China Society

Follow-Up to the Story of the Xuzhou Mother-of-Eight Chained in Hut

The Xuzhou mother-of-eight turns out to be Xiao Huamei from a Yunnan village.

Published

3 years ago

February 7, 2022

The Xuzhou mother-of-eight who was found to be chained inside a small hut next to the family home has already become one of the biggest social stories on Weibo this year. Now, local authorities have provided an update on their ongoing investigation into the woman’s background.

Find the latest update to this story here.

It’s been well over a week since the story of a mother of eight children living in a small hut with an iron chain around her neck sent shockwaves across Chinese social media (link).

The story first went viral on January 28 after a Chinese vlogger showed the horrifying living conditions of the woman in a short video.

The footage, filmed in Xuzhou, was widely shared on Chinese social media and triggered massive outrage. Since it was said that the woman suffers from mental illness, netizens asked how it was possible for her to have no less than eight children with her husband.

How was this all even legal? Many netizens wondered if the woman was abducted and kept against her will and abused as some sort of breeding machine by her husband and his family. The fact that the couple had seven sons and only one daughter also fuelled online rumors, and there was also a lot of speculation about why Yang seemed to have lost her teeth.

On January 30, local officials responded to the controversy. In a statement issued by the ‘Feng County Joint Investigation Team,’ the situation of the woman and her husband was partly explained. The woman, Yang *Xia (杨某侠), reportedly was a beggar on the streets in the summer of 1998 when she was taken in by the Dong family in the town of Huankou and she ended up marrying their 30-something son Dong *Min (董某民).

According to the statement, the local officials did not properly check and verify Yang’s identity information when they registered the marriage certificate. The local family planning department apparently also made some errors. They did “implement birth control measures” after the couple had two children, but that obviously did not work out and they failed to follow up.

The family did notice that Yang had mental problems, but her condition allegedly did not worsen until June of 2021 when she would also display aggressive and violent behavior. In order to prevent her from hitting the children or others, she would be tied up by her husband until she was more stable. The statement further said that Yang’s DNA was entered into the national database for missing persons in 2020, but that no match was found.

Feng County authorities claimed that following the online controversy, Yang was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was receiving treatment in the hospital, while a special team was also investigating if Dong could be held criminally liable.

The statement did not succeed in calming the storm. On the contrary, it only seemed to spark more anger as netizens now also knew that the family was receiving subsidies from their town and that Dong *Min was profiting from his sudden online ‘fame’ by creating his own online channel and appearing in several local marketing promotional videos. The fact that many posts, videos, and hashtags relating to this story were taken offline only added fuel to the fire.

Yang is actually Xiao Huamei

On Monday, February 7th, at 23:00 pm, Xuzhou authorities released an update to the investigation on Weibo.

Because Yang’s marriage certificate contained mention of Yagu Village (亚谷村) in Fugong County in Yunnan Province, investigators went there to do research. With the help of local authorities, villagers, and household registers, they were able to determine Yang’s identity.

Her name is Xiao Huamei (小花梅) and she was born and raised in Yagu. In 1994, she married and moved to the city of Baoshan, but she divorced and returned to her village two years later, which is also when local villagers remember detecting that Xiao seemed to have a disorder. Her parents, now deceased, ordered a female fellow villager who had married someone from Jiangsu to take Xiao with her to receive treatment and look for a suitable partner for marriage.

Although the woman took Xiao with her on a train from Yunnan’s Kunming city to Jiangsu’s Donghai, Xiao went missing shortly after arrival. The woman, named Sang (桑), never reported Xiao Huamei missing to the police and she also did not notify Xiao’s family. Local authorities have spoken to Sang and they will later follow up on this story.

As for the current situation of Yang (or Xiao), they state that her condition has stabilized and that she is received proper treatment for her schizophrenia. Medical reports indicate that Yang lost her teeth due to a severe gum infection but her overall health is otherwise normal.

The Xuzhou authorities further write that DNA research has confirmed that all of the eight children are the parents’ biological children.

