(Global Times) Some 185,740 Chinese aged 55 or older reportedly committed suicide in 2007. Photo: CFP
If somebody in the world commits suicide every 30 seconds, then about 30 percent of that annual approximate 1 million people are Chinese, according to a recent international medical research. Of those, an serious problem is suicide among people aged 55 or older.
“If one day I jumped out of the window, my husband wouldn’t even notice until a neighbor told him,” said a 58-year-old desperate housewife, who asked not to be named.
Her husband mostly watches TV, barely uttering more than a few words to her, the Beijinger complained. The couple sleeps and eats separately. They even have their own TV sets, she said.
Their only daughter lives in the same city, but rarely returns home – not even at Chinese new year. The two women have locked horns over a small apartment in Zhushikou, a prosperous business district near Qianmen.
The mother wants to sell it for about 200,000 yuan ($29,280) as the old building needs a lot of troublesome maintenance. Mindful of the blossoming Beijing real estate market, her daughter passionately believes that the property is potentially much more valuable. To prevent her mother selling, she threatened to sue her.