In Taiwan, there is a special group:
"76 Walker Remains Beauty Restoration Team".
This is the first and currently the only public welfare organization in Taiwan dedicated to the recovery and treatment of human remains after disasters.
76 Some members of the 76 Walker Team
About the "76 Walker Corpse Beauty Restoration Team" -
This craft organization was founded in 2014. The founder is Chen Xiujiang, who is a senior corpse restorer in Taiwan and has been engaged in corpse restoration for 8 years.
Chen Xiujiang was involved in the underworld when he was young, and was in and out of prison 5 or 6 times. Every time he was released from prison, his status in the world improved, and more younger brothers recognized him as their elder brother. The last time he was imprisoned, he was imprisoned for 6 years. During these 6 years, he received special counseling and began to understand life thoroughly. He wanted to be a good person and do a job that was meaningful to society and himself. After
was released from prison, with the help of his girlfriend who was a corpse makeup artist, he came to work in a funeral parlor. Starting from carrying coffins and cleaning, he continued to learn and delve into corpse restoration techniques, and eventually became a skilled corpse restorer.
used his hands full of tattoos and having fought and killed, to repair more than 1,000 corpses in 8 years, so that these more than 1,000 lives could still bid farewell to this world with dignity when they completed their life journey.
Chen Xiujiang
In 2014 Penghu, Taiwan air crash and Kaohsiung gas explosion, there were many casualties. Chen Xiujiang called on the body restoration friends in Taiwan at that time to repair the bodies of the victims together. After the two disasters, the total number of bodies that were voluntarily repaired was 76 pieces.
Chen Xiujiang realized that Taiwan did not have a dedicated body restoration charity team at that time, so he proposed to establish such an organization. It was immediately recognized by his partners, and the "76 Walkers Body Beauty Restoration Team" was established. The
team started with only 27 people and now has more than 300 people. When a disaster occurs, team members all participate in the restoration of the remains at their own expense.
What is a restorationist? ——
Plastic surgery and restoration of corpses is a professional skill. Some technical schools offer this professional course, which is a specialized subject.
Corpse cosmetologist is a person who uses cosmetics, medicines and equipment to engage in cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, make-up and hairdressing of corpses. They are specially responsible for making up the deceased and placing them in the coffin. Its responsibilities mainly include the restoration, plastic surgery and beautification of corpses, which is a highly technical type of work in funeral services. Plastic surgery of corpses includes the repair, plastic surgery and beautification of corpses, which is a very important part of funeral services. (From Baidu Encyclopedia)
There are five levels of cadaver plastic surgeons, from level 5 cadaver plastic surgeons to level 1 cadaver plastic surgeons, all of which are nationally certified professional qualifications.
This is a profession that requires a lot of pressure and requires a strong heart, including the outside world's views on this profession, and the pressure of public opinion is very great. Many people have heard about this profession and imagine that their daily work involves dealing with all kinds of corpses, regardless of whether they choose friends. Even if you are a partner, you will have many worries.
On the other hand, the remains that generally need to be repaired are mostly the remains of people who died in disasters, accidents, homicides, etc. Some of them have very serious external damage, and it requires more than ordinary people's calmness and superb skills to complete the repair task. If the body is damaged, it may even need to be reconstructed, which requires very high professional skills.
As Chen Xiujiang said:
To do this job, you must have a very strong and stable personality traits, and you must learn to let go of yourself. Because when we deal with it, we will have empathy and treat the deceased as our own relatives, just like if he is an elder, we will treat him as our parent; if it is a child, I will think that it is my child, so Your roles are constantly changing and you can relate to the grief of the families.
Death is not separate from life, but a part of it.
- Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood"
There is a famous movie in Japan, "The Encoffiant", which tells the story of a young man who originally chose the career of an embalmer due to no choice but to make a living. After completing some tasks of embalming remains, I learned a lot about life and death.
Stills from "The Embalmer"
Whether it is an embalmer, a corpse restorer, or a corpse plastic surgeon, the objects of service are actually not the corpses, but more the reborn people, the relatives, friends, and lovers of these corpses...
Death is It is an end, the end of life. The living person must remember and be reluctant to leave. The way to express it is to hope that the person you love can be respected in the last journey of life and can complete the final farewell decently.
Just like what Chen Xiujiang said at the end of the interview, death is not terrible. What we have to do is to face it positively and accept it calmly.
We must calmly accept and treat these seemingly special professions and respect them. If possible, we also hope that more people will join such a professional team and use practical actions and another way to view life and death. Understand life.
