The mysterious death of the 37-year-old Chinese actor Yu Menglong has sparked widespread attention online. Recently, Yu Menglong’s former middle school teacher spoke out on his behalf, urging for the truth behind his death to be revealed. She pointed out that the real terrifying aspect is not being questioned by the police, but the collapse of faith under authoritarian rule. She called on more people to break through their fears and continue to speak up for justice. Currently, related videos have been banned. Additionally, friends of Yu Menglong have also spoken out in his defense.
On September 27, Yu Menglong’s former middle school teacher appeared in a livestream discussing the events surrounding Yu Menglong’s death, choking up multiple times. She learned about Yu Menglong’s incident from her own child. Since September 12, she has been actively following this case online.
She mentioned that it has been many years since they graduated and they had lost contact. During this time, she has been trying to locate Yu Menglong’s family and where they are. However, it has been difficult, and even online, she couldn’t find any information about his family. She expressed her willingness to carry this matter with her for the rest of her life. She has assigned herself a task to post on her social media every day, preserving all the information she finds online about Yu Menglong and sharing it to let others know about him.
“He had made donations and even volunteered to teach, which really surprised me. How many young people can achieve this?” she said. The teacher has previously advocated for stray cats and dogs and has been brought in for questioning and warnings by the police. She emphasized that being questioned by the police is not frightening. She stressed that when the faith of many people collapses under pressure, the phrase “when many men believe in nothing, one man believes in something” becomes meaningless.
“If we don’t promote and protect such a good young man, I don’t know where hope lies. If we don’t have positive energy to support us, I think this country would be very frightening,” she said.
“We speak up for people like him without doing anything wrong, and I’m not saying everything online is accurate, but can you tell us what is correct?” she added. “I honestly hope that I am called in for questioning, I hope more people get to know this child.”
“I saw the receipt for his donation, and it made me feel uncomfortable. If this is indeed true, I want to ask relevant departments, how many people can do this? However, he was just an ordinary person, a regular child who didn’t own a house in Beijing, didn’t have a family, a career, or children, yet he donated money. I truly feel that this is a kind of strength for himself, an inner strength that can support us, and there is nothing to fear.”
“I always hold onto hope, the premise being persistence and transmission,” she explained. She expressed her desire to continue speaking up for Yu Menglong, and especially hoped that people with a sense of justice both locally and internationally would continue to voice out for this matter.
The teacher also mentioned that she saw a song written for Yu Menglong by his good friend – “Are You Listening”. This friend is the one who stood by Yu Menglong’s side. They were good friends, both having gentle personalities.
On the afternoon of October 6, the new song “Are You Listening” by Chinese singer Julaiti was officially released along with a music video, a song dedicated to his friend Yu Menglong. The video displays screenshots of their conversations with the final message “Wait for me” becoming the last message left by Yu Menglong for his friend, bringing tears to countless people.
In the eyes of Yu Menglong’s classmate and friend, Wang Yang, a young musician from Xinjiang, Yu Menglong was known for his kind and warm personality, always caring for others, “He was a great brother”.
On the evening of September 11, Wang Yang told the “Southern Metropolis Daily”, “His name is Yu Menglong, but we used to call him ‘Yu Qingchu’ back in the day.” He and Yu Menglong were classmates at the vocational school and even shared the same dormitory.
After graduating from the vocational school, Yu Menglong continued to pursue performing arts at the Beijing Film and Television Academy and participated in talent competitions, becoming well-known to many viewers. Despite residing in Beijing and getting busier with work, Wang Yang believed that this old classmate still valued loyalty and didn’t forget about their childhood friends and classmates.
In the early hours of September 12, Yu Menglong tragically fell to his death in the Yangguang Shangdong residential area in Beijing. Online rumors suggested that he was murdered for resisting the unspoken rules of the entertainment industry. There were even speculations about him possessing evidence of criminal groups, being detained, relocated multiple times, and ultimately brutally killed, involving individuals such as the son of a high-ranking CCP official and prominent figures in the entertainment industry.
Translated from NTD