Some Random Thoughts Prompted by the Suicide by Jumping at Southern Medical University and Various Other Events

Before I Begin

This article is actually a continuation of an unfinished piece from March. At that time, it was right around the time of the Xiangya graduate student's jump into the river, and I wrote an article titled "Survivor," but I wasn't able to finish it due to a lack of motivation. Now the Southern Medical University fall-to-death incident has occurred, and after several twists and turns there has finally been a preliminary clarification of the facts, so I have the opportunity to talk about this from the perspective of a student at the same school and of "relevant people" of a similar age.

The ins and outs of the incident have already been clearly settled online, and both the deceased's family and the advisor have issued clarifications and refutations in official media, so I won't go into detail here.

After finishing the article, I came back here again to add the following statement:
The thinking in this article is quite disorganized, and the views are rather subjective and one-sided; please read it rationally.

From the Perspective of a Student at the Same School, Tracing How the Rumor Arose and Spread

The senior fell to his death at 2 a.m. on the 15th from the high-rise dormitory on the main campus. I'm a student in the Second Clinical College, and the main campus dormitory is only lived in for 1 year over the entire university career—half of it in the first semester of junior year, and half in the second semester of senior year. The structure of the main campus dormitory left a deep impression on me from my first move-in until my first move-out, because it was simply too oppressive and cramped. I casually took a photo looking upward from the 3rd floor at the time; living on the lower floors here easily makes people anxious...

Because I had just gone through an extremely painful 4 days of major paper revisions (an outrageous journal + outrageous reviewers) (I even want to write a separate article about this...), at the worst point of which I worked continuously for 51 hours without sleep (this may be the most physically and mentally tormenting thing I've experienced in my life), and only got everything sorted out on the evening of the 14th, in order to reverse my long-chaotic sleep schedule, I didn't sleep that day and planned to adjust my sleep.

At 2:25 a.m., I was scrolling through Moments and saw a message from a junior living in the high-rise dormitory, and learned that something had happened over at the main campus dormitory, but I didn't know any specifics. At 4 a.m., I only then learned that someone had jumped to their death; videos and photos from the scene began to circulate, and some juniors were taken to give statements and testimony. Less than 2 hours after the incident, the main campus small market group had already begun discussing it, and this was one of the sources of the rumor.

By 8 a.m., almost everyone who was awake knew about it and began discussing it with each other: who the deceased was, why he jumped, what exactly had happened.

It was also at this time that the first rumor appeared—"failed to get recommended for postgraduate study, so he jumped."

But this rumor was disproven after only a short while, because the deceased's identity had already been confirmed: he was a senior in the 20th cohort of the eight-year clinical medicine program, and there was simply no such thing as recommendation for postgraduate study... At noon, the most widely circulated rumor appeared—the version about "oppression by the advisor, only 3 days of leave approved"—and this was followed by the forwarding of various chat screenshots and historical information records.

If I trace this rumor only by myself, I can only trace it back to the Southern Medical University small market QQ group, and then everyone began spreading it to each other in WeChat chats. At 4 p.m., a large number of posts attacking the advisor began appearing on Xiaohongshu. After that came Weibo, Douyin, Baidu, and all the major platforms, and various official accounts and marketing accounts all began publicizing it. In just half a day, the rumor spread across the whole country, and on the evening of the 15th, "Southern Medical University student dies after falling under advisor's oppression" dominated the trending searches.

When the rumor first came out, I believed it too, because it fit far too well with our long-standing imagination of oppression. But out of my long-standing skepticism toward chat records, I did not participate in further spreading or condemnation. Fortunately, an eight-year-program senior I know knew the deceased, so I quickly learned that so much of what had been spread earlier was actually rumor. Looking back now, the degree to which the rumor passed for truth truly frightens me.

If one were to say the rumor spread because the truth was absent, that is not exactly so either. At the very first moment the rumor expanded, people in the know had already clarified things.

But by this time, the emotions of the public and the students had already been stirred up, and what the truth actually was could no longer be withstood by a simple post. Very quickly, this debunking post was attacked en masse and reported and banned on the grounds of "spreading rumors"... even though this clarification was the same as the content of the clarification released by official media on the afternoon of the 16th.

During the day on the 16th, the situation spiraled further out of control, and major influencers and marketing accounts all began concentratedly posting rumor information, and it only diminished after the official statement of clarification was released at 7 p.m.

Behind This Incident, I Thought About Some Things

In terms of time, from the occurrence of the incident to nationwide public opinion spread took less than 12 hours, and I personally witnessed the entire fermentation process, which then rolled on like a snowball, expanding and expanding and expanding again. Clarifying the facts required the police and official media interviews and conclusions, and even so, the interviews and clarifications regarding the family and the advisor were completed within 36 hours. That handling speed would count as extremely fast in any past incident; it's just that this time the rumor fermented more ferociously and rapidly.

