Tombstone blues

A man in Beijing was recently sued by his ex-girlfriend for engraving her name on his mother’s gravestone and labeling her as his mother’s daughter-in-law.

The man surnamed Lv and the woman Chen Jing (not her real name) met in 2001 and soon lived together as an unregistered couple. In 2004, Lv’s mother passed away and the Wang family who had already regarded Chen as a family member labeled Chen as the dead mother’s daughter-in-law and put her name on the gravestone. However, Lv and Chen broke up two years later. Chen was furious after she found her name still inscribed on the tombstone of a woman with whom she had no longer any relations with, and sued Lv, demanding 50,000 yuan ($7,325) for “spiritual damages.”

In court, Lv said he had already erased Chen’s name from the gravestone and refused to pay any compensation. “Inscribing her name on my mother’s gravestone was a gesture to show my respect to and recognition of her at the time when we were together. Actually, no spiritual damage was ever inflicted. I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about,” Lv said. The final ruling on the case will be announced soon.