Sunday, August 16, 2009

"Pretty girl, why are you cursing me?"

CRIEnglish.com
A man suspected of beating to death a 27-year-old female village official in Chengdu has been arrested thanks to some investigative work by netizens, sconline.com.cn reported on Friday.

Police officers in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province, arrested Li Bin, the suspect, Thursday afternoon. Li confessed to the crime after the first questioning.

The Chengdu municipal government will hold a press conference Friday on the latest developments.

At about 1:40 p.m. on August 10, 2009, Li Bin quarreled with the victim, Che Yating, on the third section of the West First Ring Road in Chengdu. He then assaulted Che, who died the next day after being sent to hospital.

A graduate of Sichuan University, Che Yating worked as a village official in Youfang Village, Xinxing Township. A recent national policy encourages many college graduates to work as village officials in rural areas.

Here is more information plus photos from EastSouthWestNorth.

I really don't understand the mentality of this Li Bin guy. One of the news articles says he hit her with his electric tricycle, she said something vulgar to him, he came back, they argued, he beat her and she died the next day in the hospital.
At around 1:40pm on August 10, 27-year-old female village official Che Yating was walking near number 111, on the West Third Section of the First Ring road in the city of Chengdu. She was nicked by the electric tricycle driven by an unknown male. Che Yating screamed in pain and uttered a vulgar phrase in the local dialect. When the driver heard that, he quickly stopped and parked his tricycle near the bus stop next to the Green Field Furniture Store. Then he grabbed Che Yating and said, "Pretty girl, why are you cursing me?" The two quarreled and the man assaulted the woman, who would die as a result later at the hospital. The man fled.

A few things trouble me about this. First, I've been on 1st Ring Road in Chengdu, though not sure what section; all the intersections look similar. It's weird to read about some crazy news item from half-way around the world and know exactly where it happened.

Two, I've experienced many near misses crossing the street in China, most involved bicycles and scooters. People don't seem to stop for red lights at all, to the point of running over pedestrians at crosswalks (as it appears to be the case above). Why is there such low respect for civil laws? I'm repeating myself but Chinese people smoke in front of no smoking signs, spit everywhere even though it's illegal, and there's just a general lack of courtesy towards strangers. Chinese people in America are not like that (in general).

Third, why does this guy think it's okay to beat a girl so hard that she dies from her injuries? Not that it matters, but he was the one that hit her with his tricycle first. Didn't they learn that "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Maybe he has the Asian alpha-male syndrome (大男人 - for a lack of a better term) where they think they're superior to women and need to slap them around to keep them in line.



Finally, this bothers me the most. He beat her up in broad daylight (1:40pm) on a busy street in a major city and nobody intervened or helped out? I can see not getting involved in a domestic argument but when a 33-year old guy starts beating up a young girl, I think most of us in the West would try to do something, instead of watching him beat her to death. Though much less risky/controversial than the above incident, I've grabbed/blocked toddlers running away from their parents a few times. I'm not sure the average Chinese person in China will do even that.


Sigh... plenty of bystanders that could have saved her life.

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