What goes on at a funeral reveals the culture and customs of that particular region or society. Liu Bingjian’s Cry Woman looks at Chinese society through such scenes. First, the Chinese custom of ‘wailing’ for the dead is an indicator of how the Chinese people perceive life and death. Liu Bingjian comically and cynically shows us how this affects the lives of Chinese people today, who are living in a rapidly changing society. But sometimes a solemn funeral where people come to mourn for the dead, paradoxically, shows us the intensity of life. It also gives us a glimpse of the changing morals, social consciousness, views on love and money, among other things, of the Chinese people. Cry Woman’s appeal lies in its irony. Guixiang, who has to sing and cry at someone else’s funeral even after the death of her husband, is the epitome of this irony. Then again, isn’t life itself a sometimes unfathomable creature full of contradictions? (Michelle Sohn)