Over the past few weeks, a spree of mass murders has captivated the attention of the state media and internet chat rooms on the mainland, not only for their horrific nature but also for calling attention to one of the mainland's biggest social stigmas - mental illness.
On November 16, Chen Wenfa, 21, was suspected of killing six members of his family - his parents, an uncle and aunt, grandmother and cousin - in a remote village in Kunming , Yunnan. He was arrested 15 days later.
On November 19, a 31-year-old suspect surnamed Wang hacked to death his wife, her parents and her brother-in-law with a machete before committing suicide in Hebei province.
On November 23, Li Lei, a 29-year-old restaurant operator in Beijing, was suspected of hacking to death his parents, wife, sister and his two children. He was arrested on November 28, about 10 hours after the murders were reported.
On November 26, Wen Tieshuan, 46, used a knife to murder six villagers and seriously wounded another from five households in a tightly knit village of about 15 households in Inner Mongolia . His body was found on November 28 and police believed he committed suicide.
The official media, which usually plays down 'bad' news like murders and other crimes, has reported extensively on those mass killings because of their horrific nature, as the suspects targeted their own family members.