Chicago murder sparks shock and anger at home and among Chinese students overseas
- PhD student Fan Yiran was shot dead in the city’s South Side earlier this month, one of three victims of a murderous rampage
- Among the tributes to the Peking University graduate was an undercurrent of anger at the US and its problems with gun crime
Tim Yang was driving with his girlfriend on a highway in Indiana when she received a text message saying a Chinese doctoral student at the University of Chicago, 30-year-old Fan Yiran, was among those killed in a shooting rampage in the city the day before.
A PhD student himself at Purdue University, about two hours’ drive from Chicago’s South Side neighbourhood where Fan was gunned down, Yang said he was struck by the randomness of the killing.
“I’ve driven past the garage where he was shot, there are a lot of Chinese international students living in that area,” he said. “It’s hard to bear, it’s too close to me.”
Yang, 28, later spent hours scrolling through articles describing what happened, even watching a series of disturbing videos the gunman had posted on social media.
He also found a torrent of messages on a WeChat group of Chicago-based graduates of Peking University, and realised that Fan had also been a member of the group.