In 2013, BBC World Service did an interview with Taiwan’s most famous professional mourner.

She is a third-generation traditional Taiwanese mourner, Liu, who’s famous for her typical wail, crying and singing at funerals. She attends the ceremonies with a band, dressed in bright costumes and performing dance routines to music. According to Liu, she genuinely feels sad at every funeral she attends and the tears she sheds are real and not manufactured. As people adopt simpler and more modern tastes and abandon lavish funeral practices in Taiwan, Liu’s profession faces slow extinction.