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Girl sold herself for mom: Dilemma of Internet charity
(Southern Metropolis Daily/zonaeu)
Updated: 2005-11-07 09:39 Her daughter, the 20-year-old Chen Yi who is a third-year student of
Theatrical and Visual Arts at the School of Literature in Chongqing's
Southwestern University, tumbled down to her knees not long after the funeral
rite began and cried with her head lowered. Through her sobs, she recalled her
mother's love and frugality. It is not clear if she was intentionally trying to
refute the doubts raised in the Internet storm.
Chen Yi and her mom [Southern Metropolis
Daily] | The narration of this story begins a
month and a half ago.
On the afternoon of September 15, on the Chongqing section of Tianya Club
(the largest forum in China), Chen Yi posted a message under the ID "selling my
body to save mom" under the title: "I'm selling myself to save mom."
The essay was quite moving: her father had passed away from hepatitis when
she was 11 years old. Last June, her mother developed a case of abnormal liver
hardening and so they had to sell the house last year for a liver transplant.
After the operation, the side-effects caused her mother severe pains to the
point where she wanted on several occasions to kill herself. The experts
recommended a second transplant at an estimated cost of several hundred
thousands yuan. She concluded her essay as follows: "I would rather sell myself!
I would work of him/her unconditionally. I guarantee with my personal character
and dignity that this call came from the bottom of the heart of an in-school
university student who wants to save her mother!"
Later on, upon request by the netizens, she posted a photograph of her and
her mother as well as her account number at the Industrial and Commercial bank.
The response gradually heated up. Faced with such a pious girl, the netizens
expressed their sympathy. Her mobile phone kept ringing, to the point where
service was cut off twice. On the next day, the first sum of 200 yuan was
transferred into her account. By September 17, more than 16,000 yuan in
donations had gone into her account.
When the "female university student" linked the keywords "selling her body"
with "saving her mother", it was undoubtedly an eye-catching news item. On
September 17, almost all of the Chongqing newspapers reported on this incident.
After the reports appeared in the newspaper, the School of Literature in
which Chen Yi was attending, quickly posted a solicitation of donations on the
school's BBS and the university-wide campaign brought in more than 20,000 yuan
from the teachers and the staff. The Luzhou City Prosecutorial Office where Chen
Yi's mother Yi Liangwei worked, also organized the entire prosecutorial system
in the city to make donations.
Three days after the post first appeared, the normally open and happy Chen Yi
began to look depressed. On this day, a mysterious person by the ID of
Lanlian'er made a post that asserted that Chen Yi "wore new Adidas and Nike
brand fashion wear, she uses a mobile phone as well as a Personal Access System,
she also bought a pair of colorized contact lens at more than 500 yuan" ... "At
that time, her mother called her endless number of times, but she was not to be
found. Instead, she hung around with a bunch of loose characters and she skipped
her classes" ... "she cheated countless number of kind-hearted people" ...
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