Who Is Bing Bing?

Zhao Bing, a sweet and lively Inner Mongolian girl, became paralyzed eight years ago, at the age of eight, after being hit repeatedly at the back of the head by her teacher with a bamboo paddle. When her parents, Mr and Mrs. Lu, tried to sue the teacher, the teacher dismissed them claiming she only disciplined Bingbing because she ‘loved her’.

The parents, poor farmers from Inner Mongolia, were no match for a teacher who is well connected with the Inner Mongolian government. Ironically, the teacher accused Bingbing’s parents of lying, saying Bingbing deserved to be paralyzed, and that they were making the story up to get money from her. The family, now living in an apartment in Beijing donated by a X-tian sister, earns RMB800 a month of which RMB500 goes towards rent. Hospitals in Beijing have rejected Bingbing’s case simply because the family can’t afford to pay the medical bills.

Bingbing now lies on her bed in a perpetual vegetative state. Mom tends and reads the Bible to her everyday. We’re quite sure she can hear us, but because she has never been seen by a specialist before, no-one is quite sure the extent of damage suffered by Bingbing. This incident happened eight years ago - Bingbing is now sixteen.

What can you do?

A group of us are trying to reach out to our close friends for support and donations. At the moment, the immediate need is for:

• Funds – Firstly, we want to give Bingbing a complete Cat Scan / CT Scan to survey the extent of damage, then have a Specialist (neurologist) evaluate her one-on-one. After that, the Specialist will be in a better position to present the diagnosis and recommendations for treatments. The bulk of your donations will go towards her treatment. Although Bingbing’s treatment is long-term, we believe a small sum will be good enough to kick-off the process. We don’t know the exact figure needed yet, but a approximate figure would be around RMB 20,000 (US$2,500). We want to get the ball-rolling as soon as possible, so a Cat Scan within these two weeks would be recommended.

• Medical Contacts – Obviously, those of us who visited Bingbing and her family on Sunday are medical novices. If you have contacts who can help Bingbing or provide us with general counsel and advice on how to move forward, that would be great.

• Awareness/Media contacts – We feel its important for this story to be made public, not only for fund-raising purposes, but also for the truth to be heard and closure for Bingbing’s family. Although a few China newspapers have covered Bingbing’s story in the past, none have been effective. We have reached out to friends in China’s CCTV Chinese channel, and plan to contact other LOCAL media either for a documentary or a general story with a neutral news-angle. Media interviews with the family can be facilitated, or an editorial piece can be provided. Materials available to journalists are: photos of the family (past and present), Bingbing’s old medical records (courtesy of Mom), photo of Teacher Li, names of all the parties involved, press clippings of the story covered in the past by local media, eye-witness testimonies. Any media contacts in China who you think will have an interest are welcomed.

Friends, we would like to keep this information within our immediate circles to protect Bingbing’s family. You aren’t obligated to donate at all and we are not in the habit of asking for donations. We understand there are many scams around. To protect yourselves, please only donate if you are close to and trust the person who directed you to this website. If not, then although your donations are valuable, we’d personally feel more comfortable if you held back until you’ve evaluated Bingbing’s situation for yourselves (address and contact details can be provided).

As mentioned, we are not an official organization, just a couple of ‘mates with a mission’ and that’s to make a difference to Bingbing’s life.

Cheers All,
Judy