chinese brides who scam

CHINESE BRIDES WHO SCAM


In China brides are worth far more than grooms
since there are there more testicles than wombs
so that the bride-price has become inflated
which causes brides to be so over-rated,
above fine rubies, even above pearls,
transforming China into paradise for girls.
This shortage has produced a marriage scam,
in which once married brides go on the lam
and heir liaisons terminate so soon
that there's no weDding night or honeymoon.
A pity Bernie Madoff had no daughter:
because a Chinaman might well have bought her
to make him rich in such a Ponzi scheme
about which Wall Street moguls cannot dream
because their daughters usually are Japs,
less helpful to their Jewish dads, perhaps,
than Chinese girls who for a bride-price scam,
less kosher than the Japs, since they eat ham.

Inspired by an article by Mei Fong in the WSJ, June 5, on a scam performed by Chinese girls, of whom there is a great shortage ("It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides in China: Surplus of Bachelors Spurs New Scam: Mr. Zhou, Briefly Betrothed, Now Pines"):

With no eligible women in his village, Zhou Pin, 27 years old, thought he was lucky to find a pretty bride whom he met and married within a week, following the custom in rural China. Ten days later, Cai Niucuo vanished, leaving behind her clothes and identity papers. She did not, however, leave behind her bride price: 38,000 yuan, or about $5,500, which Mr. Zhou and his family had scrimped and borrowed to put together. When Mr. Zhou reported his missing spouse to authorities, he found his situation wasn't unique. In the first two months of this year, Hanzhong town saw a record number of scams designed to extract high bride prices in a region with an oversupply of bachelors. The fleeing Mrs. Zhou was one of 11 runaway brides -- hardly the isolated case or two that the town had seen in years past. The local phenomenon has fueled broader speculation among officials that the fast-footed wives may be part of a larger criminal ring. "She called me soon after
she left," says Mr. Zhou, a slight man with a tentative smile. He says she asked how he was doing, and apologized for the hardship she had caused. "I told her, 'I will see you again one day.' " ...

While there are no nationwide statistics, wedding scams have occurred before, but usually isolated cases. Mr. Tang, Xin'an's Communist Party secretary, says he has never before seen such clusters of cases. Most of the 11 families involved lost an average of 40,000 yuan. Officials consider these to be fraud cases. So if caught, the women could serve jail time, according to police. Meanwhile, Mr. Zhou is still lovelorn. "I feel I can't hate her," says the deserted husband, who is now so depressed his parents have forbidden him to leave the village, as he longs to. "She must have her own troubles."

© 2009 Gershon Hepner 6/5/09