Chinese social media celebrity Lu Chao, 24, dies of leukaemia
Lu Chao - the 24-year old woman who documented her experience with leukaemia on her microblog and triggered a social media campaign - has died on Thursday in Beijing.
A year ago, her posts led to a watershed campaign for online fundraising endorsed by the Big-Vs - prominent weibo users posting under their real names and with a large online following. Her death comes amid a crackdown on such Big-Vs, and shortly after the detention of Charles Xue, the Big-V who initiated the fundraising campaign for her treatment.
The post triggered more than 34,000 expressions of sympathy in just half a day.
Lu’s moving posts in which she documented her illness made her an internet celebrity last year.
Xue was detained in mid-August on charges of soliciting prostitutes amid an ongoing effort to rein in public debate on social media. Along with Xue, hundreds of people have been detained throughout the country on charges of “stirring trouble” or “spreading rumours” on the internet.
Xue has since been paraded on national television several times, confessing his own "crimes". “I overlooked the social responsibility of being a Big V, and brought about an undesirable outcome [for society],” Xue said in his latest televised humiliation on Sunday.
The Communist Party’s leading newspaper, the People’s Daily, reported Lu’s death on Thursday. One weibo user commented on the post, saying: “Do you dare to say who helped her?”