the further adventures of hooligan sparrow

You may remember ‘hooligan sparrow’, Ye Haiyan, the activist I blogged about last January, who spent a day as an unpaid prostitute – not only as part of her advocacy for pound-a-session sex workers but also to highlight the plight of migrant labourers, while doing her best to relieve it in some measure.

Last Friday she was attacked in her office by eight men, who she says were sent by local officials. Here’s what happened next:

Following a heated argument, one of them brandished a knife. The glimmer of the knife stunned me for a moment -- I could not believe they had actually brought a knife with them. Instinctively, I picked up a chair and threw it at him. Other people also distracted him from hacking me with the knife. When I yelled at Wen Dao [Editor's note: A young student visiting the office] to snap a few pictures, the men immediately prepared to flee, but the man wearing a hat lounged towards me.

I yelled at them, "Fuck you! You want to hack me? You want to kill me? Come give it all you've got!" The hat man turned around and threw a bicycle at me. I threw a chair back.

Ms  Ye says modestly that part of the reason she knew they were from the government was because real gangsters wouldn’t have retreated when she resisted. Even so, ovaries of titanium there. ‘Only eight of you? Chew on some fuckin' chair, bastards!’

Some people are wasted on peaceful protest. Ms Ye should gather a band of trusty comrades, find some hills and take to them. You may say that this would be a dangerous and irresponsible thing to do. I reckon she’d be president for life in ten years, and some fellow in the countryside would say to his friends ‘I knew her before she was famous.’ And there would be a dreamy smile on his face...

Comments

[Barry Freed]

Her earlier stunt indicates a possible career path as a performance artist.

[jamie]

I understand your cynicism, and in general terms I share it, but there is *no* career path in China that ensues from offering migrant labourers a jump.

[ajay]

Some people are wasted on peaceful protest. Ms Ye should gather a band of trusty comrades, find some hills and take to them.

I am kind of hoping she will team up with Yang Peiyi, the kid who, at the age of seven, won the all-China contest to sing at the Olympics and was then put behind the scenes to sing while another girl (deemed more photogenic) lipsynched on stage. Being told at the age of seven that your country's government considers you too ugly for TV is a pretty brutal thing.