Love insurance

A photo of a controversial public notice in a Chinese village stirred netizens after it was posted on social media.The notice in Lincang, Yunnan province, titled “Village Rules: Everyone is Equal,” lists fines for pregnancies outside marriage, couples living together before they wed, and marrying nonlocals, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. The fines, payable annually, are 3,000 yuan, 500 yuan and 1,500 yuan, respectively.

The notice also lists fines for couple quarrels (500 yuan), rowdy behavior while drinking in another village (3,000 to 5,000 yuan), and rumor mongering (500 to 1,000 yuan).

Officials from the Mengding town government told Red Star News on 16 December that there are no local regulations prohibiting interprovincial or interethnic marriages and that the notice was posted by a village committee without their approval, so it had been taken down, according to SCMP.

Netizens called the fines crazy, extortion and outrageous. One described the village as “no place for normal people to live.”

Meanwhile, a woman surnamed Wu from Xi’an, Shaanxi province in central China, has shared on social media a reward she expected for marrying her long-time college sweetheart.

According to the 31-year-old, she bought a “love insurance” policy for 199 yuan in 2016 as a gift to her boyfriend, whose reaction then was that she had been scammed.

According to the love insurance policy bought from China Life Property and Casualty Insurance Company Limited at a 50-percent discount, the benefits can be redeemed after she marries her designated partner on any date within 10 years after the third anniversary of the policy’s effective date, SCMP reported.

Though the company already discontinued offering love insurance in 2017, existing policies would still be honored. Wu and her boyfriend married in October.

The love insurance entitles her to either 10,000 yuan or 10,000 roses. Wu took the cash payout, according to SCMP.