On the evening of March 20, a fight broke out during an outdoor performance in Xipotou Village, Beigao Town, Weixian County, Handan, Hebei Province, attracting attention from netizens due to related videos being circulated.
Videos recorded by multiple netizens show three men surrounding a man in white clothes, with two of them punching and kicking him, repeatedly kicking him in the abdomen and chest. Although the video did not capture the man in white clothes being hit on the head, it was evident that he was bleeding from the head after getting up.
According to reports from several mainland Chinese media outlets like Dafeng News, the incident took place at a performance stage in Xipotou Village in Beigao Town. On March 21, audience members at the scene were contacted.
According to their accounts, the performance was ongoing when the incident happened. The actors jokingly asked for applause from the audience before the performance, saying, “If you don’t clap, you’re a dog,” which angered some audience members, leading to a disturbance on stage that escalated into a physical altercation.
Another audience member confirmed this account, stating that the performance group requested applause, jokingly saying, “If you don’t clap, you’re a dog,” which was initially seen as a harmless joke. However, a man who had been drinking approached and hit one of the actors on stage, resulting in him being beaten by several others.
The person in charge of the performance group, Mr. Wang, provided a recorded video clip of the incident from that day and explained the full context. Wang stated that the videos shared online only showed the latter part of the conflict, and that the cause was not as simple as it appeared.
Wang explained that the conflict began when a singer was performing on his knees, and the man in white suddenly went on stage and insulted the singer. Enraged, the singer hit the man with a microphone, and backstage staff then joined in to collectively beat the man in white, as seen in the viral video. After about 20 seconds, the man in white stood up and made a phone call.
Wang emphasized that the singer was not a contracted performer of their entertainment group but had been hired as a temporary artist for the local performance. The incident has had a negative impact on the company, leading them to report the matter to the police that same night.
A staff member from the Beigao Town Police Station stated that the case is currently under investigation and could not disclose further details at the moment.