I have a friend studying medicine in the Philippines, and after hearing me recount this whole series of events, he said this:

Actually, it is also understandable. China's medical and research industries have long had similar incidents: oppression by advisors, helplessness of students, the devastation of research. This fits the public's consistent understanding of the domestic medical academic circle, and why it has been consistent—that is precisely where the problem lies. This anger should also be directed into the system that gave rise to it, rather than at individuals.

On March 15, 2026, a piece of news circulated in my class group chat.

This was the Xiangya jump-into-the-river incident that caused a sensation at the time, and we were all extremely indignant about what the deceased in that incident suffered. Precisely because of this recent incident, when a senior at our school died by jumping from a building, it was very easy to overlap the two in terms of both identity and experience. Even without such a suicide note, even without such oppression, even without conclusive evidence. Since such darkness has existed, then it is no longer innocent.

Those who spread the rumor may have been shooting their mouths off on a whim, or may have been blindly angry at the status quo, or may have precisely grasped the hot points of social contradiction to gain traffic. Either way, the spread of the rumor in this incident had its inevitability. In a medical major already full of contradictions and pressure, we instead have a stress response to goodness—this itself is something worth thinking about.

Yesterday afternoon, shortly before the clarification announcement was released, someone came to my blog and left this question, and I gave a corresponding answer.

Is the path of medical students becoming increasingly difficult, and where should the future go...

The answer to this question has actually never changed: the medical industry is carrying out a strangling of its practitioners, and the path of medical students will only become more and more difficult. Healthcare reform has fundamentally determined the upper limit of the treatment of medical students and grassroots doctors; this is a process of a knowledge-intensive industry being reduced to a labor-intensive industry, which is consistent with our country's aspirations for the development of the medical industry, so unless there is major reform, the status quo cannot change. We need to sacrifice for welfare-oriented medical insurance, we need to dedicate ourselves for the interests of the people, we need to satisfy the broad public's desire for cheap and effective medical care, we need at the same time to achieve high-quality selection of talent, achieve a win-win for medical scientists, achieve superb medical skill without making mistakes. We need to become saints, because everyone says this is a sacred profession, because everyone says these are angels in white, because everyone says human life is at stake... So, as long as we are not human, there will be no problem at all.

A while ago, a slide from Xiangya made people in the same industry ashamed.

If only in this way can one win respect and praise, then we need to think about what kind of existence the system behind praising such behavior actually wants us to become.

Earlier this month, major medical schools announced expanded enrollment for undergraduate and graduate medical programs, which to some extent further confirms this point. The 2026 clinical medicine undergraduate admission score line saw a historic collapse, and even the score line for Sun Yat-sen University's animal medicine major was above clinical medicine. It can be foreseen that, as this cohort of students who entered at the 22nd-cohort peak complete graduate school enrollment with the 27th cohort, overall graduate admissions will also usher in dusk.

The training cycle for medical students is basically calculated in units of ten years, and no major changes can be seen in the short term. The enormous population base naturally determines its strong ability to conceal problems; as long as you don't look at percentages, the medical industry will be peaceful and serene, with nothing happening. Today's hospitals: research capacity continuously developing, diagnosis and treatment beds continuously increasing, a scene of prosperity; at this moment's medical schools: student employment rates maintaining growth, recommendation quotas for postgraduate study continuously increasing, the proportion pursuing further study rising year by year, a scene of prosperity. Yes, the 2025 medical postgraduate entrance exam saw a historic new high in score lines; everyone has become very high-quality, and the demand to "compete" is constantly rising. Here, only "rising" can exist and can gain a foothold. From this perspective, the expansion of medical school enrollment can be considered a very "wise" decision; it is a preventive measure that completely kills the possibility of letting people learn a lesson.

After Death

At the early morning of the same day two years ago, that is, September 15, 2024, at the diagonal position from where the senior fell to his death, another eight-year-program senior (male or female) chose to leap and end their life. However, it was only today, with the recurrence of the incident, that we remembered that moment two years ago. Although the motives for suicide cannot be generalized, the discussion we triggered went far beyond the cause of death itself. On the first day of my internship in the emergency department of Zhongshan Xiaolan, the department admitted 3 suicide cases: one wrist-cutting, two gas suicides, and in the end it seemed none of them could be saved. According to the senior who was teaching me at the time, this was the emergency department's "suicide quota." In China, countless people commit suicide every day, but we only pay attention to those whose deaths are the most "splendid" in color—even if such "splendor" is not the wish of the deceased. But the dead cannot speak, and can only be left for people to discuss.

Just 1 month ago, on August 18, a construction worker fell to his death in the residential building where I live, right at the entrance...

