A man in eastern China was killed as he tried to impress his internet fans by jumping from a bridge into a river, the City Express reported.
Filmed by a friend, the man – identified by the surname Li – dived into the water off a bridge in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, on Saturday, and was killed when he hit stones beneath the surface.
Li, a 28-year-old chef, sought celebrity on Kwai, one of China’s most popular live-streaming app networks. He had made several hundred yuan from a short video about how people celebrated Lunar New Year in small-town China, City Express quoted his friend as saying.
“He said when he became popular he would quit his job and focus on live streaming,” said cameraman Huang, whom Li had befriended through the app on the day of the fatal dive.
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Li, who had 386 followers on Kwai, asked Huang for help in developing the idea of a bridge stunt. Li then went to a bridge over one of Shaoxing’s many waterways and jumped as the camera rolled.
“The river was shallow,” Huang said. “The bottom felt very hard, covered by stones.”
Huang had to pull Li out of the river with the help of a passer-by. Li was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A postmortem examination suggested he hit the stones headfirst and suffered bleeding on the brain.
For many dreamers, China’s booming live-streaming industry is a route to great celebrity and, in some cases, notoriety and tragedy.
Chinese daredevils risk 450m fall for the sake of a selfie
To support the 20 performers he enjoyed the most on gaming and lifestyle live-streaming platform Huya, a young man from Hefei in southeastern Anhui province spent more than 600,000 yuan (US$8,850) on cash rewards before losing his home to his habit, local media reported in March last year.
In November 2017, Wu Yongning, a high-profile climbing enthusiast, fell 62 storeys to his death from a skyscraper in Hunan while making a selfie video on a 100,000 yuan dare. Wu had a million-strong following on streaming networks, including Kwai and Meipai.
