A young boy from Yunnan has attracted the attention of Weibo’s netizens this week for his ‘icy looks’ after walking to school in -9 degrees Celsius.
The boy is from Xinjie Town in Ludian County Zhaotong, Yunnan Province, and has to walk a mountainous track to his school for 4,5 kilometers every day.
People’s Dailyreports that a photo of the boy went viral on January 9 on Chinese social media, after the teacher sent it to the school’s headmaster.
It shows the third grader with frozen hair and eyebrows, and a red face. The school children in the back are laughing.
The school has not disclosed the boy’s name to protect his identity, but the principal did tell Chinese media:
“The temperature was minus nine degrees that morning, and it was the first day of the finals exams. The temperature had dropped within half an hour, and his home was already far away, so when he arrived in the classroom his hair was covered in frost. It’s a cute kid and he made a funny face when he came to the classroom, making his classmates laugh..”
The school also confirmed that the boy’s parents are laborers who work away from home, and that the boy lives together with his brother and sister as so-called “left-behind children” (留守儿童).
The area around Ludian county is relatively poor. In 2014, the area was hit by 6.5-magnitude earthquake, killing more than 600 people and destroying about 80,000 homes
The phenomenon of China’s “left-behind children” are a result of the country’s rapid urbanization, as people leave the countryside to find work in the cities. Having no means to look after their children while parents are working in urban areas, they often choose to leave their children in the countryside, where other family members can take care of them.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission released a report in 2015 estimating that there are more than 61 million left-behind children in China.
Another result of China’s urbanization is that smaller rural schools are closing their doors. Last year, the story of one teacher who kept a school open for two remaining students also became trending on Weibo.
The principal of ‘ice boy’s’ school also told a People’s Daily reporter that there currently is no heating at their school, but that they are doing all they can to arrange a heating system.
On Weibo, many netizens are concerned about the ‘ice boy’ (#冰花男孩#) and his fellow students and are offering to donate money, clothes, or other items to support the school.
Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.
A tragic incident that unfolded in Wuhan has garnered significant attention on Chinese social media this week. It involves a mother who took her own life a week after her son was tragically crushed to death by a car driven by his teacher within the primary school campus.
The little boy named Xiaotan, a grade one student, was run over by a car near the school gates of the Wuhan Hanyang District Hongqiao School (弘桥小学) on May 23. He was just about to pick up a paper plane from the ground when he was hit by the car.
As reported by Thatsmag on May 26, the boy’s parents could not accept the teacher’s explanation of how the incident could have happened.
The teacher claimed he tried to wave the boy away with his hand when he appeared in front of his car and then waited before proceeding. But CCTV footage from the school showed that the car initially stopped for 2-3 seconds after the front wheels ran over Xiaotan, and then started driving again, causing the back wheels to run over the boy.
The teacher reportedly was not supposed to drive his car there at all according to school rules. According to school staff members, the teacher deviated from the designated path for vehicle entry and exit within the school premises.
On May 25th, the Education Bureau of Hanyang District made an announcement stating that the teacher in question had been criminally detained by the public security authorities and that legal actions will be taken based on the findings of the ongoing investigation into the incident. The school’s principal and deputy principal of the school were also removed from their positions.
Following the incident, the boy’s mother, Yang, spoke out about the incident at multiple occasions, as she was looking for justice. The way the school and authorities responded to the incident seemed to further exacerbate her despair, as more questions lingered.
Mother Yang with her young son.
Why was her child not sent to the nearest hospital after the incident? Why was the teacher driving so recklessly? Why was a car allowed to enter the primary school campus at all?
On the evening of June 2, Yang jumped from the 24th floor of a building in her residential community.
Cyberbullying
In the wake of this tragedy, the discussions on Chinese social media primarily revolve around the issue of cyberbullying. Many people believe that it was the online harassment Xiaotan’s mother endured that ultimately led her to take her own life.
After the death of her son, Yang voiced her grievances in multiple ways. The woman, a successful local real estate agent, received online slander for dressing nicely or even because she wore makeup. Other people accused her of hyping her son’s death to get more compensation, as she waited around the school for answers and an apology while mourning her son and talking to reporters.
The boy’s mother spoke out in various ways and tried to get justice. In doing so, she received online backlash.
Before her tragic death, Yang had published a post online in which she said she wanted to go and be together with her son (#坠楼离世母亲曾发文称想陪孩子一起去#).
Many people compared the story to that of Liu Xuezhou (刘学洲). The teenage boy became well-known in 2022 after an online search for his biological parents turned into a nightmare. Not only did Liu Xuezhou discover he was a victim of human trafficking, he also suffered online harassment. The situation eventually drove him to commit suicide.
