As China's middle class enters an era of wealth and affluence, some age-old customs that used to be done 'hands-on' can now be done by service professionals hired online.

Take the annual Qingming Festival, for instance, where people are expected to remember their dead.  For those who lead busy lives and are constrained from performing the traditional rituals themselves, there are proxies who offer professional mourning services for a fee.

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Paid mourners can be hired at a starting rate of 500 yuan (US$80.00) to clean a grave, weep, mourn and even kowtow on behalf of the relatives of the dead. Flowers and other decors can be provided at an additional cost, of course.

THEN AND NOW

Paid mourning was a regular practice in ancient times across Europe and the Middle East, including parts of Asia.

Nowadays, most funeral homes only offer wake and burial arrangements but have left out professional mourning from their list of offered services.

However, in many rural areas, especially in China, a hoard of paid mourners will suddenly appear during a wake. While some members of urban society have frowned on this practice,  some still find it a convenient way of honoring their dead.

CONFUCIAN WAY

Qingming is a long-standing tradition in China, practiced as far back as when emperors lived in the Forbidden City, all the way through the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.

It is a Chinese tradition where departed family members are treated like the living, equally deserving of the bounties of life.

It is inculcated in Confucian teachings that call upon the living to venerate their departed, for they were the ones who made things possible in the present.

YOUR MONEY'S WORTH

Chinese netizens have been turning to shopping portal Taobao to look up available professional mourners.

To date, 20 service providers will appear when you enter the keywords "grave sweeping for you" in the search box.

The advertisements claim that their mourners are 'certified' professionals who were sufficiently and  adequately trained to perform traditional rites.

Offering of gifts and flowers, burning of incense, saying a eulogy as well as a ''requested' unabashed crying can be done, all within 30 minutes per grave.

Services also include an option for proxy mourners to put their phones on speaker mode to allow living relatives to speak to their dead if they can not visit the grave.

Even as communist China is slowly adapting to Western ways as a result of its economic advancement, some traditions just won't go away. The Qingming Festival on April 5 is a perfect testimony to that.