Guanxian County in Shandong Province launched on Saturday a rectification campaign of existing bad old social traditions including ghost marriage, where two dead people are married to each other, after a 16-year-old girl who fell to death from a building last December and her corpse was sold by her adoptive parents for 66,000 yuan for ghost marriage which sparked heated discussions.
The Party secretary of the county Zhang Xuehong stressed the work of changing bad old habits and customs during a meeting on Sunday and ensured the implementation of cremation of the deceased and assured the public of free of charge for the cremation service and the transportation service of the corpse.
According to Zhang, the authority will collect and destroy the cemetery fake flowers, regulate monuments and scattered graves and crack down on ghost marriages.
This campaign came after a 16-year-old girl named Xiao Dan (pseudonym) died of a suicidal jump from a building last December and her biological father surnamed Sun revealed that her corpse was sold by her adoptive parents for ghost marriage with a boy who also passed away.
Sun claimed that his wife got pregnant unexpectedly in 2005 and they decided to give Xiao Dan away since the family were experiencing financial difficulties.
According to Sun, Xiao Dan had vented about her adoptive parents’ long-term verbal abuse to her close friend, which Sun believes was the cause of her suicide. Besides, Sun insisted that Xiao Dan’s adoptive parents should be charged with the crime of domestic violence and the crime of insulting a corpse for selling Xiao Dan’s corpse for ghost marriage.
