Corpses sold for Chinese 'weddings of the dead'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Corpses sold for Chinese 'weddings of the dead'*
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday May 18, 2007
The Guardian
Chinese police have arrested a corpse trader who killed six women so he
could sell their bodies for superstitious "weddings of the dead". The
Xinhua news agency said the man - only identified by the surname Song -
was part of a network supplying "ghost brides" to families seeking
afterlife spouses for their dead sons.
Arranged marriages for the dead are an ancient tradition in parts of
China. Although the custom declined after the communists took power in
1949, it is said to have made a comeback in rural areas.
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In an interview, Mr Song, from Linzhang county in Hebei province, said
he started selling bodies in 1998. His initial attempt at grave-robbing
failed when he was caught by police and jailed for two years.
Starting last year, he allegedly lured four women with learning
difficulties to remote areas on his bicycle, then strangled them. He
allegedly found the two other victims by recruiting them as
housekeepers. "Killing people and selling their bodies was easier than
stealing bodies from graves," he was quoted as saying.
He allegedly sold the bodies to middlemen in Henan and Hebei, claiming
the victims had succumbed to illness and been abandoned by their
families. Each corpse earned him £200 to £265.
His motive was to make enough money to build up a dog-breeding business.
"I felt very jealous when I saw successful businessmen. I dreamed of
becoming a millionaire," he allegedly told a reporter. "When a person
thinks only of money, they can do anything."
Mr Song was arrested when families of the two housemaids reported them
missing and police found they were both hired by him through the same
agency.
At least three other corpse traders have been detained in connection
with the case. Others are still at large.
Arranged marriages for the deceased are particularly common around the
festival for the dead in early April. In parts of Shanxi province,
farmers match suitable skeletons and organise engagements, weddings,
gifts, dowries and celebration dinners for the families.
In recent years, the practice has been reported in Henan, Hebei - very
close to Beijing - and even in Guangdong, the most developed province on
the mainland.
In some case, the dead men have living wives, but their parents want
them to have company in the afterlife. A lawyer told Chinese reporters
that a family in Xingtai village, close to the site of the latest
crimes, had sued the wife of their dead son because she refused to give
them enough money to pay for a "ghost wife" to take her place.
· Additional reporting by Chen Shi.