pressing charges, but the procurator insisted on pursuing Chen because they said: “Not severely cracking down on such behavior will harm the normal social order and the protection of local cultural relics.”
The Guoli cave-style burial is considered a living fossil for studying the Miao people’s ancestor worship rites and was listed as a provincial cultural relic protection site in 2015. About 400 people, including ancestors of a local clan surnamed Wu, and elderly people over 60 years old who died in recent times are buried in the cave at the site.
Chen received a nine-month suspended jail sentence after apologizing to the descendants of those buried at the site. Chinese online users were shocked by the man’s actions. “Even grave robbers know it is immoral to open coffins, and money-grubbing live-streamers don’t have a bottom line,” one commented. “He is quite a daredevil. I dare not go into places like this,” said another.
The incident has prompted authorities to re-examine the security measures in place to protect the site from similar incidents in the future. The Chinese government has been taking steps to protect cultural relics in recent years, as incidents of theft and vandalism have increased. The government has implemented stricter regulations and penalties to prevent such actions from occurring, including jail sentences and hefty fines.
The case of Chen serves as a warning to others who may attempt to profit from the desecration of cultural relics. The punishment given to Chen sends a strong message that such behavior will not be tolerated, and that the protection of cultural heritage is a priority for the Chinese government.
