Time Travel Dramas Induce Two 12-Year-Old Girls To Commit Suicide
Time travel television dramas were recently blamed for inducing the tragic deaths of two 12-year-old girls in Zhangpu, Fujian Province. Chinese dramas such as Bu Bu Jing Xin <步步惊心> depicted the heroine, Cecilia Liu (刘诗诗), traveling back to the Qing Dynasty on an incredible journey of love and discovery. As reported by ifeng.com, the deaths of two primary school girls, who decided to end their lives and travel to another era in time, have shocked and angered many people in mainland China.
The corpses of the two fifth-graders, Xiaohua and Xiaomei, were found in a 2-meter deep pond, located in Tingzhen Harbour Village in Zhangpu county. On the fateful morning of March 1st, Xiaohua discovered that she had lost her house keys. Scared, Xiaohua told her friend, Xiaomei, what had happened. The girls whispered together, apparently deciding that they would end their lives together, in an attempt to avoid the wrath of Xiaohua’s family.
Xiaohua and Xiaomei left suicide notes for their families before jumping into a pond together. In Xiaomei’s letter, she wrote, “Father, Mother, I can no longer pay my respects to you anymore. I have to leave. Younger brother, you have to respect our parents. My good friend (Xiaohua) lost her house keys. She is afraid of going home and being scolded. She wanted to die and I have decided to accompany her in death. Please do not worry. Although we could not be born in the same month and year, we hope to die on the day. In this life, I have two secrets: one is time travel to the Qing Dynasty to film a movie about an emperor and the second mission is to travel to space.”
In Xiaohua’s suicide note to her parents, she wrote, “Father, Mother, and Elder Sister: I’m sorry, I’m leaving. You have to take care of your health. Usually, I will fight with Elder Sister, but I love her dearly. It will be sufficient for Sister to have you. I often provoke Mother and make her unhappy. I’m really sorry. Sister, please take care of Mother and Father.”
According to the police, the Zhangpu County Board of Education Secretary arrived at Tingzhen to help retrieve the corpses from the pond and console the emotionally wrought families.The deaths of Xiaohua and Xiaomei caused a public outrage, in which many people criticized that there was an absence of love and education at home and in school. Some locals postulated that the girls possessed psychological problems and were unable to resolve a small problem such as losing house keys.
Other locals cried that the young girls had watched too many time travel series, resulting in the girl’s warped sense of reality and prompting them to end their lives in hopes of traveling back to the Qing Dynasty.
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Jayne: Quite saddened to learn of the two young girls’ suicides. There are countless stories of young people ending their lives due to cyber bullying on social media. And now this depressing story of two young guillible girls ending their lives, hoping that they would time travel to a land of their fantasies.
sorry but wtf???!!
Asian culture/ parenting is/ are so strict – no matter which era you are in. So sad. It’s the parents that should be scolded and blamed for these tragedies.
Not really, at times it is the child’s fault since they don’t even want to listen to the parents.
really libby? then who should be blamed for columbine high and other school shootings in the states? at least the girls don’t go on a killing rampage.
“n the fateful morning of March 1st, Xiaohua discovered that she had lost her house keys. Scared, Xiaohua told her friend, Xiaomei, what had happened. The girls whispered together, apparently deciding that they would end their lives together, in an attempt to avoid the wrath of Xiaohua’s family.”
I think this was the main reason, NOT because of series like BBJX. So why drag BBJX into this? She did said she wanted to travel to space so pull out the entire space programme? Whilst my heart cries for the 2 poor dead STUPID girls, I feel the media is even more stupid to tie this to series like BBJX. I grew up watching Donald Duck, do I go and grab a duck and talk to it like donald? I love BBJX too, but I know the difference between reality and fiction. If China is serious in banning such series, ban the books. Burn the books. How darn stupid can you get?
And those 2 girls, their parents should question themselves why 2 girls would kill themselves over housekeys!
Funn, you are absolutely right. This breaks my heart.
Agree with you. This has nothing to do with BBJX. The girls committed suicide because one girl was afraid of her parents’ wrath while the other felt she should accompany her friend.
the one that think she should accompany her friend is absolutely STUPID. yeah harsh, but have the girl ever thought of her parents first or has she ever ask for the parents’ permission before committing this suicide?
