Flower Memorials Appear at Site of Sanlitun Stabbings; Security Clears Away Some

Margaux Schreurs | Aug 14, 2015 5:00 pm | 3 comments | 8143 reads

[Updated 8/14 8:30pm] Memorial flowers appeared several times today at the site of yesterday's atrocious stabbings in Sanlitun, and while several batches were cleared away by security guards, well-wishers continued to place flowers at the scene into the evening.

The flowers were likely the result of WeChat messages circulating widely yesterday, urging people to go to the site to lay down flowers out of respect.

"Tomorrow, take a little time out of your day and go leave flowers and/or positive messages on the ground where it happened. We have to change the mentality here, enough with this 'If I help, I’ll get in trouble' or 'China doesn’t value people’s life' excuses," read the post that was shared yesterday. "You can be black, white, yellow red or blue it doesn’t matter, bottom line is this, if you are in China YOU are CHINESE, you want to make China a better place then make it happen." 

As the day began, it seemed that no one would step up to make the gesture. An early-morning visit to Sanlitun showed not a single flower in sight. In fact, after the continuous influx of photographs and videos all throughout the previous day, there was not a single reminder of the terrible events that occurred at the busy junction.

Frequent Sanlitun area performer Lulu Galore told us that she put down a bouquet of flowers at 10.30am, returning to find them removed by guards by 11.30am.

At around 1pm, one of our staff passed by the area in front of Taikoo Li where the attack occurred in a taxi, reporting that three bouquets left at the scene were being taken away by security guards.

Later in the afternoon, more boquets and notes in English and Chinese had been placed, saying things like "Where there is love, there is hope", "Jesus wept," and "Wishing you happiness in the next world."

By evening, some of the flowers and messages remained on sight, though it was unclear if they were the same ones from the late afternoon.

Thankfully, my faith in humanity has been partially restored after seeing these images circulating WeChat. At different points throughout the day, people did come to the site to leave flowers behind, creating a makeshift memorial to show their sympathy. 

Though it's disappointing that security took away some of the flowers, it's also understandable that they would be wary of too much of a scene after yesterday's incident. And after all, it's the thought that counts – and there's definitely many among us here in Beijing that cared enough to memorialize the tragic events of yesterday.

More stories by this author here.
Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
Instagram: s.xuagram

Photos: Lulu Galore, Jingbo Wu, beijingcream

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emc2's picture emc2 Submitted by Guest on Fri, 08/14/2015 - 22:55

No doubt these flowers were removed by these useless security guards and then resold to the highest bidder in the back room of some near by shop. These worthless Chinese animals will scavange anything to make a quick buck.

Truely a act of savgery yesterday by a Cinese savage with a sword. Lesson to be learnt here is to never turn your back on anyone with a sword in his hand...especially after he has made threatening remarks to you.

I am quite sure these knive/sword attacks by these Chinese animals against foreigners, especially Americans in Beijing and other parts of China happen more frequently than we are made aware of. The only time the government allows an attack to go public is when there is a death involved. Since I have been in China, I am aware of at least 4 attacks against Americans that have resulted in their deaths.

I really feel bad for the Frenchman that was injured and then had to watch his female companion die from her injuries. Thankfully, this is not France, so there is some conselation in knowing that this criminal may be executed in the near future for his crimes.

Every since I heard about the first attack here on an American, I have made it a point to continually scan the area around me when I am outside...especially in areas where there is a large number of people milling about. I have also prepared myself mentally to handle any threat or attack. I will not hesitate for a moment to remove a knife from the hand of an attacker and use it to slice him into as many pieces as possible.

I sure would enjoy watching a public execution of this savage criminal and others like him. I would even pay for a treat like this.

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