The suicides might have seemed apocryphal, but the ritual meant to banish their malevolent ghosts was real. And that had the residents of Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) concerned for their safety.
According to reports in March last year in Mirror Media and Storm Media, four people had taken their lives by burning coal in the alcove of a townhouse they were renting near Lane 270 on Jhongshan Street (中山). After the father of the family learned of the tragedy, he hung himself. The landlord later rented out the space, but tenants kept committing suicide by hanging. Convinced that evil spirits