A young woman in China took her own life after she was coerced by her family into an engagement with a blind date who only cared about the bride price refund. The plight of the tragic 19-year-old has been described as a “horror story” by concerned people on social media and reignited discussions about marriage and women’s rights. Tongtong, from central China’s Henan province, was pressured into getting engaged to a man she had only met five days before, because her mother thought his better-off financial situation would “make her life easier”.
She and her mother ran a small clothes shop in their hometown. Tongtong felt reluctant when the man proposed, but her mother and a matchmaker persuaded her to accept. The man’s family gave Tongtong’s mother a 270,000-yuan (US$40,000) bride price at the engagement ceremony.
The matchmaker received a 4,800 yuan (US$700) fee. She later told the newspaper Beijing Youth Daily that her daughter did not like the man, who was rude and demanding. Tongtong wanted to break off the engagement, but the matchmaker dissuaded her, saying her mother, a single parent with six children, needed the money.
Always a considerate eldest daughter, Tongtong dropped out of school to work and help her family financially, and looked after her younger siblings. The desperate young woman threw herself into the river near her home, 17 days after the engagement. After Tongtong’s death, her fiancé demanded her mother return the bride price.
She gave .
