Hong Kong Girl Cyberbullying Victim Contemplates Suicide

From Hong Kong Headline Daily :

Cyberbullying can kill. The video “Hong Kong girl causes stir at Yuen Long construction material shop” had been popular a while ago. The uploader was denounced as a “Kong girl” and had her personal details ferreted out by netizens. The female principal Chiu Yin-ping spoke out for the first time yesterday. She said that after being verbally harangued and exposed, she felt like committing suicide. A scholar said that most netizens do not realize that their actions constituted cyberbullying that might drive the principal into desperate straits. Therefore, this is a worrisome situation.

Chiu Yin-ping, who has been denounced as a “Kong girl” by netizens, had an argument with a construction store manager over the price of a wash basin in September and uploaded a video of that episode onto the Internet. At first, she wanted to use the netizens to go after the store manager. Instead, many netizens found her aggressive and overbearing. They dug up a lot of information about her personal life, and posted information such as photos, work details, addresses, etc onto the various discussion forums.

Three months later, Chiu Yin-ping was interviewed for the first time to comment on the affair. She said that she was emotionally distraught after the exposure and did not dare to see anyone. “Clinics, banks … I try my best not to go there, because it is possible that someone there will know that I am that person (Chiu Yin-ping). I don’t know what they might do, such as writing about me on the Internet.” The affair vexed her a great deal, to the point of contemplating suicide.

When she saw the netizen reactions, she was sorry and immediately deleted the uploaded video. She apologized openly on her blog: “I rashly did something that that hurt people. I am really sorry for causing those by my side to worry.” But certain netizens had already downloaded her video, and they kept uploading it again and again to generate more discussion.

City University Department of Applied Social Studies associate professor Dennis Wong Shing-wing pointed out that someone of Chiu Yin-ping’s age could hardly be suicidal, so it is easy to imagine what a blow it had been. He said that netizens are often affected by group action — “if others can do it, so can I” — and therefore do not think of themselves as cyberbullies who can ruin someone. This is really very dangerous.

Wong Shing-wing said frankly that this type of cyberbullying is literally “building one’s own happiness upon the pain of others.” He explained that many people derive pleasure and satisfaction in cyberbullying others. Sometimes they think that their action will not have consequences beyond “their suffering is my enjoyment.” Sometimes they even regard the “outing” exercise as a competition to see who could obtain more information and gain recognition on the Internet.

Wong Shing-wing said that some of them may have been bullied in real life. Therefore, they want to seek redress on the Internet. Alternately, they feel bored and want to have some “fun” irregardless of how others feel. Even when something goes awry, they will argue “everyone does it” to lessen their sense of guilt.

(Note of explanation: “Kong girl 港女” means “Hong Kong girl” but, more importantly, it is the derogatory term for a materialistic, greedy, overbearing, superficial, vain, egotistical and insensitive woman.)

Comments from HK Golden Forum translated by EastSouthWestNorth:

We have forgotten about this bitch already. She wants to come out again and play the victim. She is going to be stabbed again by HK Golden people.

Anyone who really wants to kill themselves won’t say so; those who say that want to kill themselves want to be asked to live. Get lost!

Drop that, Kong girl! You wanted to cause someone to lose his job for a few dollars? You are fucking despicable! You deleted the video after a few minutes. Even you knew how fucking stupid that was.

If she took the chance to say for this news story that she had been wrong, I would sympathize with her, but she didn’t. Clearly, she is trying to look pitiful in order to gain sympathy. She is even more evil than us.

I am a pacifist but leaving people like her alive will only torment others and create more like her. Besides, if you want to die, you should fucking die already. There is not need to talk so much.

Did she want to get netizen attention before? She has now succeeded.

She put the photo of the shop manager on the Internet so that netizens can bully him. What is the difference between her and her harassers?

If I were the shop manager, I would say that I wanted to die at the time. Let see who is fucking more awesome then!

more translated netizen comments at: EastSouthWestNorth