Text|Jin Mandou
In the early morning of September 13, Jing Yidan’s daughter posted an obituary through her mother’s official account. When the news first spread, the entire Internet was filled with quiet condolences.
No one expected that less than 24 hours after the obituary was released, public opinion would completely turn around.
No one talks about the twenty years she has been on “Focus” anymore, and no one mentions the weight of the three-time Golden Microphone. All topics revolve around who her husband is and what country her daughter married.
Looking at the posts that reveal my private life all over the screen, I suddenly thought of Li Yong, who passed away eight years ago.
The two CCTV hosts, who had almost nothing in common throughout their lives, took different paths and had very different personalities. However, after leaving, they fell into the exact same vicious circle of public opinion.
01
The obituary in the early morning of September 13th was written by her daughter Wang Erqing. It started by saying, “My dearest mother, the familiar eldest sister Jing, passed away today.”
In June this year, she suffered an acute cerebral hemorrhage in her hometown of Harbin and was in critical condition. She was later transferred back to Beijing for hospitalization.
From Summer Solstice to Bailu, in the past three months, doctors and nurses in both places tried their best to treat her, but in the end they were unable to save her, and she died at the age of 71.
The last words she left to the world were “Thanks to the world for letting me pass by.” She was calm and restrained, just like she had been in front of the camera for decades.
In the first twelve hours, the entire network was filled with farewells.
Bai Yansong accepted the interview with red eyes, saying that he and his eldest sister have been walking side by side for more than 30 years, and they will never have such a good partner again.
Ni Ping, who was filming on location in Xinjiang, cried until she heard the news and was shaking all over. Her makeup was removed again and again.
Han Qiaosheng, Cai Lei and many media people have all posted articles to reminisce. The most mentioned thing is not the number of awards she has won, but the three words “respect to the elder sister”.
She had been a journalist all her life, and when she left, her initial farewell was just like her hosting style, gentle, decent and quiet.
But it was this quietness that seemed to hit some people’s nerves.
Less than twelve hours after the obituary was released, all kinds of “deeply scandalous” headlines popped up.
The identity of Jing Yidan’s husband was exposed, and Jing Yidan’s daughter married a foreigner. Jing Yidan’s family background is not simple, and each one is more gimmick than the last.
Nothing solid was revealed, nor did it delay the continuation of this deep investigation.
There are all kinds of nasty things to say in the comment area, and a good memorial venue has suddenly turned into a private life tasting session.
To put it bluntly, I just don’t want people to leave too cleanly, so I have to find some excuse to talk nonsense.
The most uncomfortable thing is the attack on Wang Erqing. Just because she married a foreign husband, and just because she chose to do charity, some people ridiculed her, who had just lost her mother. Even her motives for doing charity for so many years were questioned.
Some self-media directly used the words “ugly to eat and look ugly” to describe the siege. The words are not nice, but they are accurate.
This scene has actually been played out a long time ago. Xiao Xiaolin passed away in 2017. Just a few days after she passed away, her family, marriage, and private life were flooded online.
The female host who founded “Today’s Statement” died of illness at her son’s home in the United States at the age of fifty-five. Her last words were to spread the word and don’t neglect your health like me.
The two CCTV female hosts, who had been decent and respectable all their lives, did not escape this test after they left.
Do you think this is just a prejudice against female hosts? When Li Yong left eight years ago, the drama of public opinion was even more lively.
02
On October 25, 2018, Li Yong died of throat cancer in New York at the age of fifty.
Ha Wen sent four words: My love will never be lost.
Before that, no news had leaked out. CCTV didn’t know, his alma mater didn’t know, and even many old and familiar colleagues were kept in the dark.
He had been fighting cancer for seventeen months, and he had endured it quietly for seventeen months, without even telling his parents because he was afraid that the elderly would be worried.
But when the news spread back to China, the first wave of public opinion was directed at the inheritance.
There is a viral rumor on the Internet that he set up all his assets of 200 million yuan into a family trust, and the only beneficiary was his daughter Fatima, and Ha Wen did not receive any money.
The scoldings followed, saying that he was the most selfish husband, that he was cold-blooded and that he was afraid of his wife remarrying.
However, these so-called trust details were deduced by the self-media based on scattered information from beginning to end, without any official documents to support them.
In fact, this trust is a guarantee for the underage daughter. It pays living expenses on a monthly basis. The principal cannot be used in full until Fatimai reaches 35 years old. It is not a plan to protect his wife at all.
The second wave of curses was directed at the burial place.
The words “Buried in America” became the original sin. Some people scolded him for refusing to return to his roots. Some people scolded Havin for violating tradition. They even spread rumors that Havin would not allow Li Yong’s parents to attend the funeral.
The fact is that according to the customs of the Hui people, the dead must be buried within three days and buried on the spot. There are more than a dozen procedures to go through to transfer the remains across countries, which can take up to seven days at the earliest, which cannot make up for the time.
In addition, Li Yong’s parents were old and could not withstand the more than ten hours of transoceanic flights. Only eight close relatives attended the funeral, which was all about keeping things simple as Li Yong had promised before his death.
But no one listened to the explanation, so the scolding was all.
This is not over yet. Li Yong has been gone for eight years, and the topic of “Haven remarrying” comes up every once in a while.
Some people counted the years of her widowhood, some asked her why she hadn’t returned home yet, and some stared at her hands to see if she was wearing a wedding ring.
No one wants to believe that Ha Wen has never taken off the wedding ring on his hand. He sends living expenses to his parents-in-law every year and has a USB flash drive full of Peking Opera.
She lives quietly with her daughter, without explaining or arguing, but keeping a low profile can never stop rumors.
The most outrageous thing is that some self-media used Gao Xiaosong as a cover to say that the real cause of Li Yong’s death was not cancer.
In the end, Gao Xiaosong personally came out to refute the rumors, saying of course not, it’s shameful, please let the deceased rest in peace, the rumors grew legs, no one bothered to refute the rumors, and even today some people still use this as an argument.
If you look at the stories of Jing Yidan and Li Yong together, you will find that it is almost the same script but acted by different actors.
But the departure of two people is actually completely different in nature.
Jing Yidan’s departure was a prepared farewell. He was seventy-one years old, surrounded by children and grandchildren. After retirement, he wrote essays and made the short video “9 Minutes in the Museum”.
She herself said that after she retires, she no longer has to frown when doing programs, but can do cultural programs with an enjoyable attitude.
From the summer solstice to the white dew, during the nearly three months of treatment, my family stayed with me and said a good goodbye.
Her life is complete, she walks calmly and decently.
Li Yong’s departure was a regret that it came to an abrupt end. At fifty years old, he was in his prime, and he was fighting cancer without telling everyone, not even his own parents.
His last post on Weibo was on Thanksgiving Day in 2017, thanking his wife, daughter, and everyone.
No one knows what kind of physical state he was in when he typed those lines.
It is precisely because of this essential difference that it makes people feel even more sad.
A person who finishes his life calmly and a person who leaves suddenly, no matter what he is like when he is alive, the public opinion will treat him the same after his death.
This is not a problem of any one person at all, but a disease of the entire public opinion environment.
But true respect has never been like this. Let a person come and go quietly, remember the works she left behind, and respect her family and choices. This is the most basic respect for the deceased.