More than 1,300 Americans died in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Several months following the natural disaster, almost 200 bodies remained unclaimed or unidentified. In response to cries from city officials and citizens to provide these unclaimed Americans a “proper burial,” New Orleans officials requested a significant amount of funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to build a mausoleum for the bodies. Local officials, citizens, and the federal government went to great lengths to protect the dignity of the unclaimed bodies found after this natural disaster.
Instead of this response, imagine that someone suggested that we dissect the unclaimed bodies from Hurricane Katrina, place them in various extreme and sometimes unflattering poses in an exhibit, and allow the public to view them for a price. That person would likely be accused of insensitivity and other violations of basic social values. Why, then, has our society legitimized exhibits that display the dissected bodies of unclaimed Chinese people?