France study dream dies as China woman succumbs to malaria in Africa after fleeing abusive family to make money
- Majors in French at university, finds job in Africa, dreams of France
- Dies from malaria, abusive family says ‘no’ to funeral, only take her property
A young woman from China who went to work overseas to escape her abusive family and pursue a dream of studying in France has died from malaria in Africa.
Zhou Yanling, 25, was born in a village in Yulin in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
She was determined to live in Africa after majoring in French at Guangxi University of Foreign Languages in 2021, despite what many considered the continent’s environment challenging.
Her reasons were straightforward.
The pay was good, so she could save enough money to further her studies in France and get away from close family who made it clear they preferred boys to girls.
Zhou was the eldest daughter with a sister who married at 16, and a younger brother. In China, the official legal age for females to marry is 20, but people in some rural regions still wed without registering.