THE WEEK Jan 17: Hair, love and money!

Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle…

A young woman from China’s Jiangsu province claims to be an actual real life descendant of the Monkey King. That’s right, this young woman claims that she is the great, great, great, great grand daughter of the hero from the Chinese classic Journey to the West.

While trying to prove her claim, the young woman visited the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai where she presented researchers at the university’s Anthropology Research Labs a spool of “monkey hair” and a rock. The “hair” is supposedly that of the monkey king’s and the rock is the rock from which he was born. Scientists tested the materials and say that the results are inconclusive.

Come on home, cause mommy loves you…

Chinese New Year is coming upon us and it’s customary for Chinese parents to call and their children. The normal questions that parents would ask tend to be received as parental nagging. Questions such as, “are you saving money”, “are you eating well”, and the most dreaded “do you have a lover?” are all common questions this time of year.

It’s unclear if it’s to avoid talking to his parents, but one young man in Melbourne seems to not be answering his parents phone calls resulting in his mother posting a full front page ad to grab his attention in the Chinese Melbourne Daily On the ad, the mother writes that she and her father love the son and that they only want him to return home, presumably to China. They even promised to not to ask him questions about his life.

Great bricks Of money

A village in Mianning country, Liangshanzhou Autonomous prefecture, Sichuan Province gave out cash this year in preparation for the Chinese New Year. That’s right, a village gave out cash to all of it’s residents.

The village, doled out over 13 million yuan ($2 million) to it’s 340 shareholders. This is the third year that the money is being handed out and according to the village; this year marks the most money given so far. The village hands out money to it’s villagers every year for various projects that the village made a profit on.

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）