18-year-old student commits suicide for $80 dept

goso88 · Mar 28, 2005

PUJIA, China - His dying debt was $80. Had he been among China's urban elite, Zheng Qingming would have spent more on a trendy cellphone. But he was one of the hundreds of millions of peasants far removed from the country's new wealth. His public high school tuition alone consumed most of his family's income for a year.

He wanted to attend college. But to do so meant taking the annual college entrance examination. On the humid morning of June 4, three days before the exam, Qingming's teacher repeated a common refrain: he had to pay his last $80 in fees or he would not be allowed to take the test. Qingming stood before his classmates, his shame overtaken by anger.

"I do not have the money," he said slowly, according to several teachers who described the events that morning. But his teacher - and the system - would not budge.

A few hours later, Qingming, 18 years old, stepped in front of an approaching locomotive. The train, like China's roaring economy, was an express.

If his gruesome death was shocking, the life of this peasant boy in the rolling hills of northern Sichuan Province is repeated a millionfold across the Chinese countryside. Peasants like Qingming were once the core constituency of the Communist Party. Now, they are being left behind in the money-centered, cutthroat society that has replaced socialist China....

The elder Mr. Zheng had few ways of making money. He had little schooling and could not read. But even at 74, his strapping forearms and muscular hands look as if they belong on a weightlifter, or a convict doing hard labor. He found work chopping stones into pebbles to make roads.

"Every cent that came in went right out to pay his school fees," Mr. Zheng said. "As you can see," he added, waving his hand around his earthen home, "there wasn't enough for anything else."

Qingming proved a worthy investment. His high-school admission test score qualified him to attend the area's top school, in Dazhou.

But his grandfather worried that money and class put that out of reach. He had once seen schoolchildren in Dazhou wearing sporty windbreakers and sneakers, not the padded blue Mao jackets and sandals many peasants wear. He said he feared city youngsters would look down on his grandson. Moreover, the basic tuition at the local high school, in Pujia, was half as much.

If Qingming resented missing the chance to attend an elite school, he did not tell his closest friends. "He knew the reality of his family's situation," said Deng Jun.

In school in Pujia, Qingming excelled in biology, and dreamed of becoming a doctor. He also loved literature. He filled his scrapbook with clipped essays and wrote his own ditties. One he repeated so often that his grandfather recites it from memory:

Do not toady to those above.
Do not flatter the rich.
Do not cheat the poor.
Make way for a new generation.

As he entered his senior year, with marks that put him in the top tier of his class, he and his grandfather imagined that Qingming might go to college....

The matter came to a climax on June 4, three days before the college entrance exam, teachers and classmates said.

Mr. Zhang called Qingming to his desk. As classmates listened, Mr. Zhang insisted, again, that Qingming must pay his $80 debt. Otherwise, the school would withhold his license to take the exam, effectively ending his hopes of attending college.

Qingming said flatly that he had no money. One classmate stood up and volunteered to sell blood to help Qingming.

"I don't care if you sell a life," Mr. Zhang responded, according to teachers who looked into the incident later. "He pays the fees or he doesn't take the test."

Qingming exploded. He kicked an umbrella across the room, then picked it up and threw it out the window, the teachers said. He then fled the building...

Ultimately, the authorities insist, Qingming died accidentally because he "lost his mind"; he did not intend to commit suicide. Several students said their teacher had arranged individual meetings with them after Qingming's death to remind them of his erratic behavior and to impress upon them that they should emphasize this if outsiders asked about the case.

Mr. Zheng, the grandfather, dismissed the official explanations of what happened. He said the school never reduced his grandson's tuition. He said Qingming was upset, not insane. He is suing the school for having caused Qingming's death.

All he has left now to remember the grandson he once carried on his back is a stack of workbooks - trigonometry, politics, history. Mr. Zheng does not recognize enough Chinese characters to read them. But he keeps the books as memorials.

One is Qingming's scrapbook. Near the end, Qingming pasted in a magazine article about a ******** farm girl. She was raped, then abandoned by her relatives for the shame she inflicted on them. In the margins of the text, Qingming scribbled his thoughts: "We must extend our helping hand to any innocent underdog. Only by so doing can that person find a footing in society."

Click to expand...

Full article here: http://www.globalaging.org/elderrights/wor...d/2004/amid.htm

Its a horrible story, but at at the same time, its really touching. I really recommend that you guys read the full article. It was on the New York Times in Sept. 2004.

Alacrity · Mar 28, 2005

That's touching and horrible at the same time... it makes me feel very fortunate that I live in a place where even though the politics are shady my family is still fortunate to have enough money to send me to school. RIP.

Testament · Mar 28, 2005

That's f*cking horrible...

Tomi · Mar 28, 2005

Wow.

Lisa · Mar 28, 2005

Jon[athan] · Mar 28, 2005

thats awful . they couldnt just let it slide or anything

Amanda · Mar 28, 2005

Originally posted by goso88@Mar 28 2005, 03:45 AM
"I don't care if you sell a life," Mr. Zhang responded, according to teachers who looked into the incident later. "He pays the fees or he doesn't take the test."
Click to expand...

Bet he feels like an ass now

How awful. That poor kid. :'(

Glenn · Mar 29, 2005

:'(
RIP

CloserToCrawling · Mar 29, 2005

Oh my god that is just so horrible and sad. RIP :'(

Razan · Mar 29, 2005

Originally posted by .in.the.shadows.+Mar 28 2005, 10:04 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (.in.the.shadows. @ Mar 28 2005, 10:04 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--goso88@Mar 28 2005, 03:45 AM
"I don't care if you sell a life," Mr. Zhang responded, according to teachers who looked into the incident later. "He pays the fees or he doesn't take the test."
Click to expand...

Bet he feels like an ass now [/b][/quote]
I hope he feels like an ass that horrible bastard, I wonder, maybe this incident could change the rules a little...

:'(

He probably studied so hard, he could've become something really important....

Theazninvasion68 · Mar 29, 2005

:'(
RIP my chineese friend....

rest in peace.....

to practice something that he wanted to become, only to fail, is something that is heart breaking.

Ryan · Mar 29, 2005

That sucks.

hybrid_soldier · Mar 29, 2005

That is really sad.

Evan™ · Mar 29, 2005

Originally posted by .in.the.shadows.+Mar 28 2005, 10:04 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (.in.the.shadows. @ Mar 28 2005, 10:04 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--goso88@Mar 28 2005, 03:45 AM
"I don't care if you sell a life," Mr. Zhang responded, according to teachers who looked into the incident later. "He pays the fees or he doesn't take the test."
Click to expand...

Bet he feels like an ass now

How awful. That poor kid. :'( [/b][/quote]
he shouldnt onli feel like an ass he shud be an ass.....

shouldnt they giv him a scholarship or something!? F**K the system!

LPfreaK1852 · Mar 30, 2005

.......that is sad

Evi · Mar 30, 2005

This is shocking.

Evil Angel · Mar 30, 2005

no words to describe my grief.

Matt · Mar 31, 2005

That's just...can't even find a word for it. I hate hearing about things like that.

LornVourkolakas · Mar 31, 2005

Though I don't agree with how he dealt with his problem, it is a sad story.

KirbyRockz · Apr 1, 2005

That sucks.
I mean, it's only $80 bucks.

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18-year-old student commits suicide for $80 dept

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18-year-old student commits suicide for $80 dept

goso88 Well-Known Member

Alacrity don't stop talking to me; i haven't been listening LPA Super Member

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Jon[athan] Sincerly, written from my brothers blood machine.

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