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USC Student Deaths Trigger Online Tussle In China

Kay Chinn |
April 13, 2012 | 2:28 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Students at Wednesday night's on-campus vigil. (Kay Chinn)
Students at Wednesday night's on-campus vigil. (Kay Chinn)
Since Wednesday's killing of two Chinese USC graduate students in a shooting near campus, some Chinese online users have begun to air resentment toward students studying overseas.

Shocked and saddened by the deaths of Ying Wu and Ming Qu, Chinese students abroad can’t help but ask: why the backlash?

China Youth Daily published a commentary on the shootings, asking a thought-provoking question of its readers: “Why don’t we have any basic humanity towards our own fellow students?”

Many Chinese students have criticized the media for playing a role in perpetuating the negative treatement.

AP’s initial coveragepublished several hours after the shooting, reported the car Wu and Qu were driving that day was a “new 3-series luxury car that sells for up to $60,000.”

AP removed the information about the car in later reports, but many media included it in their own stories.

China’s major online media outlets continued to play up the fact that the car was a BMW.

Sohu, a major web portal in China, ran its story under the headline, “Two Chinese International Students, A Male And A Female, Shot Dead In A BMW In Los Angeles.”

Outlets like Chinanews, 163.com, Sina, qq.com all mentioned “BMW” in their headlines.

BMW drivers have a bad reputation in China. In 2003, Su Xiuwen, a BMW sports car driver, plowed into a group of people after a brush with a tractor, killing one and injuring 12 others. Su was aquitted of murder and received only a suspension. Ever since this case, Chinese news outlets have typically represented BMW owners as rich and heartless people.

Specifying “BMW” in the headline, these media implied certain stereotypes, and some Internet users bought it.

Some left comments on 163.com: “Let’s pray they are children of the privileged class”; “They must be kids of corrupt officials or profiteers”; “Hope all the children of corrupt officials and rich people die”; “Young people in their 20s driving BMW must have certain backgrounds”; “Studying in America, driving BMW, a male and a female, let them die.”

Such malicious comments immediately triggered rage among the victims’ friends and Chinese students abroad.

Sun Shaobo, who said he knew the female victim, Wu, for two years, wrote on his Renren page, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, that he was “saddened and outraged more than any one else,” and he wanted to tell everyone he knew that the two victims were good kids. He called for respect for slain students.

Tong Zhi, a USC student, posted an article at Renren to honor Wu. He described her as hardworking, responsible, warm-hearted and frugal.

In the last paragraph, Zhi wrote, “I read news coverage in America, in China, and some fellow Chinese’s comments. Nobody cares about the two victims. All they care is that they died in a BMW … these people are cold-blooded.”

Much of the disconnect in perception is rooted in China's growing income gap. China's Gini coefficient, a measure commonly used to gauge income inequality, increased sharply from 25 in the mid-1980s to 41 in 2000, the last year the Chinese government published its findings.

Since then, several independent Chinese experts have placed China's Gini coefficient in a range of 45 to more than 50, among the highest in the world, according to a recent Asian Development Bank report.

Deng Kaifu, a friend of both victims, posted a statement online to say both victims were frugal, the car was secondhand and worth about $10,000.

Chen Shuze, another USC student, posted some tips for dealing with media to help students handle interviews better and fight for fair coverage.

As the information spread, more and more people stepped up to criticize sensationalist coverage and malicious online comments:

“They are in their 20s, the best time of their life…”; “We should mourn for them”; “Media are trying to catch eye balls by specifying BMW … Ugly.”

@6uopjmS wrote at microblog, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, “I don’t understand the correlation between a second-hand BMW and our students killed.” This microblog user called the misleading headlines “stupid.” @6uopjmS' message has been Retweeted nearly 20,000 times.

Many Chinese students studying in the U.S. have also tried to tell their fellow Chinese what life is like in America.

Many of them said Wu and Qu were neither wealthy kids nor from privileged families, and that they worked hard to support themselves.

Some explained that in the U.S., especially a city like Los Angeles, cars are somewhat a necessity. In China, where it’s much easier to commute with public transportation and cars are more expensive, students driving are likely to be perceived as spoiled.

163.com and Sina changed their headlines after the widespread criticism, but a few Internet users’ opinions remained unchanged.

Some replied, “No kidding, students studying in the U.S. must be from wealthy family,” or, “People who defend kids from corrupt families should be cursed.”

Startled by such comments, Wang Fei, a Ph.D. candidate in economics at USC, asked in his microblog: "Is it unavoidable to sacrifice objectivity and accuracy to catch eyeballs in the competitive media market? Is it real that China has a system that prevents hard working young people from successing, or people just use system as an excuse for their failure?"

Fei called the backlash an “abnormal reaction” and said the lack of concern for humanity in education must be addressed.

Many Chinese students studying abroad posted comments on their own microblogs or Renren pages, expressing a solemn solidarity: “It is not only the day these two international students from China were shot dead. It’s the day every one of us who study abroad has been shot dead.”

 

Reach Staff Reporter Kay Chinn here.



 

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