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

Foreword

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 later, due to lack of motivation, I was unable to finish it. Now the Southern Medical University fall-to-death incident has occurred, and after many twists and turns there has finally been a preliminary clarification of the facts, so there is an opportunity to describe this matter from the perspective of a student at this school and "relevant people" of a similar age.

The whole story of the incident now has a very clear conclusion online. Both the deceased's family and the advisor have issued clarifications and refuted rumors in official media, so I will not recount it in detail here.

After finishing the article, I came back here again to add the following statement:
The thinking in this article is very disorganized, and the views are relatively subjective and one-sided. Please view it rationally.

From the perspective of a student at this school, tracing back how the rumors arose and spread

The senior fell to his death at 2 a.m. on the 15th from the high-rise apartment in the main campus. I am a student of the Second Clinical College. The main campus dormitory is only lived in for 1 year over the entire university career, half of it in the first semester of the third year and half in the second semester of the fifth 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 truly too oppressive and cramped. At the time, I casually took a photo looking upward from the 3rd floor. Living on the lower floors here can easily make a person anxious...

Because I had just gone through an extremely painful 4-day major revision of my paper (an outrageous journal + outrageous reviewers) (I even want to write a separate article about this...), during the worst part of which I worked continuously for 51 hours without sleeping (this may be the most physically and mentally tormenting thing I have experienced in my life), and only got everything done by the evening of the 14th. In order to reverse my long-chaotic sleep schedule, I did not sleep that day and planned to adjust my sleep.

At 2:25 a.m., while scrolling through Moments, I saw a message from a junior fellow student living in the high-rise apartment and learned that something had happened over at the main campus apartment, but I did not know the specific details. 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 junior fellow students were taken to give statements and testimony. Less than 2 hours after the incident, the small market group chat at the main campus had already begun discussing it, and this was also one of the sources of the rumors.

By 8 a.m., almost everyone who was awake knew about this matter and began discussing it with one another: who the deceased was, why they jumped, and what exactly had happened.

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

However, this rumor only existed for a short while before being disproven, because the identity of the deceased 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 spread rumor appeared—the version about "oppression by the advisor, only 3 days of leave approved"—and immediately afterward came the forwarding of various chat screenshots and historical message records.

If I trace this rumor back only on my own, I can trace it only to the Southern Medical University small market QQ group, and then everyone began spreading it to one another in WeChat chats. At 4 p.m., a large number of posts attacking the advisor began to appear on Xiaohongshu. After that came Weibo, Douyin, Baidu, and all the major platforms, and various public accounts and marketing accounts all began to publicize it. In just half a day, the rumor spread nationwide. On the evening of the 15th, "Southern Medical University student dies after falling under advisor's oppression" dominated the trending searches.

When the rumor was first posted, I believed it too, because it fit so 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 and condemnation. Fortunately, because an eight-year-program senior I knew knew the deceased, I quickly learned that so much of the information previously spread had actually been rumors. Thinking about it now, the degree to which the rumors passed as truth truly frightens me.

If the spread of rumors was due to the absence of the truth, that is not exactly so either. At the very first moment the rumors expanded, people in the know had already clarified things.

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

During the daytime of the 16th, the matter further spiraled out of control. 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 matter, I thought about some things

In terms of time, from the occurrence of the incident to nationwide public opinion spread, it took less than 12 hours, and I personally witnessed the entire fermentation process, which then rolled onward like a snowball, expanding, expanding, and expanding again. Clarifying the facts required the police and official media interviews and conclusions. Even so, the interviews and clarifications regarding the family and the advisor were completed within 36 hours. This handling speed would count as extremely rapid in any past incident, but unfortunately this time the rumor fermentation was even fiercer and faster.

