Dealing With Cheating Spouses In China
Recently the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) ran an article which began: “A new industry has emerged in China, helping husbands and wives to separate their unfaithful spouses from their lovers. It's called ‘Mistress Dispelling’, in which clients often pay tens of thousands of dollars to see off unwanted love rivals.”
This story speaks of two significant factors relating to today’s China. The first insight is the amazing growth of the nation economically, with a myriad of ‘industries’ that have been spawned by the new financial empowerment, especially of China’s middle class. As the BBC rather bluntly describes it: “With the surge in super-affluent families in China, there has also been an apparent upsurge in the number of men choosing to keep a concubine.”
The second factor is the loss of traditional moral foundations, suggesting a society whose newness has not brought with it the necessary underpinning of morality to replace the old. The current massive anti-corruption drive, revealing as its does the epidemic of corruption which flows from the very top downwards, is real evidence of this missing moral foundation. Of course that criticism could be brought against many nations today; it is by no means unique to China. But in China it is special because it flourishes under an ever-tightening communist regime and also because it has emerged so swiftly.
The BBC illustrated the concept of “mistress dispelling” through the example of Mrs X (she did not wish to give her name). She was a client of a “Love Hospital” in Shanghai which runs a "mistress dispeller" service. Mrs X was given (for a large sum of money) “many weeks of marriage counselling… a lesson in positivity and how to be a better, more dutiful wife. She is given the secrets of successful wedlock, and how to prevent a husband's attentions from wandering. In many cases, though, it's too late and his attentions have already wandered.” The BBC article spoke of a million such clients.
And if it is too late, there is more than just advice available to the partner who has been cheated (almost all are women). This involves taking steps like “hiring operatives who will persuade the 24-year-old secretary that she could do better than hang around with a man twice her age. Despite costing thousands of dollars, Mrs X is convinced this was a better option than divorcing her cheating spouse.” There are, the BBC said, “Thirty-Three Ways to Dispel a Chinese Mistress.” These methods will employ the “hired operatives doing what it takes to separate cheating husbands from their mistresses.” Four of these methods were revealed; the other 29 were not – for whatever reason!
Pray that the Chinese leadership would see the importance of moral values, and especially that they would see Christianity as a valued part of that process.
Pray for Christian ministries and churches in China that they would seek to use Biblical methods to support and help marriages in China.
Pray for the marriages of Christian leaders in China, that they would be models of good relationships. Pray against the devil’s attacks which seek to destroy Christian marriages, especially those of leaders.