Ghost-fully yours
2003-02-26 12:16
Hong Kong - A grieving Chinese couple are offering
$120 000 (about R960 000)to try to find a man who will marry their dead daughter, a news report said on Wednesday.
The couple from Tianjin have placed a newspaper advertisement seeking a groom aged 25 to 35 to legally marry their daughter, who died on February 11 at the age of 28.
The successful applicant will go through a marriage ceremony at which personal belongings of the woman will represent the bride, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported.
He will then receive the money - a fortune in rural China -and an apartment from his parents-in-law, provided he stays faithful to his "ghost bride".
The woman's mother, a restaurant owner, said she had dreamt of her daughter after her death and realised she was lonely without a husband in the spirit world, the newspaper said.
"Ghost marriages" for young people who die unmarried are an ancient Chinese custom which was curbed after the Communists came to power in 1949, but which have revived in rural areas in recent years.
Despite the fortune on offer, only five applicants came forward in the first few days after the advertisement was placed. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA