The Death of a Girl

  我们自以为我们的国家和印度不一样。

  我的一个朋友昨天在脸书上发了这样一段话，让人不寒而栗，很讽刺，很伤心。

This morning a girl who committed suicide last night died, confirmed by the local police. I know her in an online chatting group. Her parents cannot repay the money borrowed from one of the relatives. So the girl was forced to marry the relative as the “repayment”. She had no right to refuse her family and she refused her whole life. She posted her last message on Weibo, the Chinese social media, saying goodbye to her friends. We saw the message and we managed to call the police, but it was too late.

This is what happened at the end of this July, 2018, in a city 500 km away from Beijing. I talked with her several times about animation, TV programmes and favored movie stars. She is funny, smart and sensitive. But she died for such reason all of a sudden. I can’t describe my feelings. This is so astonishing and just happened near me.

“ Me Too” is currently targeting at structural inequality in China with allegations of sexual harassment to NGO leaders, social celebrities and scholars. Despite the supervision and repression from the government, I believe some changing is taking place. But what happened is so ironic that online movements have much less influence on real life. I cannot even help my friend to get rid of such tragedy. So confused, and possibly I can’t even post such message in domestic websites. Why? Because there are several sensitive words including Me Too, Beijing and sexual harassment.

R. I. P. The battle for gender equality is endless.

为了防止她被水表，就不写她的名字了。