Ring Them Bells

You have to be quick to keep up with the social trends round Liuzhou. The locals take up new hobbies and pastimes almost every week. After the 'falling down holes' and 'setting things on fire' crazes of recent months, they have a new one.

On Thursday, this man was doing some window shopping and spotted a rather fashionable ring. He tried it on and, you've guessed - couldn't get it off. He was obliged to buy the ring and went off in search of the local fire station to seek help. After trying oil and various other methods they finally cut the ring off – by which time the man’s finger was highly swollen and turning black. 

No doubt inspired by this tale of heroism and suffering, the very next day, this woman injured her hand at work, and her finger began to swell. Her ring was trapping the swelling and threatening to give her gangrene! So, she wandered into the nearest fire station where they cut it off. The ring. Not the finger.

Now that the practice has been shown to be suitable for both sexes, I'm sure we'll see a lot more people taking up this new hobby!

In fact, I’m a little surprised. Not many Chinese people wear rings. So much so that what we call the ‘ring finger’ is known as the ‘no name finger’ in Chinese.

tags: china  liuzhou  guangxi  fire  rings  fingers  

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