As the New Year comes, many young people are buying gifts, but Geng Yingying is thinking about a serious subject－death. A healthy 21-year-old student at Northwest Normal University in Gansu province, Geng signed documents to donate her body for medical research and education because she wants to leave a legacy¹ to the world after her death. She first learned about body donation through a volunteer activity in 2016. Not long after that, one of her friends died in an accident.

随着新年的到来，很多年轻人都加入了买礼物的浪潮，但Geng Yingying想的却是一个极为严肃的话题--死亡。Geng Yingying就读于甘肃省西北师范大学，年龄21岁，身体健康。她签署了一份遗体捐献文件，自愿在离世后将遗体用于医学研究和教育，因为她想为世人留下些什么。2016年，在参加一次志愿者活动中，她首次了解到遗体捐献这一行为。没过多久，她的一位好友意外离世了。

"I realized life is vulnerable and I wanted to make it more meaningful," she says. Geng is among a growing number of young Chinese who have registered as voluntary body donors³ in recent years. The number of registered volunteers for body and organ donations was 2,610 in Gansu by Nov 20, compared with just 80 in 2014, according to the statistics released by the local Red Cross Society.

"我意识到生命是脆弱的，我希望我的生命更有意义，"她说道。近年来，越来越多的年轻中国人自愿捐献遗体，Geng就是其中一员。据甘肃省红十字会发布的统计数据，截止2018年11月20日，甘肃省自愿捐献遗体和器官的登记者共计2610人，而2014年仅为80人。

The Beijing arm of the Red Cross reported that, by 2017 over 21,100 people applied⁴ to donate their cadavers⁵ since the city started a body donation registry in 1999. Over 2,600 donations have been used for medical research and education in that time.

北京市红十字会报道，自北京于1999年开始实施遗体捐献登记以来，已有211000人申请遗体捐献（截止2017年）。当时有超过2600人的遗体捐献被用于医学研究与教育。

Zhan Haibing, a postgraduate⁶ student in the School of Public Health at Lanzhou University, refers to cadavers as "silent teachers": "They have played an irreplaceable role in medical education and research. They give medical students a real understanding of the human body."

Zhan Haibing是兰州大学公共卫生学院的研究生，他将遗体称为"沉默的教师"："遗体在医学教育和科研方面发挥着不可替代的作用，让医学生有机会真正了解人体。"

China's body donation program started in the early 1980s. The Chinese have traditionally held that a person's body should remain intact because they believe there is an afterlife, and they see a traditional burial as an obligation of filial piety⁷ toward their elders.

中国的遗体捐献计划始于20世纪80年代。传统概念上，中国人认为一个人的身体应该保持完整，因为他们相信来世一说，而且他们认为举办传统葬礼是一种义务：向老人敬孝。

Voluntary body donation in China needs consent from an executor who must be a direct relative of the donor². Geng's decision to donate her body was strongly opposed by her parents, but she convinced them to support her. Her brother even signed as her executor. As the laws and the overall environment for donation continue to improve, and people's attitudes to funeral customs gradually change, body donations have become more acceptable.

中国人自愿捐献遗体需获得其直系亲属（遗嘱执行人）的同意。Geng决定捐献遗体，但遭到了父母的强烈反对，而她成功说服父母支持此举。她的哥哥甚至在文件上签名，作为遗嘱执行人。随着捐献的法律和整体环境持续改善，人们对葬礼习俗的态度逐步改变，遗体捐献也变得更易接受。