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Markets in everything -- funeral guests
Liu and her five-member Filial Daughters' Band are part of a thriving mourning business in Taiwan. They're professional entertainers paid by grieving families to wail, scream and create the anguished sorrow befitting a proper funeral.
The performances are as much a status symbol for the living as a show of respect for the dead on this island of 23-million people lying 145 km off the Chinese coast.
Weary, grieving relatives hire groups like the Filial Daughters' Band to perform their mournful stuff for $600 for a half day's work.
Here is the link, and thanks to Pablo Halkyard for the pointer.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on November 16, 2005 at 07:27 AM in Economics | Permalink
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