1.3 Million Chinese Couples Divorced in First Half of This Year
Wedding Photo Shredding Gains Popularity Amid Divorce Surge
"80% of Customers Are Women... A Kind of Healing Process"
As the divorce population surges in China, the business of destroying wedding photos is gaining popularity.
On the 18th (local time), The Washington Post (WP) reported that the annual number of divorces in China reached 4 million from 2016 to 2020, leading to increased demand for companies that handle wedding photo disposal.
In China, people face difficulties when dealing with wedding photos after divorce. Burning photos of living people is considered a taboo superstition in China. Additionally, it is impossible to illegally discard large framed photos in China.
As a result, more people are entrusting this task to specialized companies. Liu Wei, a document shredding professional, started a business in 2022 specializing in shredding documents and other personal information. He calls himself the "Love Story Funeral Home Operator" and said, "When the lifespan of wedding photos ends, we become the crematorium." Liu stated that photo shredding currently accounts for more than 95% of his business, with 80% of that being wedding photos.
When a customer's package arrives at the factory, Liu and his staff count the items and weigh them to determine the price. The cost per photo ranges from as low as 10 yuan (about 1,800 won) to over 100 yuan (about 18,000 won). Liu records the entire shredding process on video and sends it to the customer before sending the remains to a waste-to-energy facility.
He said, "We carry out this entire process with responsibility," adding, "Some customers find comfort in this process." According to Liu, about 80% of his customers are women, and some share stories related to their divorces for over an hour during phone consultations.
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