The sex doll as become popular among single Chinese men, migrant workers and widowers despite its expensive price tag which could cost up to $3,000 for the high-end models like the 156 doll.
In most cases, the men who buy it do so to meet their sexual needs because of the lack of a partner, or as a companion to ease the loneliness of living alone as the children become adults and move out, or their wives die ahead. However, in a bizarre twist to owning a sex doll, The Sun reported that a 70-year-old Chinese pensioner in Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, is dating one out of the belief the soul of his deceased wife lives in the doll.
Zhang Wenliang dresses the doll in the clothes of his wife who died of pancreatic cancer and talks to it. A retired doctor, Zhang bought the sex doll for $2,350 in 2015 after his wife died.
He apparently has not overcome her death and could not handle the grief because as a physician, he treated ill people but was not able to heal his former wife. Among the indicators of failure to move on is he dressed the sex doll with the red cardigan which was his ex-partner’s favorite. He also placed her on the side of the bed where his wife used to sleep.
Zhang purchased the doll because he does not want his wife’s soul floating, rather he wants her to live with him at home as if he is seeing her every day. “Photos and the ashes are her soul and that fake doll is her body,” the doctor said
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Although many people who buy sex dolls do so for entertainment and meet their physiological needs, for Zhang he sees the doll as a real person, reported Chengdu. But like his wife who died, the doll’s joints and limbs twisted and the internal wiring which controls the temperature are showing. As a result, Zhang sued the doll’s manufacturer because of its poor quality which cost the former doctor an additional 16,000 yuan or $2,405.