Yun is Mandarin for Loman

The evening began jovially enough when Mr Yun, the owner of a noodle shop in the central Chinese city of Xi'an, invited his family to celebrate Qixi, China's Valentine's Day, with a singing session at a local karaoke parlour.

But by 11pm, there was discord in the room. Mr Yun's four-year-old son was hogging the microphone and his parents were indulging him.

Two of the boy's uncles began chastising Mr Yun and his wife for having raised a spoilt child; a “Little Emperor”, as the Chinese say.

According to the Xi'an police, the argument became heated to the point where the two uncles began pushing, and then punching, Mr Yun.

Finally, Mr Yun's nephew, who also worked in the noodle shop, ran back to the restaurant and fetched a meat cleaver.

The man, named as Mr Hui, hacked the two uncles to death, inflicting at least ten wounds on each uncle. He has since been arrested.

Honestly, I don't see how this is news. It's expected behavior in my family. Whenever we get together, you just know push will come to shove, shove will come to cut, and cut will come to shoot. Rain falls, suns shine, and Lomans kill each other at family gatherings. Nothing to see here. Move along.

It's all the more tragic because like the tenure battles in the academy, the fights are so fierce, because the stakes are so small. Seriously, my uncle pulled a knife one of our cousins at a funeral because the cousin borrowed twenty dollars from him in the '60s and the cousin had been ducking him ever since. (You read that correctly: my family brings knives to funerals.)