Ghost Brides of Shaanxi

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have arrested three men for killing two young women to sell their corpses as "ghost brides" for dead single men, a Chinese newspaper reported, warning the dark custom might have claimed many other victims.

Yang Donghai, a 35-year-old farmer in western China's Shaanxi province, confessed to killing a woman bought from a poor family for 12,000 yuan ($1,545) last year.

She thought she was being sold into an arranged marriage, but Yang killed her in a gully and sold her corpse for 16,000 yuan, the Legal Daily reported on Thursday. He and two accomplices then killed a prostitute and sold her for 8,000 yuan before police caught them.

"I did it for the money; it was a quick buck," Yang said, according to the paper. "If I hadn't slipped up early, I planned to do a few more."

The women were victims of an old belief, still alive in the yellow-earth highlands of western China, that young men who die unmarried should go to their graves accompanied by deceased women who will be their wives in the afterlife. Often these women die natural deaths.

Police in Yanan, the poor and dusty corner of Shaanxi where Chairman Mao Zedong nurtured his Communist revolution, said the dark trade went beyond these cases.

"The actual number is far from just these," the paper said.

Yang and two helpers sold the bodies to Li Longsheng, an undertaker who police said specialized in buying and selling the dead women for "ghost weddings". It was unclear what happened to Li.

From Reuters

China is a crazy place, and it's on the brink of implosion.

Then again, we've been saying that for awhile.

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Nollywood noogie

I have learnt two things today.

1. "Nollywood". Refers to the growing film industry in Nigeria.

2. Someone finally microwaved a baby.

In reference to an earlier post about China and Africa, I found a link to a discussion on whether China is colonising Africa. I hearts the BBC.

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China and Africa | someone's getting screwed

Everytime someone talks about how China is our motherland and we should do business in China because a)it's a booming market b)we share the same culture, I just want to sigh. Or cry.

We don't share the same culture as China. And even if we did, so what? China's a nation now, and it thinks along national lines. Don't get sentimental about China. China'll bend you over the Great wall and fuck you blind.

The reason I mention this - another news report about how China's screwing over poor African nations through dumping practices.

China's ambitions in Africa

China has stepped up its business presence in Africa, but is being criticised for not pushing for improvements in human rights and governance in some countries.

...
All but a few varieties of Africa's flip flops now come from China and local companies cannot compete.

Mr Ghaddar claims end of line stock from Chinese factories is "dumped" here, sold for less than the cost of materials, dodging customs and import duties.

...

Some Tanzanians object that Chinese imports are shipped to the Chinese embassy in diplomatic containers from Beijing - but no-one can prove it.


Former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere visited Beijing 13 times

Outside, Chinese digger trucks are at work in the street - a Chinese company has won a government tender to renovate the sewage system.

And foundations have been laid for the new Julius Nyerere National Stadium, named after Tanzania's founding president.

The raw materials, machines, the pipe work and the scaffolding, come from Beijing.

Then there's the other way to colonise a country - through immigration. The part about language is the one that troubles.

Mr Yang is the 31st member of his family to settle in East Africa.

His uncle opened the first of their seven shops in Nairobi, a decade ago.

But after three years here, Mr Yang - who wears a sweatshirt with a picture of an American footballer and the logo "Top Class" - has learned neither English nor Swahili.

His showroom is draped with silks, curtains and upholstery fabrics and is crammed with furniture such as dining suites, reclining chairs and an emperor-sized bed with adjustable headrest.

Mr Yang, his wife and his teenage son sit at the back of the shop munching snacks - Chinese snacks - from a jumbo-sized packet on his desk.

Yes, Mr Yang admits, through his translator, he has heard about local businesses swamped by Chinese imports.

Then he shrugs and says: "Africans love my shop."

It's not that unusual for a first - or even second generation immigrant to fail to pick up the lingua franca of a country. But it doesn't bode well either.

And of course, China's disregard for international copyright law is strangling another African nation that is barely managing to climb out of the morass of international aid debt.

China's going to be the next superpower, just like the United States. And rather like the US, China knows damn well that it can do what it damn well wants.

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