Zeng Jia, a 22-year-old student from Wuhan, China, shocked family and friends when she invited them to a rehearsal of her own funeral so she could take part in the festivities while she is still alive.

The young student told members of the press that she got the idea for the morbid event after realizing that people spend a lot of time and effort on someone when they’re gone, and they never get the chance to appreciate and enjoy it. Determined not to let that happen to her, Zeng Jia used up all her saving to arrange an elaborate funeral service complete with a coffin, flowers and origami birds, as well as photographers and a crowd of mourners. She then invited her family and friends to take part in the unusual festivities. Believe it or not, some of them actually attended, and got the chance to look at the young girl as she lay in her coffin, with a Hello Kitty doll on her chest. To make the whole thing look and feel realistic, Zeng even hired makeup artists who specialize in working on dead bodies to give her that coveted past-away look. She spent an hour playing dead, as all her relatives and friends passed by her coffin to say their final goodbyes, after which she jumped out to attend the wake and even delivered a eulogy in her honor.

Photo: CEN

 Zeng says she wanted to enjoy all the attention dead people get at funerals, and was curious what people would think of her in those final moments. The 22-year-old claims she has no regrets about staging her funeral, and that experiencing death has made her appreciate life even more. And she’s not the only one. This kind of practice has been used in China or Taiwan as a form of therapy. In 2010, a Taiwanese professor made headlines for having his students spend 10 minutes in an enclosed coffin to experience death and make them feel reborn after they came out. In 2012, it was discovered that a Chinese clinic has patients lying down in coffins to help treat their psychological problems and heavy stress.

Photo: CEN

Photo: CEN

via Daily Express