Asia Weekly

Asian Weird News

Would you believe it?

Milking the property market - Faced with a sluggish housing market, developers in China are resorting to some bizarre tricks to lure buyers, including giving away free cows to new homeowners, says Today Online (Singapore). One developer in the southern city of Nanjing "described the move as ‘timely,' given public concerns about the safety of dairy products." Keeping a bovine in a high-rise apartment might prove tricky, he admitted, adding that having homeowners "adopt a cow" and getting a farmer to look after it might be easier. 

Mankini antics - Two students who dressed up as the TV character Borat have become the centre of a row in Vietnam, says the BBC. The cheeky pair performed a dance act at a party dressed as the spoof Kazakh journalist "in his notoriously skimpy ‘mankini'" swimming costume. But the authorities were not amused. They suspended the pair for a year and fined their college $240 for "use of improper clothing." 

Monkey business - A restaurant in Japan has some unusual wait staff on its books - two macaque monkeys, says the BBC. Yatchan and Fukuchan, donning mini waistcoats, serve customers hot towels and drinks, in exchange for "soybeans as tips." The monkeys are family pets that have been allowed to help in the bar. Animal rights inspectors have checked on the premises to ensure that the bold monkeys "are not being mistreated."

Bad medicine - Two Malaysians died and one was left severely injured in a gruesome ritual designed to help a man overcome his chain-smoking habit and to rid his wife of her asthma, reports Reuters. Four close relatives "smashed the couple's heads on a table and beat them with crash helmets and brooms" as part of the ritual, which was suggested to the family by relatives who visited at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The 15-year-old daughter of one of the four assailants was severely beaten after walking in on the bludgeoning.

 

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