Although the statement does say that the public security bureau is still looking into Dong’s criminal liability, it does not provide any information on the current living situation of Xiao, Dong, and their eight children.

In the early morning of February 8, the statement had been shared over 112,000 times on Weibo, getting over 1,3 million likes and garnering thousands of comments.

Not Only Yang

Despite the most recent statement, Weibo netizens still have many questions about the situation and the online anger has not subsided. A much-recurring comment is that the statement is mentioning trivial things while ignoring major issues. It does not disclose, for example, how old Yang is now and whether or not she was still a minor in 1998.

Some mention how the public’s trust in the local authorities is gone, others say they suspect that the female villager named Sang might have been a human trafficker, and then there are those who still believe that the mother-of-eight still has another identity.

Those talking about a “third identity” refer to one theory that kept surfacing over the past week, namely that the Xuzhou mother is actually Li Ying (李莹), a woman who went missing in 1996. Old photos of Li showed a remarkable resemblance to the Xuzhou woman.

Yang’s face compared to an older photo of the missing woman Li Ying.

But Chinese media outlet The Paper reported on Monday that the family of Li Ying received official confirmation that there is no DNA match between Li Ying and Yang.

Besides the fact that the online anger over Yang’s situation helped launch a local investigation into her identity and circumstances, it has also raised more awareness of the fact that there might be many more women like her.

Another recent video shows how a disabled woman who is also said to be living in a village in Xuzhou, Feng County, is kept chained on the floor.

Some netizens are saying that (e-commerce) products from Xuzhou and Feng County should be boycotted as a way to condemn the local government. Others are sharing art dedicated to Yang.

One of many online illustrations dedicated to Yang.

“Why are these statements always posted so late at night?” some sleepless netizens wonder: “I am so angry I can no longer sleep.”

Many people are still waiting for more answers: “Please investigate thoroughly, please punish severely, don’t be overly tolerant, no forgiveness.”

By Manya Koetse

Follow @whatsonweibo

With contributions by Miranda Barnes.

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Manya Koetse

Manya is the founder and editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, offering independent analysis of social trends, online media, and digital culture in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to content, including the Weibo Watch newsletter, which provides deeper insights into the China trends that matter. More about Manya at manyakoetse.com or follow on X.

4 Comments

Heidi Mahon

February 8, 2022 at 12:03 am

Lol are Chinese netizens ever anything else but outraged ,makes you wonder how some of them ever find the time to get off social media and do anything else ? . Think maybe some of them need to find a job

Reply
Tanya Glover

February 10, 2022 at 12:11 am

Says the person who took the time to make ride and snarky comments about strangers online.

Reply
Jessie

February 14, 2022 at 7:55 pm

Excuse me? You aren’t outraged by domestic abuse and human trafficking? Is something missing in your head up there? Or do you see Chinese people as less than human and think it’s OK that this is happening to the women over there. Shame on you really, because this happens to women around the world, including in western countries.

Reply
B M

March 26, 2022 at 2:52 pm

The woman IS Li Ying, the daughter of Chinese Liberation Army parents. THAT is why they concocted this BS story about some mentally handicapped beggar — this is a total communist lie and you’re just repeating it here, shame on you.

Reply

China Food & Drinks

China Trending Week 11: The Yang Braised Chicken Scandal, Haidilao Pee Incident, Taiwan Tensions

What’s been trending on Weibo and beyond? I doomscrolled Chinese social media so you don’t have to.

Published

2 days ago

March 13, 2025

Manya Koetse

Here’s the latest roundup of top three top trends and most noteworthy discussions on Chinese social media this week.

🍚🤢Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice Scandal

The popular Chinese franchise Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice (杨铭宇黄焖鸡米饭) is at the center of attention this week—for all the wrong reasons. The company, which opened its first restaurant in 2011 and has since franchised more than 2500 locations across China, was exposed by Beijing News for reusing expired ingredients and reselling leftover food in at least three of its restaurants in Zhengzhou and Shangqiu (Henan). Cooks were smoking in the kitchen and even going as far as dyeing spoiled, darkened beef with food coloring to make it appear fresh.

