villagers

In a story reported by Kotaku Japan, a young man in Pingxiang, China was attacked by villagers when he was mistaken for a social worker spying on them with his mobile phone.

The situation soon got out of hand, and after a brief skirmish the young man was left with a fractured skull. Almost a year later, he is still receiving medical treatment and regularly suffers seizures.

The grim incident took place in April last year when 26-year-old Huang Zhansheng was playing Fight the Landlord, a popular card-based mobile phone game, on his smartphone. Spotting Huang glued to his mobile device, villagers became suspicious and soon asked him to hand it over so that they could check that he hadn’t been taking secret snaps of them. When Huang refused to cooperate, the villagers called for assistance, and before long a small crowd had gathered around the unfortunate gamer and fists were thrown.

Despite being able to make it home after the brief scuffle, Huang is reported to have complained to his mother of headaches and dizziness before heading to bed. The next morning, his mother discovered him fitting in his bedroom as a result of a his head trauma.

When questioned by local authorities and Chinese media, the villagers involved in the incident said that they were extremely wary of government officials spying on them and had believed Huang to be a social worker there to gather information about their meetings, which may have gone against Chinese laws and regulation. When they heard that he had suffered severe injuries – which are alleged to be the result of just two “retaliatory” punches to his head – villagers had a collection for Huang and managed to drum up a paltry 93 US dollars to pay for his medical bills.

More than eight months later, however, Huang is still undergoing tests and medical treatment – with his bills amounting to more than $90,000 thus far – and is still in poor health. Mercifully, the local government have stepped up and is footing the bill, but we’re sure that Huang would much rather have a clean bill of health.

Be very careful who you use your smartphone around, boys and girls.

Source: Kotaku JP Title image

▼The village of Pinaxiang is situated in China’s Jiangxi province

Pingxiang, China