Deployment of Virtual Reality (VR) to Promote Green Burial

Population projections for Hong Kong suggest that the city will accommodate 8.22 million people in 2043. One in every three people are expected to be older than 65 in 2066. The long-held Chinese traditions for burial of deceased with reverence and honour, coupled with the chronic land shortage have presented an excessive demand for cemetery space. Niches are seldom recycled and the inadequate supply of new columbarium niche requires the family of the deceased to consider alternative way for keeping cremated ashes. To ease the demand, “green burial” has been launched and promoted by the HKSAR government through different print and social media. Currently, scattering of cremains in Gardens of Remembrance or at sea are the two common ways to perform green burial. The public acceptance of green burial is still a questionable and is under-researched. This study is going to deploy innovative technology, virtual reality (VR) to increase physical and psychological fidelity in highly resembled scenarios for the people. On one hand, VR gives immeasurable value to people when they are enabled to navigate different circumstances (physical fidelity) before considering the use of green burial. On the other hand, VR enables the people to engage in different mental processes (psychological fidelity) replicated from an array of cognitive reaction and sentiments with the choice of green burial. In order to optimize the configuration of the VR settings, we will conduct a face-to-face, semi-structured and in-depth interview with different practitioners. In the study, we explore: (1) To what extent the enhancement of physical fidelity of innovative technologies debunk public’s misconception of green burial? (2) To what extent the enhancement of psychological fidelity of innovative technologies debunk public’s misconception of green burial? (3) To what extent the simulated experience derived from innovation technologies change the public acceptance of green burial?

Green Burial in Hong Kong

Green Burial is a burial method which uses biodegradable materials to entomb the dead body instead of cremating by using embalmed liquid. It aims to let the body return to the nature naturally. With an ageing population, there is an increase of demand on columbarium and niches in Hong Kong, and green burial has been introduced as a more sustainable option to bury the deceased. The current paper has summarised the official documents regarding the green burial programme proposed by the Hong Kong government. The reason why people do not prefer green burial may be due to the Chinese traditional belief and the lack of education. Methods of delivery of message and social media coverage are issues leading to people not being encouraged to use green burial. United States and Singapore develop improved approaches in performing green burial. The effect in promoting green burial services is evaluated in this study and recommendations on improving the way of promotion are proposed.

Composting a Life

Chapter 6 analyzes the online marketing and other popular media representations of “green burials” and “eco-funerals.” Ecopiety becomes the basis for more elaborate lines of imported, expensive, “green” consumer products. Green burial activists concertedly build bridges between personal green burial planning and collective civic engagement to effect policy making. Mega marketers, by contrast, portray the virtuous purchase of eco-friendly funerary goods as an end in itself. In both marketing and funeral practices “on the ground,” the bodies of eco-pious corpses have a story to tell about humans’ relationship to “stuff” and to their own mortality in an age of environmental crisis. Beyond merely identifying the relentless influence of capitalist logics and forces of assimilation, this chapter makes a concerted analytical pivot.It probes what kind of potential green burial practices might hold for prompting Americans to face their own mortality as they begin restorying death in more positive ways that could in turn induce limits on death-denying consumption.