Evil exists: primeval notions of violence, vengeance, as impossible to stamp out as the biological markers in our DNA that shape us as the wonderful and pathetic creatures we are. Yet out of every reprehensible, sinister act, we are simultaneously given the chance for redemption: an opportunity for a correlating heroic measure. Since the dawn of storytelling, we’ve been mesmerized by this idea. And even after all the novels, the tall tales, the action movies, it is not a cliche, precisely because the real world provides us reminders — such as this one from Tuesday, when an evildoer wielding a knife entered a school in Xinghua, Hunan province and stabbed a hero, whose name we only now know because he perished.
The assailant rushed into Beidu Primary School to attack third-grader Wang Zhenyu, with whose family he held a grudge, according to Chinese media. He fled after seriously wounding the boy, only to be intercepted by the school’s principal, 59-year-old Yang Jianyi. In the resulting struggle, Yang was stabbed multiple times. He would die from his injuries outside.
Yang is survived by his wife and two daughters. The candle emoticons are out on Sina Weibo.
Heroic Hunan school principal dies protecting pupils from knife-wielding man (SCMP)
Are they sure he was really Chinese? It fills me with hope, however small, when reading this.
Dopplegangers and shapeshifters usually change themselves into familiar items like treasure chest as a way to lure in unsuspecting adventurers, and do not commonly put themselves in harms way.
Why is it that the children are attacked in China? Is it because of the family planning law, or because they are in theory easy targets?
Well apparently he broke the Granny’s arm the year before. If you go batshit crazy in China you also have to do so with a sense of logic. Probably he’d stand less of a chance going after the family patriach so he tried for the extremities first. Not dissimilar to feuding in the south if you’ve ever read Huck Finn.
I thought he was protecting the student… he was chasing the guy after he fled. that’s not that heroic.