And unfortunately, I went out at 4 o'clock to buy groceries and came back at 5, and happened to run into the gruesome scene afterward. It took a great deal of effort before I could get back home. At 9 p.m., I went out to throw away the trash and saw the sobbing family members crying bitterly in the residential building lobby, heartbroken and painful to witness. But 1 day later, apart from a few candles appearing at the scene, everything was clean and tidy, and 3 days later, this place had completely returned to its original state. For almost all the property owners, this was for the best; such a death is, to uninvolved people, merely a disturbance.

After the Southern Medical University fall-to-death incident occurred, my middle school Chinese teacher saw the news and came to check on how I was doing. She now lives in Japan, so we also talked about Japan's suicide culture. Japan has a strong suicide culture, but people there also strongly reject those who commit suicide—the so-called cultural atmosphere of "not causing trouble for others."

I remember when I was little, I often saw on the news workers demanding unpaid wages standing on high construction buildings shouting and threatening to die, and I often saw in TV dramas and novels unpaid employees on top of office buildings angrily threatening to die... But now, most of the "threatening to die" deceased we see never have intense roars; they just leave quietly, with only a dull thud upon landing, and a patch of ground left unbearable...

There is a saying that jumping from a building is the most resolute and least troublesome suicide method available to ordinary people. Once you take that step, there is no chance of recovery, no need for resuscitation; you only need to wash that patch of ground. Taking poison allows regret and stomach pumping, cutting the wrist requires letting blood and waiting, burning charcoal requires the accumulation of gas, and hanging allows struggling and calling for help and is too painful. Some also say this is the least painful method, because before a person lands, out of the primitive fear instinct of falling from a height, the pain perception pathways are largely shut down...

For this reason, jumping to one's death is often also the most desperate choice of the deceased. Very few leave suicide notes, because at that time the suicidal person no longer wants to care about anything, has no attachments, and there is basically no possibility of changing their mind. As for what echoes will be triggered after death, naturally that is not something the deceased can consider. Because the motive for suicide cannot be ascertained, the discussion triggered by jumping suicides is all the more intense and even crazy. And this is especially so for the current situation of the medical industry: whether it is the Luo Shuaiyu incident two years ago, the Xiangya jump-into-the-river incident two years later, or the Southern Medical University fall-to-death incident that has just occurred now, we invariably ignore the deceased's true motive for suicide and choose to point the spearhead at this industry, at the "superiors" behind it. This is naturally ethically disrespectful to the deceased, and also a desecration of the truth. But if only this kind of death can provoke social discussion, then for colleagues who have long been silent, can their deaths also be counted as a life-saving straw?

In the already foul atmosphere of the internet, no one cares about the truth; people only care about venting emotions. In such an environment, for most medical practitioners and relevant members of the public, regardless of whether the truth is disclosed at the first moment, discussion of the medical industry system itself will not stop. I hate the harm rumors do to innocent people, and I also dislike baseless speculation about the deceased, but the fact that today's medical environment "automatically locks onto a target" whenever suicide is involved—that is the question worth thinking about.

Actually

Having said so much, we should still recognize this fact: suicide is always an individual case. We should not use individual cases to evaluate the entire environment, but individual cases can reflect different small aspects of this environment.

My medical path has only just reached 4 years, and most of the people I've met during it have been very warm and friendly. I met the best roommates and brothers, I met seniors who were willing to think together with me, I met very good clinical teachers, and I met many people who, when I recall them, make me smile; most of the things I've encountered have also been happy and fortunate. I have never regretted studying medicine either. Some say this is the luck of a "survivor," and some say this is just undergraduate naivety. Either way, at least for now, I do not regret choosing this path. Or rather, I never have a psychology of regret toward my own choices, because, as said in the previous article, trial and error is also pretty good~

A lot has happened recently, giving me more understanding of this industry, though it is all still within expectations. A few days ago and a few weeks ago, I had meals with my former roommates and current roommates, and after the meal, walking on the empty night path, we talked about the increasingly difficult state of the medical major and about our plans for the future.

Someone said he had no very rushed arrangements for time, and that even if he chose an academic master's and studied a few more years, it would not matter; he still wanted to engage in medicine-related research... Someone said he still wanted to become a doctor; this was his wish... Someone said he wanted to become a surgeon... Someone said he wanted to change the status quo, go up and get rid of all those insects (he seemed very serious)... Someone said he liked medical research and wanted to make his own contribution in this industry...

Most of the people around me still choose this industry. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that this is because continuing is the only choice, but in fact, from beginning to end, no small number of people love medicine. Whether this love is self-hypnosis and numbing, or consistent love, they all have fervent hearts. Of course, quite a few people also choose to leave this industry, each for their own reasons; perhaps one day, I will also record this part of the story.

As for me, I am still settling. Perhaps within a year, perhaps after a year, I will also write down my own story...

Finally, I wish you happiness!