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

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

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

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

Those who spread the rumors may have been shooting off their mouths on a whim, or may have been blindly angry at the status quo, or may have precisely grasped a hot spot of social contradiction to gain traffic. In any case, the spread of rumors 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 fundamentally determines the upper limit of the treatment of medical students and grassroots doctors. This is a process of a knowledge-intensive industry degenerating into a labor-intensive industry, and it 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, and we need at the same time to achieve high-quality selection of talent, achieve a win-win for medical scientists, and 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 majors, which to some extent further confirms this point. In 2026, the admission cutoff scores for undergraduate clinical medicine saw a historic collapse, and even the cutoff for Sun Yat-sen University's animal medicine major was above clinical medicine. It can be foreseen that as the 27th cohort—this round of students who entered in the 22nd cohort peak—complete graduate admissions, overall graduate recruitment 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 cover up problems. As long as one does not look at percentages, the medical industry will be a scene of tranquility and peace, 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, recommended postgraduate quotas 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 cutoff scores. 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. This is a preventive measure that completely kills the possibility of letting people learn a lesson.

After death

At dawn on the same day two years earlier, 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, until the reappearance of the incident today, we only then remembered that moment two years ago. Although the motives for suicide cannot be generalized, the discussions we triggered far exceeded the cause of death itself. On the first day of my internship in the emergency department at Zhongshan Xiaolan, the department admitted 3 suicide cases: one wrist-cutting and two coal-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, the number of people who commit suicide every day is countless, but we only pay attention to those whose deaths are the most "dazzling" in color, even if such "dazzlingness" was 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 doorstep...

And unfortunately, I went out at 4 o'clock to buy groceries and came back at 5, just in time 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 trash and saw the sobbing family members weeping bitterly in the lobby of the residential building, heartrending and painful to see. But 1 day later, apart from a few candles appearing at the scene, everything was clean and tidy. 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, to unrelated people, is only 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 my situation. She now lives in Japan, so we also talked about Japan's suicide culture. Japan has a strong suicide culture, but people also strongly reject those who commit suicide, which is the so-called cultural atmosphere of "not causing trouble for others."

I remember that when I was little, I often saw on the news workers demanding unpaid wages standing on high construction buildings shouting and threatening death, and I often saw in TV dramas and novels unpaid employees on top of office buildings angrily threatening death... But now, most of the "threatening death" deceased we see never have intense roars, only a calm departure, only the dull thud of landing, and the unbearable state of a patch of ground...

There is a saying that only jumping from a building is the most resolute and least troublesome suicide method available to ordinary people. Once that step is taken, there is no chance of recovery, no need for rescue, and one only needs to wash that patch of ground. Poison can be regretted and the stomach pumped, wrist-cutting requires letting blood and waiting, charcoal burning also requires gas accumulation, 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, due to humans' primitive fear instinct toward falling from heights, the pain perception pathways shut down in large numbers...

Precisely because of this, jumping to one's death is often also the most desperate choice of the deceased. Very few leave suicide notes, because by that time the suicidal person no longer wants to care about anything, has no attachment at all, 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 discussions triggered by jumping suicides are all the more intense and even crazy. And this is even more so for the current situation of the medical industry. Whether it is the Luo Shuaiyu incident two years ago, the Xiangya river-jumping 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 and 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 lifesaving 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 related members of the public, whether or not 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 groundless speculation about the deceased, but in today's medical environment, as long as suicide is involved, there is "automatic target-seeking." This is the problem 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 path in medicine has only just reached 4 years, and most of the people I have met during it have been very warm and friendly. I met the best roommates and brothers, I met senior fellow students willing to take me along in thinking, I met very good teaching teachers, and I also met many people who leave me with a deep impression and make me smile whenever I recall them; most of the things I encountered were also happy and fortunate. I have also never regretted studying medicine. Some say this is the luck of a "survivor," and some say this is the naivety of an undergraduate. Either way, at least for now, I do not regret choosing this path. Or rather, I never have a mentality of regret toward my own choices, because as said in the previous article, trial and error is also quite 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 together with my former roommates and current roommates. After the meal, walking on the empty night path, we talked about the increasingly difficult status quo of the medical major and about our plans for the future.

Someone said he had no very hurried arrangements for time, and even if choosing an academic master's meant studying 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 there and eliminate all those vermin (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 from beginning to end, there are not a few people who love medicine. Whether this love is self-hypnosis and self-numbing, or consistent love, they all have passionate 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!