More Weird News...
Oct. 5th, 2006 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseMy partner Shawn, who knows my fondness for this kind of stuff, send me this New York Times article:
Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives
Apparently, in the Loess Plateau of China, there is a folk custom to buy dead wives for dead bachelors and to have a kind of joint marriage/burial service called _minghun_. This whole thing struck me as very science fictional/fantasy-esque and generally ripe for some kind of story seed.
My first thought was... how much does it suck to 1) be a woman in this part of China (apparently being kidnapped and sold as a living wife is a major concern), and 2) what if you're gay? So, you manage to live your whole life as a single guy/gal, and then whammo! your "thoughtful" parents/family just hitched you up in the afterlife with the wrong gender! Is there recourse? Can you file for afterlife divorce? Do you have to haunt your family until someone comes up with a way to nulify your afterlife marriage?
Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives
Apparently, in the Loess Plateau of China, there is a folk custom to buy dead wives for dead bachelors and to have a kind of joint marriage/burial service called _minghun_. This whole thing struck me as very science fictional/fantasy-esque and generally ripe for some kind of story seed.
My first thought was... how much does it suck to 1) be a woman in this part of China (apparently being kidnapped and sold as a living wife is a major concern), and 2) what if you're gay? So, you manage to live your whole life as a single guy/gal, and then whammo! your "thoughtful" parents/family just hitched you up in the afterlife with the wrong gender! Is there recourse? Can you file for afterlife divorce? Do you have to haunt your family until someone comes up with a way to nulify your afterlife marriage?
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 07:45 pm (UTC)Probably not. Something tells me the celestial bureaucrats are pretty homophobic.
Enlightenment
Date: 2006-10-05 08:28 pm (UTC)