China Scene: East

Husband gets divorce without wife's knowledge

Pan, a 45-year-old female resident of Tangshan town in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, found out recently in the process of her own divorce suit that her husband divorced her a decade ago.

Pan married Cen in 1983, after a mutual friend introduced them. Ten years later it became clear that the couple was incompatible. Pan asked for a divorce in 1998, but her husband refused. Angered, Pan left to do casual work in Beijing.