The issue has sparked widespread concern on Chinese social media—not only because Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice is a well-known restaurant chain, but also because food safety and kitchen hygiene remain ongoing concerns in China. The timing of this news is particularly significant, as it was published in the lead-up to March 15—China’s National Consumer Rights Day, an annual event that highlights consumer protection issues.

China’s State Council Food Safety Commission Office has now ordered authorities in Henan and Shandong, where Yang’s Braised Chicken is headquartered, to thoroughly investigate the case. The affected stores will reportedly be closed permanently, but the impact extends far beyond these locations—most netizens discussing the scandal have made it clear they won’t be ordering from Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice anytime soon.

Can the company win back consumer trust? Even though general management has been apologizing and pledged to personally oversee kitchen standards, this is not the first time the company is in hot water. In 2024, a customer in Chengdu allegedly ordered Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice via takeout and discovered a fully cooked dead rat in their meal (picture here not for the faint of heart).

🇹🇼⚔️Beijing Angrily Responds to Lai Ching-te’s Speech: “Pushing Taiwan Towards the Danger of War”

While tough language on Taiwan was already trending last week during China’s Two Sessions, another wave of discussions on Taiwan has emerged this week. This follows a high-level national security meeting held on Thursday by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te (赖清德), after which he addressed the media and proposed more aggressive strategies to counter Beijing’s so-called ‘united front’ efforts within Taiwan.

On Friday, Beijing responded with stern remarks. Chen Binhua (陈斌华), spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, called Lai Ching-te a “destroyer of cross-strait peace” (“两岸和平破坏者”) and a “creator of crises in the Taiwan Strait” (“台海危机制造者”) who is “pushing Taiwan towards the dangerous situation of war” (“把台湾推向兵凶战危险境”).

Chen also reiterated Beijing’s stance that reunification with Taiwan is inevitable. This message was further amplified on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin through the hashtag “Inevitable Reunification with the Motherland” (#祖国必然统一#).

🔥🚽Haidilao’s “Pissgate”

Last week, on March 6, a peculiar news item went viral on Chinese social media, and I tweeted out the viral video here. The footage shows a young man standing on a table in a private dining room at a Haidilao restaurant, seemingly urinating into the hotpot. The incident was later confirmed to have taken place at the popular chain’s Bund location in Shanghai on the night of February 24.

Just when you thought the world couldn’t get any crazier… someone stands up and pisses in the Haidilao hotpot. Blasphemy! Hotpot treason!

Anyway, Haidilao reported the guy to the police, and I’m pretty sure he won’t be welcome back anytime soon. pic.twitter.com/3ytLhGdYjX

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) March 6, 2025

Honestly, the video seemed staged (the “pee” looked more like water), but understandably, Haidilao was very pissed about the negative impact on its reputation. In case you’re not familiar: Haidilao is one of China’s most popular hotpot chains, known for its excellent service and food quality (read here).

The company immediately launched an investigation into the video’s origins and reported the two men—the one urinating and the one filming—to the police.

This week, the incident gained even more traction (even the BBC covered it) after it was revealed that Haidilao had reimbursed 4,109 customers who dined at the restaurant between February 24, when the incident occurred, and March 8, when all tableware was discarded and the entire restaurant was disinfected.

Not only did Haidilao reimburse customers, but they also compensated them tenfold.

This compensation strategy sparked all kinds of discussions on Chinese social media. While many agreed with Haidilao’s solution to prevent a marketing crisis, some customers and netizens raised ethical questions, such as:

💰If you paid for your meal with coupons and only spent a couple of cents in cash, is it fair that some customers only received 9 RMB ($1.25) in compensation?
💰If you paid for an entire group of friends, meaning you originally spent around $140 on a meal but now received $1,400 in reimbursement, should you split the compensation with your friends?
💰How should cases be handled where a third party made the reservation and ends up claiming part of the compensation?

By now, the incident has become about much more than just pissing in soup.

