Heavy snow falls in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, on December 23, 2025. Photo: VCG

A social media post drew widespread attention from Chinese netizens recently, with the related hashtag, "woman seeks help online for grandmother's joyful funeral due to small social circle," trending on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, according to Beijing Youth Daily's official WeChat account. On Monday, after the funeral had concluded, the author of the post shared a follow-up message expressing gratitude to netizens for their help and to society for its concern.

In China, a "joyful funeral" usually refers to a ceremony held for an elderly person who lived to an advanced age and passed away peacefully. It blends mourning with a sense of celebration, viewing the deceased's full and well-lived life as something to be honored and even rejoiced in.

In her original post on Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), the woman explained that her grandmother's funeral would be held in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Because she and her family didn't have many relatives and friends to call upon, she reached out online to ask local kind-hearted people to help see her grandmother off on her final journey. 

The appeal quickly received strong support, with many netizens saying they were willing to participate. On December 23, the woman posted an update saying the funeral had concluded smoothly, and she expressed her heartfelt thanks and best wishes to the netizens who came to pay their respects despite the heavy snow.

The report quoted one participant from East China's Zhejiang Province, who said he and his girlfriend were traveling in Heilongjiang when they came across the online post. On December 22, they traveled to Harbin and booked a hotel near the funeral home. The next day, heavy snow fell suddenly in Harbin, making it difficult to hail taxis and rendering other forms of transportation inconvenient. When they arrived, they found that more than a dozen warm-hearted netizens were already present.

Another participant, a local resident, recalled that everyone who came said the same thing: once words are spoken, they are like water that has been poured out - in Northeast China, they freeze into solid ice. Even if knives were falling from the sky, they would still come.

"Where there are people, there is great love; where there are people, there is beauty," a netizen commented under Beijing Youth Daily's report. "When your heart is kind, kindness will naturally be returned."

Global Times