Pretty much. It has ZERO relevance to BBJX. It’s tragic enough that the girls killed themselves – but writing such a dumb story takes the attention away from what’s really important; the fact that the girls feared their parents more than death.
Condolences to the parents of the 2 unfortunate kids who took their life easily.
Funn,
U know in mainland, i don’t think the parents there are concern of their children’s upbringing. Remember that case of a 2 yr old toddler that got run over by 2 cars and ppl just walk passed the girl? Where are the parents when the toddler were alone in the street?? and Why only cry after the toddler is dead?? Really dunno what they are thinking now in Mainland.. really crazy!
I think they were nearby and the little girl walked off. Can’t blame the parents really. Poor Yue Yue.
This one, the parents must be harsh. Because she was a girl is that it?
Funn,
if the parents were nearby Yue Yue, then they would have rescue Yue Yue without waiting until the 2nd car ran over her injured body.. According to the video, Yue Yue was run over twice and they were like 5-10 passerby who saw Yue Yue lying on the road but no one turn in for help. What I was trying to say is if the parents were nearby, they would have rescued and send Yue Yue to hospital and not till the 2nd car ran over her and only to be sent to hospital after an old lady came to help.. No parents were not around that time, news didn’t say where were they, they were only in hospital after the whole incident..
Seriously funn, I really dislike the society in Mainland no offense, just don’t like their way of teaching there.
Heartless I know. But when I was there some were very friendly. I was up at the Great Wall and you know, the friendlier ones are those who dressed shabbily, and I suspect from outstation smaller towns.
Yue Yue’s situation is to me the worst of a society, which is not exclusive to China. Yeah I remember about 18 people passed by?
Yue Yue’s parents were shop owners in the neighborhood and they hadn’t realized that she had run out onto the street… They were nearby but hadn’t realized she was gone (which is still very bad).
I heard that many passerby’s didn’t want to help because of the case where this old woman who tried to sue a young man for hit-and-run who had gotten out of his car to help her when she had actually fallen herself.
Overall, there seems to be a regression in China’s social ethics.
Veejay,
It seems like many people in China have psychological problems of some sort or something. We often hear about many other crazy stories and other strange things that they have done. From that one crazy Andy fan, to this and this other dude setting a girl that kept on rejecting him on fire and getting away with it. It is no wonder many don’t want to live in China even though they are wealthy.
@ HTS
Crazy stories happen all over the world, not only China. People getting away from crime because they have money/power happens everywhere. Fanatics are also not isolated to china people only. It depends on what get highlighted. If you UK Daily Mail, you would think many people in UK have psychological problem too.
@Kidd,
Of course I know that crazy stories occur all over the world and not only China. But since China is the country mentioned here, I just wanted to stay on topic. However, I of course know that it is not just China….
I agree with u Funn! It has nothing to do with the movie.. If they are that weak and stupid they can watch and read anything that would influence them to do dumb acts. I just think maybe the Chinese parents were real hard on xiaohua and she often get scolded so family just finding something to blame. No idea what her friend xiaomei was thinking…lots of weird people out there..
Agreed! Man the media is so silly!
Funn is absolutely right. I guess ignorance is not always bliss then. But they are tweleve and I think at that age they should’ve been able to make right judegements and not silly ones like that.
I agree with you Funn! What does this have to do with BBJX??? Are they just trying to make up a good excuse about why they decided to ban time traveling series???
Its sad that these two young girls commit suicide but are they really blaming time travel shows? Thats just weird, there is probably more problems in the young girls life then we know.
Still can’t believe china banned time travel. Thoses shows were good
I can see it now in foreign news- “china, first country to ban house keys” ahhhhhhhhhhhh but firearms, social hierarchies and sycophancy is still ok.
Unbelievable !!
Is this a hoax? Can’t believe that this is happening. And they are 12 years old, not 6 years old.
wonder how much punishment the girls get when they do something wrong – just lost house keys – I lost keys when I was younger and got scolded. I actually liked the time traveling series because it made me want to learn more about the true historic people and if certain events truly occurred or not.
So now this kind of time traveling drama should put “viewer discretion advised”?
