Rural China's Lack of Legal Awareness
Chinese writer Song Shuli's (宋树理) book 私了 - 法庭外的荒唐闹剧 (or Private Settlement - The Ridiculous Farce Outside Court Rooms, Dazhong Wenyi Publishing House, 1999) is a collection of real-life stories about how people chose to settle criminal cases and civil disputes among themselves, instead of turning to the legal system.
Most of these cases involved local disputes where money, power, influence and illicit sex (but of course) were involved.
In the case of women who were raped, these mainly rural women and their families would usually remained silent after the crime. Most were afraid that their families would be "shamed", while those who were single did not want the incident to affect their marriage prospects. Then there were also those who had no choice but to keep quiet because the rapist is someone prominent within the community.
One case involved a man who discovered that his wife was having an illicit affair with the latter's married factory supervisor. When the two were caught in the act, the male philanderer pleaded for mercy, and begged his lover's husband to "name a price."
But apparently, the husband did not want any money. Instead, he asked the philanderer how many times the latter had slept with his wife. When he was told "four", the husband said, "well, in that case, go and tell your wife that I will sleep with her four times." The philanderer had no choice but to oblige.
But when the husband found out that the philanderer's wife was a couple of years older than his own wife, he felt "cheated." And as luck would have it, the philanderer had an 18-year old daughter.
So the deal was - to make up for his "loss", the husband will sleep thrice with the philanderer's wife, and once with the daughter.
Anyway, the central theme of the book was to take these ignorant Chinese to task for not turning to the police and the legal system, and for taking the law into their own hands.
But with a Chinese legal system that has yet to instill, let alone inspire confidence, and with the concentration of power in the hands of powerful people who controlled both the police and the courts, how can Chinese, especially those living in rural areas, be expected to have confidence in the ability of the legal system in delivering a fair and just verdict?
Most of these cases involved local disputes where money, power, influence and illicit sex (but of course) were involved.
In the case of women who were raped, these mainly rural women and their families would usually remained silent after the crime. Most were afraid that their families would be "shamed", while those who were single did not want the incident to affect their marriage prospects. Then there were also those who had no choice but to keep quiet because the rapist is someone prominent within the community.
One case involved a man who discovered that his wife was having an illicit affair with the latter's married factory supervisor. When the two were caught in the act, the male philanderer pleaded for mercy, and begged his lover's husband to "name a price."
But apparently, the husband did not want any money. Instead, he asked the philanderer how many times the latter had slept with his wife. When he was told "four", the husband said, "well, in that case, go and tell your wife that I will sleep with her four times." The philanderer had no choice but to oblige.
But when the husband found out that the philanderer's wife was a couple of years older than his own wife, he felt "cheated." And as luck would have it, the philanderer had an 18-year old daughter.
So the deal was - to make up for his "loss", the husband will sleep thrice with the philanderer's wife, and once with the daughter.
Anyway, the central theme of the book was to take these ignorant Chinese to task for not turning to the police and the legal system, and for taking the law into their own hands.
But with a Chinese legal system that has yet to instill, let alone inspire confidence, and with the concentration of power in the hands of powerful people who controlled both the police and the courts, how can Chinese, especially those living in rural areas, be expected to have confidence in the ability of the legal system in delivering a fair and just verdict?
posted by Maria Siow @ 12:14 AM
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