( j8 N1 Q0 V$ B0 G' \这一桩令人毛骨悚然的“鬼新娘血案”充分暴露出凶手的残忍和愚昧；而在这种残忍和愚昧的背后则是道德的全面沦陷----“万能的”金钱在支配着许多人的头脑。延安警方一位高级警官说，“幸亏及时逮捕了凶嫌，不然还不知道会有多少妇女遭到毒手暗算”。“他们竟然以为这是‘致富的捷径’，结果却是面临死刑”。 ! G: o E% ^3 T: L' f) w4 A& Q* w2 ~/ r& _
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Ghost brides are murdered to give dead bachelors a wife in the afterlife 2 f- M. Y9 W# \1 `: W3 X. gGang preyed on rural superstition 0 R$ Q7 |, F/ X
Undertaker was link with families ) i& c$ I6 H/ w2 Y& S
/ n$ P9 `4 b6 z4 D: R+ c: }5 z A ring of gangsters who traded in the bodies of women they murdered, selling them as brides to keep dead bachelors happy in the afterlife, has been arrested in China. 2 F+ ^, X# r# x
6 U% E3 r# m- h, |& f+ [& y( KThe arrests have exposed a trade that places a higher value on women when they are dead than when they are alive. ' i V% u$ t+ j( d2 l) M ' H( d' e. A& F$ g# S: R# n
Yang Dongyan, 35, was arrested on January 4 in Sha’anxi province as he played cards with his children. In his prison cell, Mr Yang showed little remorse for committing two murders. He told the Legal Daily: “I just wanted to make money. It’s a quick way to make money. I was arrested too soon otherwise I had planned to do this business a few more times.” - E: N3 x) z1 C% p! X - n9 A8 i( ]2 e/ m+ E: b; [! b# CTwo accomplices, Liu Shengbao and Hui Haibao, were also arrested, as was Li Longsheng, a self-styled undertaker who traded the bodies to bereaved families. ' V$ t9 [$ Q$ S& ?# a
* {/ r0 M1 E5 ]Zhang Yanjun, chief of police in Yanchuan county, said: “It’s lucky that the case was cleared up in time or we don’t know how many women would have been killed by them. These people thought they had found a short cut to wealth.” Instead, they face the death penalty. 0 E/ b5 Z% V; k( A& t8 m3 M/ I7 J4 B: a3 X# O
The men preyed on the superstitions of ill-educated farmers eager to ensure that a dead son was happy in the afterlife. It is not uncommon in rural parts of China for a family to seek out the body of a woman who has died to be buried alongside their son after the performance of a marriage ceremony for the deceased pair. * ]* b% a# b( y) S' M3 c ( A' |, g% G0 d; a0 x9 bAncestor worship is a tradition that runs through many aspects of Chinese life. One of the main Chinese festivals is Tomb Sweeping Day, when families visit graves of their forebears to clean them and burn incense. The spirit is believed to live on in the afterlife and at funerals families burn offerings of paper money and models of houses, cars and other little luxuries that the dead may need. 3 b6 i5 x, f, u( \1 R9 [0 ?
# Q. ] T% [3 V5 iMr Yang chanced upon the trade in dead bodies when he paid 12,000 yuan (£800) for a mentally handicapped woman whose family hoped to marry her off for a price. The trade in women as wives is a common practice in rural China and a woman may be sold several times by intermediaries before meeting her eventual husband. 8 N0 d3 g# g$ Q- w9 `7 z$ H; S! M
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Mr Yang arranged for the woman to stay in a guesthouse in Yanchuan county where Mr Liu offered him £666 for her. Mr Yang refused, until Mr Liu told him that the woman would be worth much more dead than alive. The next morning the two men set out across the Yellow River to meet “Old Li” in Xixian County, Shanxi province. Old Li agreed to buy the woman’s body for £1,050 and to complete the deal late at night on the Yanshuiguan bridge. 1 f2 a/ m2 b/ T3 [: Y- B" C
" I, t5 X' ~; `9 h1 f3 g2 DThe next day Mr Yang killed the woman and took her body by taxi to the bridge where Mr Li was waiting and handed over £1,000 for her. For his part in the deal, Mr Liu received £300 and Mr Yang came away with a loss of £200 after his expenses. * I, `$ A& V7 q6 ^ x( s0 I" l- W1 p5 [+ M/ Z* [. V: X. G/ z# j4 r
Back at the guesthouse, Mr Yang told an old acquaintance, Mr Hui, that he had found an easy way to make money. The two men agreed to go into the body business together. Last November they sought out a prostitute they knew in nearby Yan’an — the city where Chairman Mao began his Communist revolution — but she threw them out after they said that they could not afford to pay her £20. They returned the next morning and killed her. ; Y& @1 A/ E. ~4 w) f) B: [) a1 A3 z$ L8 I* M+ h7 Y K
On December 3 they completed a similar body handover with Mr Li on the bridge. This time they made only £530 because the buyer was unhappy with the quality of the body and, after costs, Mr Yang and his two friends each earned £100 on that deal. * i! D9 E: x0 A4 _# p' Y9 U" \: D8 f$ J6 M, U3 |
Old Li had made a name for himself in Xixian county by selling clothes to outfit the dead and by handing out cards that offered to help families in need of a spirit marriage. They want young and good-looking dead brides for their sons and regard the family of the girl as “in-laws”. Police discovered that Mr Li paid between £530 and £660 for a body and sold it on for as much as £2,300. 2 P/ o* z* L- O" N) Y# q, J% B 5 r' ~1 u; u0 v1 ]2 e% Z& _ . j9 P5 k$ P9 X6 [ k" Z: R* Q: Y0 A2 |# B7 X! L5 w
- t; B2 I4 k% x% XActors as ghost bride and bridegroom: parents who make a spirit marriage for sons regard the dead bride's family as in-laws (Bobby Yipby/Reuters) # T9 g, O3 H5 v- `) v4 f X6 F. S0 P6 f3 d [
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