‘Romeos and Juliets’: peace talks see rival villages in China end centuries of hostility to allow intermarriages and trade
- Ancestral ban affects lives of 30,000 residents of 14 communities under 4 administrative village areas
- 2 months of meetings bring end to village rivalry and rancour
Centuries of hostility between neighbouring villages in China have been ended by peace talks which resulted in an agreement to allow intermarriage and trade.
On October 1, Chaqiao, Meidong, Meixi and Xialiu villages in Jieyang, southeastern China’s Guangdong province, simultaneously held grand ceremonies at their ancestral halls to mark an official breaking of the ice.
For more than 200 years, ancestral rules that banned intermarriages had been passed on from generation to generation, affecting the lives of 30,000 residents of the 14 communities under the four administrative village areas, according to Yangcheng Evening News.
There is no official record detailing how the roots of the feud began, but fighting over land and water is largely believed to have been the reason.
Yang Yantian, the party committee secretary of the Chaqiao village, told the mainland media outlet Jiupai News that his team received a peacemaking mission from the Jieyang government in June.