I'm surprised -- it seems to me like the opposite of traditional Chinese society to take a personal tragedy such as a divorce and make it so many people's personal tragedy. Societal harmony is a key piece of their ideology and Communism hasn't really beaten that out of them as far as I know.
I suppose that if you were at the end of your career and you thought you'd have enough to retire and suddenly you were facing social and financial peril like that, every society has people who might react badly and do things that normally wouldn't be tolerated by society, especially in a society that's so focused on family bonds.