‘Fan Run Run’: teacher in China who left students behind during 2008 Sichuan earthquake in new controversy
- During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake teacher Fan Meizhong left his students in the classroom as he sought safety
- After the incident he was dubbed Fan Run Run online during a public backlash
Fan Meizhong, referred to online as Fan Run Run after his escape, was teaching Chinese at Guangya School in Dujiangyan, Sichuan, when the quake hit May 12, 2008.
Within minutes of his escape, his students joined him unharmed. The students later complained that he had left them behind in the classroom. The magnitude 8 earthquake left 69,000 people dead and 18,222 missing.
During the public backlash, Fan was fired from his job and denounced online and in the media. He repeatedly stated in interviews that it was not a teacher’s obligation to save students at the cost of his own life.
“I am a person pursuing freedom and justice, instead of a person to sacrifice one’s own interests for the sake of others,” Fan wrote in an article published soon after the incident. “At this moment of choosing between death and life, I will sacrifice myself only for my daughter. For other people, even including my mother, I won’t care about them in this circumstance.”
Yesterday on the 13th anniversary of the earthquake a video of Fan being interviewed on a talk show in 2012 where he repeated his earlier comments went viral on Weibo.