I don’t think this has to do anything with the drama, it’s more like family communication.
If that’s the case then TVB should remove the 3K since it tells about time travel too? and HK is part of China hmm?
Maybe it just won’t be shown in Mainland?
They will banned airing it in China. I wont be so surprised.
This is just saddening. I feel like its more a reflection of modern society than on series production. It’s as if life is so bland and pointless to some that they can so easily end their lives without thinking of their possible bright future. Similarly, it is disheartening how the value of a life and the severity of suicide isn’t being emphasised here. Suicide isn’t the smartest or easiest way to escape. Its painful for so many people and so so traumatic. I’d rather someone ran away from home than know I caused their death.
You can’t blame time travel drama’s 4 wot happened! It’s really sad 2 hear both girls committed suicide but there must be more 2 this than watching 2 many time travel drama’s.
Well not surprised. This is China people. Lack of love and respect is common in families.
So sad but heart wrenchingly dumb! Poor poor parents but really, a lot of questioning and self reflection has to be done. Pardon me, but I think the mainlanders are a lost society. Getting more and more selfish, losing their ethics and religion, morale values on the decline, etc. The one child policy indirectly contributed to this. Boys are favored over girls. The rich gets richer, poor gets poorer. The poor stresses over bread and butter, thus neglecting their children. This is the price China has to pay for the climb to be the world’s second super power in just a short period of time. Society can hardly cope.
blame the leaders. blame communism.
Over house keys. Don’t blame time travelling shows for something utterly unrelated. The girls state that it’s because they lost their house keys which is why they were afraid to go home. What kind of effed up parenting does that????????????????????????????
They were too naive. And too young to understand the precious of a life. Have to see the matter from the family first
So dumb. I dont see people from the west imitating characters or plots from Harry Potter.
Wait, this “West” you are talking about, have people dying from planking?
At least the two girls were kids.
I don’t think they didn’t expected to die from planking.
Still it’s not a matter of intellingence. The western society have kids jumping out the window thinking they could fly ala Superman.
My point was aimed at blablabla’s biased support of the west, when stupidity is rampant everywhere.
You just reminded me that one of my friends actually did the Superman thing, and broke his legs when he was 5.
This is indeed sad. Can’t blame it on time-travelling though as there were likely other issues involved. Perhaps the girls weren’t happy at home etc and wanted to escape reality.
Time-travelling might have given them the courage to carry it out hoping to live happily in another era.
couldn’t agree more. if time travel ficton is just banned because of this then that is just hilariously ridiculous. and i’m not saying this cause i liked BBJX cause i never watched it.
I agree that this is really sad and tragic… It is sad that they have to blame it on time travelling series and then use that as an excuse to ban them.
The Hollywood need to produce a drama that can go back to 1949 and get rid of mao and change the history which mean china today the most rich nation on earth without the great leap forward ,stupid chinaman to blame timetravel serial , what a stupid ah chan ,no wonder hong kong call mainlander ah chan,why chinaman ,why?
China used to blame other for it’s own failure ,first blame the west then blame oversea Chinese because of white brainwashing ,after than singapore,next jewish and Israel and now time travel ,huh Chinese overthrow this communist government lah, what a fool china.
No we can blame Chinese officials of sleeping while working….
video: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7401553n
article: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-273676-chinese-parliament-unveils-dissident-detention-powers-legislation.html
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Just my point of view….
This has nothing to do with travel time, but the family structure of the one of the girls. Why does she need to be so fearful of losing her keys. I am sure everyone has at least experienced this once or twice in their life span. She was so fearful that she took her own life and her friend was so afraid for her she decided to accompany her. I think both girls must be having some kind of depressive episode prior to off set this. It is easy to blame a show or TV but is that really the root of the problem. This is just slapping a band-aid on the real issue and blaming someone else for what really went wrong. I don’t want to blame the parents but the media should not blame a TV show. That is just ridiculous in my opinion, but my opinion doesn’t really count. The media/school are can be supplements to a child’s development the parents are the primary.
are they really blaming a tv drama on their deaths? there have been plenty of china dramas that have dealt with time traveling. i am an avid fan of doctor who and you don’t see me climbing into blue police boxes with random men hoping that it is the doctor. blaming it on a drama is so stupid.
while it is sad that the girls died, it cant be blamed on the parents. think about it. she was worried because she lost her key? a key? i have lost my key many times before and i still have the guts to tell my parents rather than commit suicide. that just shows that abuse is probably common in that house and how the parents deal with problems. this should be blamed on the parents not a freaking tv show.
