In China, marriage and birth rates have hit record lows and many people are living in isolation. Is the Are You Dead? app just a practical response to this \u2013 or something more troubling?<\/p>\n
A few days before Christmas, after a short battle with illness, a woman in Shanghai called Jiang Ting died. For years, the 46-year-old had lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Hongkou, a residential neighbourhood that sits along the Huangpu River. Neighbours described her as quiet. \u201cShe rarely chats with people. We only see her when she goes to and from work, and occasionally when she comes out to pick up takeout,\u201d said a local resident interviewed by a Chinese reporter<\/a>. Her parents long deceased, Jiang had no partner or children to inherit her estate. Her lonely death sparked a debate in Chinese media about how society should handle the increasing number of people dying with no next of kin<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Xiong Sisi, also a professional in her 40s living alone in Shanghai, the news triggered uncomfortable feelings. \u201cI truly worry that, after I die, no one will collect my body. I don\u2019t care how I\u2019m buried, but if I rot there, it\u2019s bad for the house,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n