What do you do when love is dead?
For a group of divorced women in Chongqing, China, this entails lying in freshly dug graves.
This isn’t a secret cult nor a morbid ritual, but a meditation session aimed to help women divorcees move on.
30-year-old Liu Taijie is the founder of Grave Class, a bi-monthly free session she organises to support women in her situation.
Ms Liu is a divorcee herself, having married at 19 and becoming a mother at 21. According to People’s Daily, Ms Liu’s husband abused her when he discovered she had entered and failed a business venture.
The couple divorced shortly after and Ms Liu soon fell into depression.
“I was abandoned by my husband. I was despised by my family. I was deceived by a pyramid selling scam. I wanted to die,” she told People’s Daily.
But after more than a year of wallowing in misery and battling suicidal thoughts, she got back on her feet.
“Tears are useless. Death cannot solve problems. I want to change, and use that experience to help other women,” she said.
Now a successful business owner, Ms Liu is making sure that women in her situation know they are not alone.
“Failure is not scary,” she said.
“I hope all divorced women can lead new lives and accomplish their own goals. Women must rely on themselves and be their own queens.”
debwong@sph.com.sg