By Manya Koetse

(follow on X, LinkedIn, or Instagram)

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China Memes & Viral

How Ne Zha 2’s Shen Gongbao Became Known as the Ultimate “Small-Town Swot”

Published

2 weeks ago

March 1, 2025

Manya Koetse

PART OF THIS TEXT COMES FROM THE WEIBO WATCH PREMIUM NEWSLETTER

Over the past few weeks, the Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2 has been trending on Weibo every single day. The movie, loosely based on Chinese mythology and the Chinese canonical novel Investiture of the Gods (封神演义), has triggered all kinds of memes and discussions on Chinese social media (read more here and here).

One of the most beloved characters is the leopard demon Shen Gongbao (申公豹). While Shen Gongbao was a more typical villain in the first film, the narrative of Ne Zha 2 adds more nuance and complexity to his character. By exploring his struggles, the film makes him more relatable and sympathetic.

In the movie, Shen is portrayed as a sometimes sinister and tragic villain with humorous and likeable traits. He has a stutter, and a deep desire to earn recognition. Unlike many celestial figures in the film, Shen Gongbao was not born into privilege and never became immortal. As a demon who ascended to the divine court, he remains at the lower rungs of the hierarchy in Chinese mythology. He is a hardworking overachiever who perhaps turned into a villain due to being treated unfairly.

Many viewers resonate with him because, despite his diligence, he will never be like the gods and immortals around him. Many Chinese netizens suggest that Shen Gongbao represents the experience of many “small-town swots” (xiǎozhèn zuòtíjiā 小镇做题家) in China.

“Small-town swot” is a buzzword that has appeared on Chinese social media over the past few years. According to Baike, it first popped up on a Douban forum dedicated to discussing the struggles of students from China’s top universities. Although the term has been part of social media language since 2020, it has recently come back into the spotlight due to Shen Gongbao.

“Small-town swot” refers to students from rural areas and small towns in China who put in immense effort to secure a place at a top university and move to bigger cities. While they may excel academically, even ranking as top scorers, they often find they lack the same social advantages, connections, and networking opportunities as their urban peers.

The idea that they remain at a disadvantage despite working so hard leads to frustration and anxiety—it seems they will never truly escape their background. In a way, it reflects a deeper aspect of China’s rural-urban divide.

Some people on Weibo, like Chinese documentary director and blogger Bianren Guowei (@汴人郭威), try to translate Shen Gongbao’s legendary narrative to a modern Chinese immigrant situation, and imagine that in today’s China, he’d be the guy who trusts in his hard work and intelligence to get into a prestigious school, pass the TOEFL, obtain a green card, and then work in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street. Meanwhile, as a filial son and good brother, he’d save up his “celestial pills” (US dollars) to send home to his family.

Another popular blogger (@痴史) wrote:

“I just finished watching Ne Zha and my wife asked me, why do so many people sympathize with Shen Gongbao? I said, I’ll give you an example to make you understand. Shen Gongbao spent years painstakingly accumulating just six immortal pills (xiāndān 仙丹), while the celestial beings could have 9,000 in their hand just like that.

It’s like saving up money from scatch for years just to buy a gold bracelet, only to realize that the trash bins of the rich people are made of gold, and even the wires in their homes are made of gold. It’s like working tirelessly for years to save up 60,000 yuan ($8230), while someone else can effortlessly pull out 90 million ($12.3 million).In the Heavenly Palace, a single meal costs more than an ordinary person’s lifetime earnings.

Shen Gongbao seems to be his father’s pride, he’s a role model to his little brother, and he’s the hope of his entire village. Yet, despite all his diligence and effort, in the celestial realm, he’s nothing more than a marginal figure. Shen Gongbao is not a villain, he is just the epitome of all of us ordinary people. It is because he represents the state of most of us normal people, that he receives so much empathy.”

In the end, in the eyes of many, Shen Gongbao is the ultimate small-town swot. As a result, he has temporarily become China’s most beloved villain.

By Manya Koetse, with contributions by Wendy Huang
Follow @whatsonweibo

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