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Abstract As an important part of elderly welfare system in China, the research, construction and development of funeral service system should not be neglected due to traditional Chinese funeral taboos. Without sufficient theoretical analysis, previous researches have not systematically investigated the characteristics of funeral service. This paper attempts to make up for the deficiency, taking the fourdimensional features of funeral service as its theoretical guidance for the research on Chinese funeral service system. According to welfare pluralism, the funding sources of funeral services should be diversified. In China, such methods as government financial subsidies, reduction and exemption of taxes, and the establishment of an incentive system to promote social donations should be adopted to provide financial support for funeral service. Other channels like subsidies, government procurement of services and the financial support from the basic pension system should be employed to provide financial guarantee for funeral service. Funeral service industry is a natural monopoly, and the funeral service market is characterized by information asymmetry. The formation of governmental interest groups seriously harms the publicwelfare nature of funeral service, which is the inevitable result of unreasonable control and operation monopoly by the government. The Chinese government should convert funeral service agencies into social welfare organizations, establish reasonable funeral service management and operation systems, give full play to the roles of government departments, social organizations, social opinions and the masses, build an extensive information network of funeral service to optimize its management and operation, and expand the scope and the scale of basic funeral service to improve its welfare level. Funeral service is related to culture and emotions. As to the poor cultural guidance of the funeral service system, great attention should be paid to funeral culture. The provisions of the system should not be far ahead of the status quo of the current funeral culture. Otherwise, it would bring disharmony to social development, do harm to the interests of the people and hurt their feelings. On the other hand, the provisions should be moderately ahead of the current funeral rituals in order to guide the reform of funeral service system. As to the insufficient fairness of infrastructure construction, we should make the following efforts. First, strengthening the construction of funeral homes and public cemeteries for grassroots and in poor areas by adopting a special transfer payment mechanism and increasing public investment. Second, stressing the equality of government officials, celebrities and the masse by decreasing the number of urban commercial cemeteries, promoting the construction of urban welfare cemeteries, and regulating the operation of rural public cemeteries. These measures help realize the fairness in sharing the funeral service infrastructure. The construction of a legal system plays a fundamental role in the healthy operation of the funeral service system. As to the weak authority of the regulations for funeral services, the Chinese government should issue a Funeral Act and specify detailed implementation rules. In case of violation of funeral laws, the law enforcement personnel should strengthen education and guidance to ensure strict law enforcement and prosecution of lawbreakers and to achieve the authority and formality of funeral laws and regulations.
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2013, Vol. 43 
