On November 15th, a video went viral on the internet, sparking heated discussions. According to the video, during the opening ceremony of the cultural and arts festival at the First Middle School in Funing County, Yunnan Province, a student took the stage, grabbed the microphone, and accused the school authority: “There is money to build Anna’s Cottage, but no money to renovate student dormitories.” He was then stopped by school staff and escorted away from the scene.
The video circulating online shows that the First Middle School in Funing County held a cultural and arts festival from November 12th to 15th. The event was organized by the Funing County Education and Sports Bureau, with support from various institutions including the Wenshan Prefecture Science and Technology Association, East China Normal University, Kunming University of Science and Technology, among others.
On the opening day of the event, over ten officials were seated on the rostrum. A male student suddenly approached the rostrum, took the microphone, and addressed the students below: “I’m scared. I was standing there, my hands were shaking because these words, if spoken, may hurt some people. Some may be afraid, so I’m very scared to speak up. It might be dangerous, but I have to do this because of the (school’s) contempt and harm towards all of us students.”
At this point, a staff member tried to persuade the student to leave. The student then jumped off the rostrum and continued speaking, “Take yesterday, something we all know about…” At this moment, the school authority cut off the microphone to prevent the student from speaking further, but the student threw away the microphone and continued speaking loudly. The aforementioned staff member continued to prevent the student from speaking, but was unsuccessful.
The student accused the school authority of prioritizing building Anna’s Cottage with money while neglecting to improve student dormitories. Three staff members then tried to remove the student from the scene, leading to a confrontation between the two sides. Some students in the audience seemed to be applauding the student.
However, many netizens did not agree with the school authority’s response. One netizen commented, “The child is talking about improving dormitory conditions, what does it have to do with bed spaces?” Another said, “The child raised a question, and what you did was to evaluate the child’s psychology, is this a joke?”
Some netizens on social media mentioned that Anna’s Cottage is actually an ancient building at the school, used for greeting guests and entertaining senior officials.
Public information shows that Funing County is located in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, in the southeastern part of Yunnan, bordered by Vietnam to the southwest. The local authorities launched the “Poverty Alleviation Campaign” in 2020 and declared 31 impoverished counties “poverty-free”. Funing County had been one of the poorest areas in the country for decades before this initiative.