S2 Special - Strange Marriage Systems of Asia (3/3)

A single photograph can hijack your imagination. We open on a stiff, gloomy wedding portrait from the early Republic era—faces almost smiling, bodies too still—and the internet’s verdict is swift: a ghost marriage caught on film. From there we dive into the real world of spirit weddings across Chinese history, where families use ritual to honor the dead, settle inheritance, and hold fragile bonds together when fate cuts them apart.

I share how these ceremonies actually work, from paper effigies that stand in for the deceased to vows that bind a living spouse to an absent partner, and why some traditions persist in parts of China and Taiwan today. We step into a darker chamber of history with Manchu immolate marriage, a brutal custom once used to accompany the elite into death, and contrast that with the more common dead-to-dead unions meant to preserve lineage without harming the living. Along the way, personal memories surface: military villages, whispered legends, and the uneasy mix of duty, superstition, and social pressure.

Then comes the twist. Years after the chilling photo spread, researchers traced the original print to a 1920s Shanxi studio, complete with a booth imprint and living descendants who confirmed the couple’s identity. The image that fueled countless theories turns out to be a relic of fashion and posing styles, not a spectral wedding. That revelation doesn’t kill the story; it reframes it. We talk about why eerie narratives take hold, how rituals give shape to grief, and where folklore still breathes—spirit-writing boards, hopping-corpse tales, and night vigils that welcome a soul home.

If this journey through ghost marriages, inheritance, and debunked mysteries intrigued you, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves folklore, and leave a review with the custom or story that haunts you most.

Please contact me at theunclewong@gmail.com

Transcript

Setting The Creepy Scene

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Asian Uncle. Yours truly Uncle Wong. This is gonna be part three and the final part of the segment regarding strange matter systems in Asia. And this is going to be a creepy segment as the title suggests, so I wouldn't suggest you listen to this at night. Honestly, drafting this and doing this episode kind of freaked me out a bit. Because Till Death Do Us Part, we're all familiar with that term. But think again, because some of these cultures take it a step further. Now, I want you to take a close look at the photograph on the episode of this segment. Okay. The furniture in the objects suggest this was taken in the late Qing dynasty or during the early Republican era, around like ninth early 1900s. The whole image feels kind of stiff and lifeless. It looks dark, the colors look gloomy. More unsettling are the expressions on their faces. Look closely. The bride's face. The groom's face. They're smiling yet not smiling. It's kind of eerie. Whether this is truly a post-humous marriage photo or what we called a ghost marriage, we'll set that aside for a moment. But before we reveal the truth, I must tell you one thing, that this photo is real. It first appeared on a 2002 issue six of Chinese National Geography magazine. So this photo is neither fabricated nor invented. I know in the age of AI it seems like nothing is true, but this photo genuinely exists. Some people say that the bride in this photo looks weird or wrong no matter how you look at her. According to them, this is a photo from the old world. What they call a spirit marriage or a ghost marriage. And why did this photo frighten so many people? I mean for the obvious, right? I'm frightened just talking about it now. It's 12 30 in the morning. I just heard a little bang outside, my dog just stared into the open space and I'm just kind of freaked out right now. But I think this is the right mood. This actual backdrop to this story. And according to that, this photo was taken in 1922 in a rural area of Yu Han in Zujiang province. The man was said to be named Wang Haida, so another Uncle Wang, and the woman's name? Yi Z Me or Miss Ye. The two had gone through the full process of the engagement. It was arranged by the matchmakers. But unfortunately, a year after the engagement, the woman died suddenly of acute fever. So according to local custom, an evangelist couple has not performed the final wedding ceremony, and one partner happened to pass away, then the living must still marry the deceased according to the agreement. And this was traditionally known, and this was traditionally known as spirit marriage or ghost marriage. And just like any horror film, Mr. Wong absolutely did not want this. So he ran away in the middle of the night, but the Ye family was extremely powerful and rich. They sent their guards out and forcefully brought him back and made him marry the woman's body, who'd been dead for six days at that point. And this bleak, chilling photo was the result. You know, at the time, people online analyzed the photo in extreme detail. They were pointing out several pieces of evidence that the bride was already dead. And the first was that her feet appeared to be hanging in the air, not firmly touching the ground.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Look closely at the photo. It's kind of creepy, right? But let's get back to that.

