Using the “Human Flesh” Hunt for Good: “Baobei Come Home”

Much has been made recently of China’s “human flesh search engines” (人肉搜索), the Web 2.0 courts of public opinion unique to this country, which strip people of their anonymity and open them to mob justice. CS Monitor, Forbes, and the LA Times have each recently given their take on the tactics, as did writer Xujun Eberlein, who cited “marital affairs, sex scandals and violence” as the topics likeliest to stir the pot, though political statements can just as often set off the manhunt.

A month ago, 4-year-old Wang Huxun went missing, and now he is splashed across the forums. His case demonstrates the other side of the human flesh hunt, the attempt to cast a net and rein in the nuclear unit, instead of winding up and unleashing the brunt of modern Chinese anger.

A website called Baobei Huijia (宝贝回家), or Baby Come Home, has sprung up around cases like Wang’s. The Chinese Internet fixation may treble a lot of righteous indignation, but it also raises the voices of the disenfranchised, the displaced, or simply the broken-hearted.

An earlier article about Wang Wenxiao, another missing child, quoted the mother thanking individuals and TV stations for responding to her post. She writes to her child in the third person: “Mama posted on the Internet that she was looking for her son, Mama went to every possible place looking for her son… too many, too many good-hearted people, Mama doesn’t even know their names, they also helped Mama look for her son.”

On another page at NetEase, a girl is looking for her mother. She titled her post, “Mama…Can you hear me? Daughter searches for you?”

What follows is the description of the first boy mentioned, Wang Huxun, which has received 1,404 reader comments. Following that, a look at a blog the mother keeps, in which she writes messages to her missing boy.

Looking for Missing 4-Year-Old Child, Wang Huxun

Name: Wang Huxun, nicknamed Xun Xun, boy, 4 years old, 1.02 meters tall, disappeared on November 11, 2008 from a toy store next to a vegetable market in Guilin, Guangxi province, at that time he was wearing a yellow and black zippered jacket, blue pants, and orange shoes, there is a mole on the right side of the child’s face, in the middle of his eyebrows is a scar from falling on a sewing needle when he was younger.  If there is somebody who knows information, please contact me, reward of two million yuan!

Xun Xun is my middle school classmate’s child, it has already been two months since he went missing, in these two months, Xun Xun’s parents hearts have sunk from an uncommon suffering, but they have not ceased searching Xun Xun’s footsteps, my friend relies upon friends and acquaintances, they have searched the entire county, including going into all of remote mountain grottos, every time they entered a cave, everybody held their breath, nobody dared to make a sound, because they expected Xun Xun to come out, and they were afraid to see what accidents may have happened to Xun Xun.

After Xun Xun went missing, we posted advertisements on television, in newspapers, online message boards, etc., exhausting every sort of method.  At present it has been in many programs, already many media outlets have given reports, Zhejiang Satellite TV’s Search King program, Guilin TV’s Nearby program, Guangxi TV’s Information Nightly News program, Guanyang County TV, Guilin Evening Paper, etc., but until now, there has still not been even a little information about Xun Xun.

Children are parents’ everything, they are the meat of their minds.  For money, human traffickers will do any act without conscience, kidnapping children, it amounts to digging out parents’ hearts, just leaving them a shell. This is a crime beyond murder.  Children are harmless, they are small, leaving their parents, what kind of life will they experience?  Can they eat enough and sleep well? Will they miss their father and mother?  Winter is becoming colder and colder, will children shiver in the cold wind?  Poor children!  Thinking about these things cannot help but made people’s hearts ache, and weep…

One person’s strength is limited, but the whole population’s strength is formidable.  Sincerely entreating everybody, help me circulate this advertisement looking for the boy, use every means possible, to the best of your abilities allow more people to see Xun Xun’s picture, memorize his features, let us together illuminate the street lamps for Xun Xun’s road to return home….

Thank you everybody!  Thank you! I bow down!

Keep in mind the boy’s parents look for their son with no outcome, they cannot help but be in tears.

A few days ago, the mother wrote this message to her son:

“The World still has Warmth!”

Xun Xun, maybe right now you are somewhere crying alone?  Maybe your vision is blank, your heart is thinking: why have dad and mom still not come to meet me?  Baby, don’t be afraid, we always are looking for you, Mama has already not spoken with you for a few days, every time I come online, each time sobs do not become sounds.

Today, Mom really wants to tell you: “Baby, don’t be afraid, the message that we are looking for you has already gone up on 163.com’s homepage!” Yesterday already had many millions of aunts and uncles knowing you, they are all helping us look for you. Maybe you still don’t understand what Mama is saying, right, you are that small, you are barely a four-year-old child, but what ruthless-hearted person would just take you away from our side? Mama’s heart aches very much, eyes are pouring tears, but this heart is dripping blood! Baby, don’t be afraid, you should be a little stronger, just be like Dad and Mom, crying people must also swallow rice, even if it’s not digested, they also must eat! You must be brave, otherwise they definitely will always beat you, you must learn how to protect yourself.

Baby, Mama really misses you very much! 163.com and all netizens, it is you all who allow us to feel that there is still warmth in life, allow us to not again be soldiers fighting alone, allow us on the road searching for our child to still be able to feel life’s real affection, child, remember the road home, family without you is not complete!

– Translated by Jason Weinberg

ORIGINAL LINKS:
Baobei Huijia: 宝贝回家
Wang Huxun’s notice: 【网易爱心大搜救】寻找走失的4岁儿童王胡迅
Wang Wenxiao’s notice: 启动人肉搜索 为可怜母亲寻子 王文骁妈妈等你回家
Notice for missing mother: 妈妈···你可听到？女儿在找你？
Wang Huxun’s mother’s blog: 寻找走失的4岁儿童王胡迅

ARTICLES CITED:
Christian Science Monitor, “China’s virtual vigilantes: Civic action or cyber mobs?”
Forbes, “The Human Flesh Search Engine”
Los Angeles Times, “Cyberspace gumshoes are afoot in China”
The New Yorker, “Angry Youth: The new generation’s neocon nationalists”