The recent scare in China involving food products tainted with Sudan I red industrial dye very nearly spelled divorce for a 51-year-old villager in Guangwu, a town in east China's Anhui Province.

The carcinogenic dye, known in Chinese as Sudan Hong ("Sudan Red"), has been found in dozens of food products across the country in recent weeks and the incidents have been widely reported by the media.

When Su Danhong's husband, an illiterate farmer, heard about the scandal, he understood only that something called Sudan Hong was a bad thing.

He went home and told his wife, "Your name is unlucky, and it will bring disaster to our whole family. The whole country is shouting for the capture of people named Su Danhong!"

Ms. Su was shocked and frightened, too. She nervously suggested that they run and hide with their three grown children, who have left home to work in the city. But the husband just cursed at her, leaving the house and not returning for several days.

On the morning of April 7, Su Danhong's husband finally returned home to tell her that, realizing there was no place they could hide, he had decided to divorce her. He wanted to handle the matter immediately, but Su adamantly refused, saying she would die before she agreed to a divorce.

The noise of their argument brought the neighbors, including two village cadres, over to try to mediate. As the details of the problem became clear, the cadres burst into laughter.

When they explained to the puzzled couple what was funny, the face of the embarrassed husband might have been colored with Sudan red dye itself.

Ms. Su's husband voluntarily administered his own punishment, slapping himself in the face and vowing never to repeat the offense.

The couple has been married since 1974.

(Anhui Market News, translated by Zhang Tingting for China.org.cn, April 8, 2005)