A Village Spirit Wedding Witnessed

Duty, Money, And Tradition

Immolate Marriage In Manchu History

Dead-To-Dead And Inheritance

Debunking The Photo’s Origin

Other Chinese Supernatural Customs

Closing Thoughts And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Does spirit marriage actually exist? Well the short answer is yes. I've seen it myself on two different occasions. One of them was actually pretty famous. I think if most of you are Asian, you will recall. There's this lady named Din Li Jing, Teresa Tang. Very famous. She's a singer from Taiwan. And if you don't know her, you should. You probably know her music. Very familiar in Asian households, and she died tragically in 1995 at the young age of 42. Her death was said to be an asthma attack, but many didn't believe it. One of the reasons was her French boyfriend at the time wouldn't allow an autopsy. And how famous was she? My grandfather wrote a memoir. He was a general in the Nationalist Army of Taiwan. He wrote a memoir talking about this little girl that could sing very well back when they were in the military. She lived in these military encampments in Taiwan, just like me growing up. And because she was so gifted in music, she would sing for the military. And then she my grandfather remembered her very clearly because of her singing. And when she tragically passed in Thailand in 1995, the Asian community was devastated. If you have parents from that generation, or you yourself are from that generation, I'm sure you know who she is. And when upon her death, the soldiers of Taiwan, these old soldiers that left China during the war, a lot of them were single. And they were infatuated with her. And as a result, they held ghost marriages or spirit marriages, quote unquote, with her soul. Now Taiwan's a very interesting place. Very superstitious. And talking about these military encampments brings back a lot of memories. We'll talk about Taiwan in a different segment. But in my village, something creepy happened when I was young, going to grade school. A young man, I believe around 16 or 17, kind of like older brother. He was from a wealthy family. And he drowned swimming in a lake. Very tragic. And his parents had money. And they too were very superstitious. So they thought it would be a good idea to pay somebody, to pay this girl from the village, and had a spirit marriage. Of course, they provided a nice paycheck to her and her family. Because somehow they believed that with this marriage, their son's soul could move on after this tragic death. And let me tell you, this wasn't this wasn't like your regular marriage. But not with these spirit marriages. They had to abide by old customs. And so they did. Except there was only one person. And during this process we were there to witness it. Instead of a real person as their son, obviously her son's deceased, they used a paper mannequin as the groom. It was so fucking creepy. The face was painted, and it looked every bit like these Chinese horror movies you see. It still gives me nightmare to this day, because seeing this when I was in grade school, my mom covered my eyes, but I had to pierce through, I had to see something for myself. Later I learned that this wasn't only for superstition. It wasn't only for their souls. It was also so that the living could perform their duties for the family. For example, the ghost marriage, the spirit marriage I just mentioned, the boys' family had money. So if you put it in that context, I guess it makes sense too. And because of this arrangement, technically she's not allowed to remarry. Legally she can, but traditionally no. Why? Probably you might get haunted, I don't know. But that's how the custom went. Speaking of which, there's another type of high-risk, low reward marriage that I feel compelled to share with everyone. Perhaps this is even scarier than the spirit marriage we mentioned before. I'm not even sure if there's an English term for this, so I call it an invalid marriage. That term means killed or offered as a sacrifice, often by burning. Except this one doesn't involve burning, but it does involve death. This is actually a custom from Manchurian descent. And my family's from Manchurian descent, which is another minority group in China. And this culture was this immolate marriage was abolished in 1644. Many didn't know that, that this cruel act was abolished so late. Even the seemingly barbaric and cruel Egyptians, compared to the Manchurians, they were lenient. They abolished this practice in the BCs, around 2700 BC. While the Chinese held on to this tradition, the Manchurians, all the way until 1644. And so, like the Terracotta warriors, it brought comfort to the Emperor of China, knowing that he was buried with these this mass army of his. But the nomads, the Manchurians did it differently. They wanted the real thing. And so, according to custom, often from noble families, that upon a husband's death, their wife, their concubine, maybe their servant, or their uh male or female servant, or anybody prisoner of war, or anybody that they think that's very close to this individual that just died are often buried with them live. That's the most common way of practicing it. They dig a they dig a hole next to their grave, they leave some space, and then they bring everybody into that space and seal it off. They die by asphyxiation or suffocation. The second method would be for them to hang themselves first and then be buried along with their master. And the worst and not as common practice would be slitting their throats. But normally that doesn't happen because it's a gruesome death, and they want the