Tragic death of young woman gives rise to anti-mainland Chinese sentiment

The tragic death on Tuesday of a 25-year-old mainlander who graduated from the University of Hong Kong has become an unlikely occasion for some of the city’s ferocious online trolls to vent their anger against mainland immigrants, saddening her friends and colleagues.

Stephanie Liu Han, who graduated from HKU two years ago and worked in the city’s financial industry, was hit by a truck on Saturday while crossing the street near Quarry Bay. She suffered serious brain damage and multiple fractures, and was taken to the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.

There she received a craniotomy and follow-up surgeries, but remained in a coma until she passed away on Tuesday afternoon.

Liu’s friends and HKU alumni had posted news of her accident on social media sites, such as Facebook and Weibo, updating her condition and expressing appreciation to those who expressed sympathy.

However, they were shocked to find that Liu’s tragedy had also generated many abusive comments on other social media pages and on the local media websites, including Facebook, the popular local forum HKGolden.com and Apple Daily.

“What the Chinese people did in Hong Kong made every Hongkonger angry,” said one post on a Facebook page called “Refusing the mainlandisation of Hong Kong”, which had almost 9,000 followers, the day after Liu’s accident.