Hoping that they can time travel to a ‘better’ place as depicted in these dramas sounds to me that they find this world a difficult place to live in. That is very sad thing to hear. But I don’t think banning dramas with time travel elements in it will address the root of the issues ie. addressing. Rather, for me, it is a question of why did these girls wanted to escape from this life.
THis case sort of reminds me of this one incident that happened in the US years ago. There was a cult people that committed suicide hoping to travel to an unknown place as well. They said that they got the idea from watching Star Trek which was one of their most favorite shows… Those people clearly had some kind of psychological problem.
I admit that I often dream of nice places and fantasy like places, but that is just a refuge for me which is why I like ancient series. However, I know that it is not real and to come back to reality. It can be a positive way of thinking if you utilize it correctly…
This news is sad but why is there a picture of BBJX? Is that why China is banning time-travel and ancient films?
As far as I know, BBJX wasn’t the first film to involve time-travel.
this is an interesting article to read. wow!!! i know my father at the age of 60 still thinks these television dramas are real life. he even taught me to learn more from them. i’m glad i have grown out from watching these dramas. i just treat them as entertainment. i’ve learned in school that they need parental involvement. they shouldn’t just give the responsibilities to the teachers. the parents should take part in their children’s education as well. another is that in school’s teachers and classmates should love each other so there will be no bullying. i just wish everyone well.
agree with you, these days a lot of parents leave the responsibility to the teachers. not all teachers are responsible. i still believe it’s the parents responsibility to teach the children and dont rely on the teacher. recently i read this comic, it shows those days when the student failed the parents would scold the children in front of the teacher (the kid would be crying). but, now, when the children failed their exam, the parents would be scolding the teacher (and the kid would be smiling there). it’s quite true what we see nowadays. what’s wrong especially i see it happens to the chinese families. is it because we’re now giving birth to one or max. 2 child that resulted we being too protected and spoil the kids?
i think the girl mentioned time travel to qing dynasty as a passing remark.no such big deal to be related to BBJX
Human love has been fading away too fast. Advancement in society makes people afaird of many things:
– It is their problem, why bother?
– If we get involved, we are suspected!
Lot of news mentions many things like people get sued for helping people, people get beaten up for taking victim to hospital because they are suspected to cause accident,
I came from another country and the city where I lived people were friendly. When I came to the U.S., I saw the kid falling and hit the ground so hard, I intended help the kid stand up but people just say “wait for the kid’s parents or his parents might say you hurt the kid on purpose.”
noticed these days chidren like to opt for suicide as an easy way out. i mean when i was a little girl i’ve watched time travel but never have thought of committing suicide. i’ve been bashed my relatives when i was a little girl, bullied in school etc but i still faced it. i dont understand why these days kids’ mentality are so different now. it’s honestly very sad to note.
Maybe the two girls were murdered. If not, they must be mentally ill. This is not the same as the case of kids wanting to be Superman. These girls actually wanted to die. Superman kids died by accident.
This is damn stupid and ridiculous! I feel terrible for the girls and their parents, but srsly, it doesn’t make sense to me to end their lives over house keys. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU KILL YOURSELF FOR LOSING KEYS? Unless Xiaohua’s parents are so strict to the extent that they’ll kill her if she doesn’t kill herself. What I find even more stupid is her friend. Not only does she not realize the irrationality of her friend, but joins in on such irrational behaviour! Omg…no more comments to makeee…
sad for the 2 girls, agree
You could not have put it better, Funn, and I agree absolutely with you. BBJX had nothing to do with the tragic suicides of the 2 girls.l They were just so stupid, like you said and now I’m afraid this incident would have cast a gloom over the so popular BBJX. Hope that the matter will quickly pass over like a bad dream.
OMG it’s truely sad that i don’t know to laught or cry! They don’t even think about that their family’s feeling before considering doing such a thing. Hope that there family will be ok.