body intact for the afterlife. That was a very cruel and scary practice, too. Now that's one custom that took it to the extreme. But spirit marriages happen throughout the entirety of Chinese culture. It's actually written into history, right? From the three kingdoms to the Tang Dynasty to the Song dynasty. There's been spirit marriages amongst the rich, amongst the nobles as well. And as I said before, there's as much custom and relevance than there is superstition. For instance, the most prevalent type of marriage is actually between the dead and the dead. It's cruel also to force the living to marry the dead. And so if you come from a family where your son or daughter died at a very young age, they do this as a sign of respect to their kids to marry each other, to form this sort of um union between these two families, even though their kids are not there anymore. And like we mentioned before, these marriages where the woman marries into a into a family where their son has died. And so they're not allowed to marry out, but they inherit whatever the son could inherit, essentially. And also the inheritance issue. For instance, if somebody's daughter or son dies and they were engaged or not engaged, and they would, whether or not they were engaged, they could find somebody, like a nominee, to perform the spirit marriage, become a family member, and inherit their fortune. And so if you were given that choice, or if that custom happens to be within your family, what would you choose if you had a choice? My friend cracked the joke before, too. He said, Man, if I could marry a ghost and not have to fulfill my living obligations to my wife and still inherit it, he said, I would do it. He's like, I don't care. So that kind of got me thinking too that these traditions definitely exist for a reason. So with that knowledge, it's not hard to understand that even the Japanese, the Koreans, throughout their history also practice this. It's a way to keep the family bond united. It's a way to connect two families or solve the inheritance issue if God forbid their only child dies. And if you even if you go to some places in China or Taiwan now, you can still witness this. It's not as obvious, but and you probably won't get a chance to watch it, and if you do, it's it's it's quite scary. Now, let's look back at that photo of this episode. Besides the first evidence we mentioned before of her feet appearing to be hanging in the air, not firmly touching the ground. The second evidence that people pointed out was that one of her hands is missing. There was nothing coming out of one of her sleeves. However, this could have been covered up by her other clothing. Not very solid evidence. And the last would be the screen you see between the two couples. It said that it was a posthumous photo of the girl used for religious ceremonies, and that it was tradition to put that photo in between the couple during these spirit marriages. And finally, what freaked me out the most was someone observing that her body was being held up by the pole behind her. I don't really see a pole, do you? Obviously somebody did. And this photo being published on Chinese National Geography sent a lot of shockwaves through the country. We're not known to be China was not known to publicize superstition. And so over a decade later, 2015, China's National Geography got a call from a collector in which this photo belonged to. And when the team saw the original photo, they realized that there was an imprint of the photo booth logo on the original, meaning that they knew where the photo came from now. They traced it back to a photo shop in Sanxi during the Republic era or the 1920s. So it turned out that this picture had nothing to do with Taiwan. And they eventually found the family or the grandkids of the couple you see in this photo. It turned out that this old photo was of their grandparents. It was a sense of fashion back then. It was not a spirit marriage captured on film. And I can't really blame them for this mistake either. I have some old photos of my great great grandparents. And I don't know why, maybe it's their sense of fashion back then, but they also look dead in those photos. I'm sorry to have toyed with your feelings this episode, but that photo messed with my head for decade. You only have to suffer 10-15 minutes of it. But anyways, there's a lot of tradition and or superstition that stems from this old Chinese culture of ours. Many creepy ones too. For instance, how many have heard of the Chinese Ouija board? It looks like the Americanized one, but it's different. A lot different. There's actually two versions of the Chinese Ouija board. I've played one. What about the Chinese zombies that you saw in the movies? The ones that jump around with a piece of yellow paper on their forehead? You know what I'm talking about. That's a tradition of walking the dead back to their hometown. And it did exist too. My wife and I, we've even had ghastly experiences in Tibet. Would you believe that my wife saw a ghost at a hotel there? And also there's a Chinese tradition of staying with the dead the day after they pass. Meaning you're there to greet them if they want to come home. We believe the soul comes home afterwards, and so their loved ones would stay up all night. What if I told you we hear voices at night? Sometimes you will hear knocking. Footsteps. I'm not even making this up. It's too late to make this up. Last but not least, I really hope you enjoyed this segment. I'll be sure to share more experiences and stories soon. So stay tuned. And again, thank you for all your love and support. Uncle Wong signing off.