It began like so many other suicide cases involving youth: cries for help in cyberspace and a girl holed up in a fleabag hotel, inhaling burning charcoal fumes and slipping into a coma.
"Ms Yang" (楊), 22, was preparing to meet her maker in a Kaohsiung hotel on Wednesday, according to a report in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (Taipei Times' sister newspaper) on Friday.
The distraught college student checked into a hotel on Jiouru 2nd Rd at 8pm, sealed her room on the eighth floor and lit charcoal briquettes, the report said.
Two hours later, as Yang lost consciousness amid a carbon monoxide haze, the receptionist kicked in her door and carried the girl to safety.
The hotel employee's saving Yang just in time, however, wasn't what made her case unique relative to other "suicide-by-charcoal" cases. What was truly unusual about Yang's rescue was that hundreds, if not thousands, of bloggers staged a coordinated, rapid response to thwart her suicide.
The sophisticated one-hour campaign to save Yang began in cyberspace but culminated in her physical rescue by one man.
"I think this could be called a turning point in the role that the Internet plays in the suicide phenomenon," said Chuang Po-chung (
An expert on media coverage on suicide, Chuang said Yang's case shattered the stereotype of blogs as a forum for strangers to forge "suicide pacts." Such pacts refer to collective suicides planned online between strangers.
The plans, usually hatched on a blog or via e-mail by suicidal Internet-users, is for such users to die together, or separately and closely timed, usually by burning charcoal in a sealed room.
"I've come across all kinds of online forums regarding suicide, with people promoting it. But there are also plenty of forums and information in cyberspace discouraging people from taking their own lives," Chuang said in a phone interview.
"The Internet can have a positive influence on suicide-prone youth," he added.
One hour before Yang's rescue, her friend, self-styled "Vot1077," posted a message on a popular online bulletin board, stating that Yang planned to commit suicide by inhaling charcoal fumes that evening. Vot1077 also posted Yang's full name and school, adding that Yang had confided in her that she intended to kill herself on the eighth floor of a Kaohsiung hotel.
Yang had stopped short of naming the hotel, according to Vot1077, and that's where an army of concerned "netizens" entered the equation.
Posting the names and telephone numbers of all the hotels in Kaohsiung with 8 or more floors, one blogger shifted the campaign to find Yang into high gear, launching a telephone blitz of 240 hotels by fellow bloggers. A blog-based update of which hotels had been contacted and ruled out further concentrated netizens' efforts.
When the call came into the receptionist who would save Yang, the caller's description of the girl jibed with a guest on the eighth floor.
"Could that be the girl who just checked in?" the receptionist was quoted as saying before sprinting up to Yang's room.
"There were a lot of weird coincidences with this case," Chuang said.
"For one, this happened at a time of day when blogs are teeming with users. This girl probably had thousands of strangers all working together to locate and save her," he said.
In a virtual world choked with blogs whose users often prowl for strangers to commit suicide with, Yang's case was special because it involved strangers who sought to keep her alive, Chuang added.
Known only by their online monikers, Vot1077, "v86662" and "liquorice," among many other netizens, were anonymous heroes last week, proving that what happens in cyberspace doesn't always stay in cyberspace.
And that could well be a good thing.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
RSS