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China story of the day
...here in the parched canyons along the Yellow River known as the Loess Plateau, some parents with dead bachelor sons will go a step further. To ensure a son’s contentment in the afterlife, some grieving parents will search for a dead woman to be his bride and, once a corpse is obtained, bury the pair together as a married couple.
That would be a good opening for a novel.
Here is the full story; the practice is especially common when a teenager dies. Thanks to Tony for the pointer.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 5, 2006 at 10:16 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
Kind of interesting, but I do not see why the bloggers here keep posting these sensational and tabloid like factoids about China. It's a big country, and I am sure if you dig deep enough you can find all sorts of "interesting fact." It's like someone in China was blogging about "USA Story of the Day" and it's all about some crazy guy executing girls in elementary school or paris hilton getting punched in a club.
Esteemed academics, please leave this sort of garbage to tabloids. Thanks.
Posted by: a visitor at Oct 5, 2006 11:49:34 AM
To a superficial reader, the introductory paragraph may seem sort of tabloid sensation. An inteligent reader, however, gets the message of (a) the legacy of Confucian values, (b) the relative scarcity of brides in China (both live and dead) due to the demographic development caused by the one-child policy.
Thanks for the article, and go on.
Posted by: Pavel at Oct 5, 2006 12:24:14 PM
Pavel-
According to you, the same intelligent reader might also take away that jewish people are generally money-hungry and ruthless due to their thousands of years of persecution after reading the merchant of venice.
if you're introducing "facts" about a certain group that the audience knows very little about, you should be careful about reporting facts that are out of norm.
Posted by: a visitor at Oct 5, 2006 2:58:14 PM
Also, this is a web blog, not a Journal of Finance. Pavel, get off your high horse. Scroll down a little and you will see a post about hottest professors.
Posted by: A visitor at Oct 5, 2006 3:01:42 PM
To 'A visitor':
Is it your assertion that only positive, non-controversial and comprehensive facts about China should be presented? This is a weblog, not a Journal of Chinese Anthropology.
Snarkiness aside, I agree with Pavel. This is an interesting little window into China, the tip of the iceberg, if you will.
Posted by: Klug at Oct 5, 2006 3:06:50 PM
"That would be a good opening for a novel."
Yah.
A Zombie Novel.
It would be hard to beat "World War Z". Buy it today!
Posted by: Ivan at Oct 5, 2006 3:14:02 PM
"That would be a good opening for a novel."
There are heaps of non-zombie possibilities. (Though Corpse Bride was what I thought of first.)
Meanwhile, back in reality, if there is a shortage of live women, then there should be a shortage of dead women too. Which leads to disputes over who gets the dead women. The rest of the book writes itself...
Posted by: Patrick at Oct 5, 2006 7:02:34 PM
Novel? It's already a movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121164/
Posted by: Zubon at Oct 5, 2006 11:31:57 PM
this ought to be a 'markets in everything' post.
Posted by: quitacet at Oct 6, 2006 12:26:36 PM
Do they expect dead grandchildren?
Posted by: Wes Pinchot at Oct 7, 2006 12:46:27 PM
