Divorce in China.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, 27 March 1914, Page 4

Divorce in China.

There is only one legal wife i China; she is the Kit-fat, an she alone is carried to th bridegroom’s house in the seda chair. The Kit-fat may b legally divorced on seven ac counts :if she proves immoral disobedience to her husband' parents ; over-talkative ; given t thieving; if she is .jealous ; c afflicted with leprosy. Tlii sounds a very comprehensiv series of reasons ; yet in poin of fact none of them can b urged if the wife has observe mourning during three years fo her husband’s parents; if th family has become wealths having been poor when she mai ried ; or if her parents are deac so that she cannot return t them, so it is easier and pleasan ter to take a secondary wife tha: to get rid of a first one, an divorces are consequently mor rare than elsewhere, for shoul the husband try to discard hi wife, and she could prove any c the above reasons against ; divorce, he would not only b obliged to take her back, bu would have rendered himsel liable to punishment. —Lad; Blake in the Nineteenth Cen tury.