Sunday, July 29, 2007

Commerce Thrives in the Most Unlikely Venues

The Economist has this provocative, if not grisly, story in this week's magazine. You can find the article here. It is named, "Wet Goods and dry goods".You may need to be a subscriber.

The title of the story is a bit misleading. The goods, as it turns out, happens to be fresh corpses (wet) v. not-so-fresh corpses (dry). We can always appreciate that capitalism will (1) fill any niche that suffers from a supply and demand issue, and for which circumstance once can be handsomely compensated and (2) always prove irrepressible for it speaks to the very essence of our nature: greed. Secondarily, we are alerted to a new place where inflation has cropped up. Here's an intro to this unusual commerce:

"Chinese tradition demands that husbands and wives always share a grave. Sometimes, when a man died unmarried, his parents would procure the body of a woman, hold a “wedding” and bury the couple together.. . .

The practice is most common in the northern provinces of Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong. This is China's coal-mining heartland. In mountainous Shanxi, pit accidents kill many men too young to marry. Compensation to the family is spent on giving their son a wife in the afterlife."

Inventory for such pairings has traditionally come from hospital mortuaries, funeral parlors and body snatchers. Four years ago, fresh merchandise would fetch only a few thousand yuan; however, now such merchandise commands a rather lucrative price of 30-40K yuan equating to $4-5.3K. For that price, more assertive entrepreneurs have resulted to more aggressive grave robbing in addition to murder.

Oh, the cultural binds that tie us! Does it remind you of kidney snatchers?

Here's a little story from my past. I have no idea if it is true or not. My immigrant Armenian grandparents had a store at 28th and M Streets in the 1940's. It is an area called Church Hill--one of those previously exclusively black neighborhoods that within the last 10 years or so recently undergone a renaissance of sorts where now you have to be rich to live there.

My grandmother would tell us about "Chicken Harris"--a black man feared by his community. Why? Apparently he supplied the Medical College of VA (MCV) with bodies for cadavers. As my grandmother would tell us, on Friday and Saturday nights when his fellow black men were engaging in revelry which generally involved imbibing too much alcohol, Chicken Harris would roam the streets in a horse-pulled hearse gathering up those who were too drunk to resist.

I don't know if it is true or not. But hearing this story as a child scared the bejeebers out of me.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this post and I can't wait to show it to my wife. I was born at MCV and my college roomie received his medical degree from there.

Back to the the purpose of my comment. You are such a good writer! Have you ever thought of writing a book?

Mrmockbird

Anonymous said...

a great post for a full moon day!

agree: such a good writer.

a great blog to read...never predictable.

regards

joey

Leisa♠ said...

Mrmockbird/Joey: Your comments are too kind. I don't know if I'll ever write a book though a person or two have said that I have at least one in me. Writing this blog has certainly fulfilled my desire to write--at least a few tidbits. I'm grateful that a person or two stops by to read and even better, to take time to comment. Many, many thanks.

russell1200 said...

"Does it remind you of kidney snatchers?"

No it reminds me of doggies digging up trees. Maybe you have Chinese doggies.

Anonymous said...

Life at the chinese coalface... check out the movie "Blind Shaft" by Li Yang. Tough

Anonymous said...

Few niches get filled in that movie dude!!!

Anonymous said...

Leisa,
I too was born at MCV many years ago. This is something that I will try to check out, as I live in the area. My business is in Highland Park which is just a hop, skip & a jump from Churchill. Will report later. Really Really interesting!!

Vavoline6

Leisa♠ said...

Valvoline6--Regarding "Chicken Harris"....after posting, I realize I need to call my sister and ask her two things (if she will even remember). 1. Is his name "Chicken Harris" and 2. When did he do this? Was it early on and that was his reputation or was it in that time frame.

Unfortunately, all of my mother's side of the family (the Armenian side) are dead. So I have to rely on my memory based on stories told to me by my grandmother when I was a child. I'll be 47 next month, so that's alot of memory lapsed.

Leisa♠ said...

Russell--thank you for that humorous comment. My little Chinese grave digging dogs indeed! Thankfully the burial ground is secured from those two imps. They've been busy digging for moles/voles--of which we have plenty.

Anonymous said...

If Chicken Harris were alive today, there would be abundant opportunity for him:

http://tinyurl.com/2o4xxs

regards
joey

Anonymous said...

Leisa,
I have a friend who grew up on Churchill in the 40's/ 50's. His dad was an Italian immigrant who started
the ODB CO. here in Richmond in the 20's. Would this time frame be about right? If so I would bet that my friend has heard the story. 66 & still rollin.

Vavoline6

Leisa♠ said...

Valvoline6: Could be the right time frame. Your friend might even remember my grandparent's store! I don't remember when they started the store, but my mother was born in 1933. So the 40's/50's seems correct for the store, but I'm really scratching my head on Chicken Harris' escapade time frame.