Word: nanliang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Dehai never imagined he would marry his shy first cousin Hai. Though intramarriage was common in imperial days, it is taboo in modern China. But at age 20, with his friends already paired off, Liu found himself the odd man out. His parents, farmers in the village of Nanliang in Shaanxi province, could not raise the $2,000 required to attract a woman to Nanliang to marry their son. With so many men to choose from, women are loath to settle in hardscrabble villages like Nanliang. Desperate, Liu's mother contacted her sister and requested a favor: Could...
...While not as risky as once thought, marriage among first cousins nearly doubles the chances of birth defects. Reminders of the potential dangers fill neighborhoods just a few miles from Liu's village of Nanliang. In the roadside hamlet of Chenzhuangke, a first-cousin couple grieve for their young son who died of a rare blood disease. In the nearby city of Yan'an, a brother and sister squat in the mud-brick slums, signing a secret language to each other. Both Cao Shuai and Cao Jing were born deaf-mute. Everybody in the neighborhood thinks they know why: their...