Twisted affection

“A girl’s first time is her best thing,” wrote Peking University student

Mou Linhan to his classmate and girlfriend Bao Li (not her real name) at the beginning of their relationship, berating her for not being a virgin. “My future is my best thing,” retorted Bao.

However, Bao’s subsequent suicide attempt in October 2019 and declaration of brain death in December have sparked discussion about whether she was mentally abused. According to leaked chat logs, Mou asked Bao to meet a variety of demands—such as getting a tattoo stating “I am Mou Linhan’s dog,” and undergoing sterilization— while suggesting he’d marry her if she obeyed.

Some netizens have pointed out the similarity of Mou’s actions with classic “pick-up artist” techniques. Others lamented the “manipulative charisma” and “cruel abuse of power” of a star student in the government management school of one of China’s most prestigious universities. Peking University has revoked Mou’s recommendation for graduate research.

Last September, a Ms. Yan from Jiangsu province regretted more than ever having given her daughter a beautifully unique name—the college senior was unable to register for graduate school due to the rare character in her name (頔, d!, “good, nice”).

Yan’s daughter has had similar trouble buying travel tickets online. Many rare characters can be typed on birth certificates and ID cards, but are not in the national coded character system used by banks, the railway, and the national graduate student database. These institutions may compromise with pinyin or homophones, creating further inconsistency.

Meanwhile, rare-character names are becoming trendy. A first-grade class list posted online September 2019 featured eight uncommon characters in 16 names. To help China’s over 60 million creatively named individuals, delegate Xie Jianhui of the National People’s Congress proposed to update the national coded character set last March, though there have been no further developments since.