Chinese Body Fishers

Bodies floating in the Yellow River near Changpo Village in China’s Gansu Province. Wei Jinpeng makes a living selling the bodies to families who come to claim them. | Tom Lasseter / MCT

NEAR CHANGPO VILLAGE, China — From his perch on an overhang above the Yellow River, Wei Jinpeng pointed to a fisherman’s cove below and began counting his latest catch. He stopped after six, and guessed that perhaps a dozen human corpses were bobbing in the murky waters.

The bodies were floating facedown and tethered by ropes to the shore, their mud-covered limbs and rumps protruding from the water.

Wei is a fisher of dead people. He scans the river for cadavers, drags them to shore with a small boat and then charges grieving families to recover their relatives’ corpses. Wei said he kept the faces submerged to preserve their features. Any dispute about identity makes it harder to collect his bounty.

Wei doesn’t worry about how they got here, but he’s heard tales over the years from relatives who’ve come to claim the bodies, haunting portraits of average people crushed in the extraordinary stress of China’s economic boom.

Read more: www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/16/100691/chinese-fisherman-on-yellow-river.html#ixzz0zs1xSqmh