One Weibo blogger (@开花富贵老娘发飙) highlighted that the Wuhan mother’s death should not solely be attributed to online harassment but rather to the lack of psychological support for individuals who go through such immense tragedies and suddenly find themselves in the spotlight of online attention. The blogger emphasized the need for psychological intervention for victims like the mother in Wuhan and Liu Xuezhou, as they often resort to expressing their grievances online, only to become a target of cyberbullies.
Commentator Hu Xijin (胡锡进) also responded to the issue in a post on June 4, in which he highlighted that the case is tragic and complex, and that cyberbullying is one factor that worsened the mother’s mental state. Online harassment must be avoided at all costs, Hu argued: “Internet users need to think about how to express their opinions without being harsh towards those who are grieving.”
On Douyin, where Yang frequently posted, many people mourn the tragic death of both mother and son.
Meanwhile, multiple commenters note how the cars inside Wuhan’s school campuses have disappeared, and that even outside of Wuhan in other cities in Hubei, there are no longer cars parked inside the primary school campus. Various sources report that, following the incident, it was announced that vehicles are no longer allowed to park inside school campuses.
On June 3, various bloggers also noted how accounts that were involved in the online harassment of Yang have now been restricted or blocked by the Weibo platform.
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A shocking and extremely cruel video in which a Chinese wanghong (online influencer) tortures a stolen cat has sparked outrage on Chinese social media.
The person involved is the Anhui-based food blogger/vlogger Xu Zhihui (徐志辉), who runs multiple accounts, including a Bilibili account with more than 400,000 followers and a Weibo account with over 20,000 fans (@杰克辣条). Xu is mostly known for posting videos of himself cooking and eating food.
The cat abuse incident happened on April 15 in Funan County’s Lucheng, Anhui Province, where the 29-year-old Xu filmed his horrific acts, including tying up the cat, binding it to a tree, cutting its paws, and burning it alive. He then uploaded the video and shared it to a QQ group dedicated to cat abuse. It later circulated around social media, triggering outrage.
According to screenshots that leaked online and the very fact Xu was part of a cruel ‘cat abuse chat group,’ this probably was not the first time for him to torture animals.
According to a police statement, authorities received reports about the stolen cat and the abuse video on April 26th, after which they immediately launched an investigation.
On April 27th, Xu posted an apology on his Weibo channel, in which he said he felt ashamed and sorry for what he did and that he was willing to bear “all the consequences” of his actions. He also wrote that he was being criticized and held accountable by both the public security bureau and Internet authorities. “Please give me another chance,” he wrote. The comments on the post were switched off.
A noteworthy part of Xu’s online apology is that it has a dedicated Weibo hashtag page including a ‘topic summary’ in which Xu apologized. The hashtag page was hosted by Toutiao News. The mix of the personal message by Xu on a hashtag page hosted by Chinese media seems to indicate that these parties worked together in spreading Xu’s words about how remorseful he allegedly is (#偷猫拍虐猫视频网红道歉#).
The comment sections suggest that most people will not forgive Xu for what he did. Many people say the story makes them feel sick to their stomach, and that the idea of ‘cat abuse’ chat groups makes their skin crawl.
“People like this do not change,” one person wrote. “Give you another chance?! Did you give that kitty a chance?!”
“Today he abuses a cat, tomorrow he kills a person. Straight to hell with him,” others wrote: “Go die!”
Xu’s actions are regarded as “negatively impacting society” and he currently is detained in Funan in accordance with the Public Security Administrative Punishments Law. His Bilibili account currently also displays a message that it is getting banned.
Although there are various laws in China regarding wildlife and the protection of animals, there currently is no national law that is explicitly against animal cruelty for all animals. Some legal bloggers explored under which laws Xu could be punished for his actions other than the abuse itself, such as stealing a cat and also uploading such a video to the internet (#虐待无主流浪猫狗或不被处罚#, #公共场合虐待动物并传播视频或犯罪#).
In recent years, voices calling for better laws on animal abuse in China have grown louder. In 2020, after a horrific story of a Chinese security guard pouring scalding water over a cat went viral, Chinese media outlet CCTV called out for a rapid legislation against animal abuse. That same video was shared in light of this incident again.
In 2021, home security cameras captured how anti-epidemic workers beat a pet dog to death in Shangrao. This also caused an online storm over animal abuse during ‘zero Covid.’
“I strongly call for legislation, [we must] defend the bottom line of morality,” some commenters now write: “We will never forgive this.”
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