China Scene: West
Dowry's simplicity has message to remember
A tape recorder, a vacuum bottle, a mirror and comb and a quilt were the only items in the dowry that a wealthy mother sent to her daughter on January 2 when she got married in Chongqing Municipality.
The mother, surnamed He, owns a transportation company, but the simple dowry had a message. It was the same dowry her mother gave to her in the early 1980s.
Receiving the dowry, the bride, He Yu, and her husband, Wang Peng, thanked her mother and promised to pass on it to their children so that the next generation also would not forget the hard times China has faced.
(Chongqing Economic Daily)
Offer to work for 10 years to help leukemic girl
A graduate student in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, says he is willing to work for free for 10 years if the employer will instead foot the bill to treat his younger sister, who is suffering from leukemia.
Yuan Guozhu, who comes from a farmer's family in Henan Province, is studying for a master's degree at Chang'an University.
He returned to his home Luohe of Henan in mid-November after his sister, Yuan Songyan, was diagnosed. He took her to Zhengzhou, Henan's capital, to receive treatment.
After learning of the plight of the family, kind-hearted people have donated 30,000 yuan ($3,840) to help them cover the medical cost. But the money was inadequate for the girl's treatment, prompting Yuan's offer.
(Henan Economic Daily)
Man's efforts to defame wife end with divorce
A financial dispute between a man and his wife in Sichuan Province ended with the court granting the wife a divorce.
Lu Ming, a 53-year-old furniture factory owner in Qionglai, married 32-year-old Liu Juan, a garment dealer. But the couple could not get along and separated half a year later.
Thinking that Liu had spent 150,000 yuan ($19,200) of his money when they lived together, Lu asked her to give him that amount of money if she wanted to divorce him.
When his wife disagreed, Lu put up defamatory notices in many parts of Qionglai calling her a swindler and urging police to arrest her.
His wife saw through his trick and filed for divorce, which the court approved without his consent.
(West China Metropolis News)
Surgery to remove tail on human baby to be free
An army hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, will do surgery on a baby for free to remove an 11-centimeter-long tail on his hip.
The baby, Lin Lin, was born last October with a tail between 4 and 5 centimeters long. Since the tail is connected to his spinal cord, doctors said it might paralyze him if it were not removed. As Lin's mother, Huang Hualan, cannot afford the operation, she asked an army hospital for help last Thursday. The hospital agreed to do the operation with the cooperation of doctors from different departments.
(Tianfu Morning Post)
(China Daily 01/10/2007 page6)
