The Sale Of Stolen Corpses For 'Ghost Marriages' Is A Bad Sign For Chinese Bachelors

Four men in the Chinese province of Shaanxi have been sentenced to jail time after being found guilty of digging up corpses to be sold as brides in traditional "ghost marriages", according to reports in the AFP.

Chinese newspaper Xian Evening News reports that the crew made as much as 240,000 yuan ($39,000) for selling 10 corpses to the family of men who had died single.

The gang have been sentenced to between 28 and 32 months for their crimes.

So-called "ghost marriages" have traditionally been arranged by the family of a male when the man dies too young to find a wife. Usually the family of the deceased woman agrees to have the female buried with the man for an agreed-upon fee. According to a heavily-cited Wikipedia page on the subject, females are sometimes "ghost married" in a bid to provide a deceased daughter with a patrilineage.

What's unusual about this case is that the corpses were dug up without permission by criminals with an entrepreneurial bent. Additionally, it appears to have been lucrative — it's worth noting that the average wage in Shaanxi province in 2011 was 39043 yuan a year, less than $6,500.

There's an uncomfortable demographic shift that might be making criminal projects like this economically feasible. While much of China's media might be talking about "leftover women" — that is women over the age of 27 who are still single — a far bigger problem may well be that of the leftover men, aka the "bare branches".

Some reports suggest that due to a combination of China's one child policy and a traditional preference for sons, China may be looking at 12 to 15 percent of its male population being unable to find a wife. That means more and more Chinese men dying bachelors, and perhaps more and more families trying to arrange "ghost marriages".