19/10/2009 / CHINA
This time
it might be a hoax, but people have done this for real too. Not on the
internet, but by telephoning ex lovers and connected lovers. There was a guy in
my city last year, who, when he found out he had contracted HIV from a sex
worker, telephoned hundreds of girls in the area, telling them that they had it
too, to try to get revenge. There have been several similar cases in the past
couple of years.
Prostitute’s online AIDS confession – one big joke for the Chinese
The Chinese blogosphere was very excited last week after an alleged prostitute and HIV carrier published a blog post with the telephone numbers of 279 of her former clients, telling them "If your number is included, then congratulations, you've got AIDS". Instead of being appalled however, the Chinese blogosphere thought the whole thing rather amusing - a worrying indication of China's naive attitude towards the lethal virus.
Accompanied by numerous photos and videos, the self confessional and sordid tale of 29-old Yan Deli from Rongcheng County, Hubei Province, appeared online early last week. Before denouncing and exposing her alleged clients, the young woman explained that she had been sexually abused by her ‘old bastard' stepfather since the age of 15, and ended up doing odd jobs in Beijing before turning to prostitution. She goes into unmerited detail describing the sexually transmitted diseases she contracted through not using condoms, and about her various pregnancies, along with an ultrasound scan to prove it (see image below). The bitter story finishes with a list if 279 telephone numbers, and an invitation: "Beijing and Hubei friends, take a look, is your number listed?" (You can read an English translation in full here).
Images posted on the blog, along with the infamous list of numbers. Blurring by FRANCE 24.
By Thursday, the blog had been blocked by the authorities, and on Sunday (October 18), the police told newspaper China Daily that the tale was in fact an extreme case of revenge, concocted by the girl's ex-lover. But not before it had caught the attention of the national blogosphere. The reaction was unexpectedly jovial. Amongst comments posted on the Mop forum, one contributor jokes about being on the list, another about the declining professionalism of prostitution, and another about the poor quality of modern condoms. A few comments translated by ChinaSMACK:
"Satisfying ha ha! They can all die! Who told you guys to be shameless and go whoring!"
"Those who are on the list of phone numbers must have all fainted, he he."
"Will reading this thread infect me?"
Contributors
“The Chinese are zombies when it comes to the AIDS problem”
Zhang is one of our Observers in China. She prefers to remain anonymous.
This time
it might be a hoax, but people have done this for real too. Not on the
internet, but by telephoning ex lovers and connected lovers. There was a guy in
my city last year, who, when he found out he had contracted HIV from a sex
worker, telephoned hundreds of girls in the area, telling them that they had it
too, to try to get revenge. There have been several similar cases in the past
couple of years.
The Chinese are zombies when it comes to the AIDS problem. We're not educated about the virus, especially not the older generations. And because it's not taken seriously, people think this kind of prank is funny. The problem is that many HIV carriers were infected during blood transfusions in the 1990s, because the government didn't enforce screening blood for HIV. It's probably still going on now in small, rural hospitals - there still aren't enough regulations with regard to the screening of donated blood, and on top of that, patients are also in danger concerning the use of syringes, because the needle is not changed for each patient. It's estimated that around seven per cent of people with HIV in the country got it during a trip to the hospital. So, because in many cases the government's to blame, they don't want to draw attention to it. So they make it hard for NGOs who try to launch AIDS awareness campaigns, leaving people uninformed and naïve."
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Comments
Expecting original coverage from China
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Wed, 21/10/2009 - 14:08.Hi there.
This is a message for the France 24 staff.
Observers' news about China seem to be consistently derived from the same source (basically, copy pasted from chinaSMACK.com).
I think this is really lowering the overall quality of this site and is in contradiction with your ethos "using eyewitness accounts from "Observers" - that's to say people who are at the heart of event. "
Unregistered user
RE: message for the France 24 staff
Submitted by Team Observers on Wed, 21/10/2009 - 14:33.Dear Unregistered user,
We find and are made aware of stories from all sorts of blogs and websites, including ChinaSMACK. Topics which we find interesting and worth bringing to the attention of Observers readers, we then tackle by contacting our Observers for their take on the subject at hand.
In this particular post (which incidentally, we were made aware of by an article in China Daily), the only part which is "copy pasted" from ChinaSMACK, is the translation of comments made of the Mop forum:
"Satisfying ha ha! They can all die! Who told you guys to be shameless and go whoring!"
"Those who are on the list of phone numbers must have all fainted, he he."
"Will reading this thread infect me?"
This was the context of the subject. Our take on this subject, unline ChinaSMACK's, is that the AIDS virus is not taken seriously enough in the country; an issue which is dealt with by our Observer Zhang.
Team Observers
Thanks for your reply. But
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Wed, 21/10/2009 - 15:03.Thanks for your reply. But did you figure out it was a hoax?
Best regards.
Unregistered user
RE: reply
Submitted by Team Observers on Wed, 21/10/2009 - 15:50.Did you read this:
By Thursday, the blog had been blocked by the authorities, and on Sunday (October 18), the police told newspaper China Daily that the tale was in fact an extreme case of revenge, concocted by the girl's ex-lover.
Or this (Zhang's first sentence):
"This time it might be a hoax, but people have done this for real too."
Please read the full post before making comments.
Team Observers
Team Observers
This is all the more true
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Wed, 21/10/2009 - 14:18.This is all the more true when you realize that it was a hoax after all...
Unregistered user