Trespassed update, part 2 (suicided)
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In the first part of this post, we came across the notion of "bèi zìshā 被自殺" ("be suicided"). Since, for many people, this idea (of somebody being "suicided") is hard to comprehend, I asked several graduate students from the PRC if they could explain how it and the related expressions "bèi tiàolóu 被跳楼" ("was jumped off a building"), "bèi shīzōng 被失蹤" ("be disappeared"), and so forth work. One of them responded thus:
I think this is another instance of "netizen language" to evade the firewall / censure of speech. While no one dares to directly express that "no, he didn't commit suicide by jumping off a building and we don't believe your official report's sh*t", they simply used "he has been 'jumped'" construction to lament the sad truth that 1) instead of jumping off his building he must have died because of dirty persecution and 2) we are fed all kinds of lies and we realize that. I believe that you're talking about the Fujian medical official's recent death.
VHM: Yes, indeed. This ties in with why Xi Jinping suddenly and unexpectedly showed up in Fujian just after a popular medical official mysteriously fell to his death from the building in which he lived.
"Fujian healthcare chief dies after falling from residence", By Dimsumdaily Hong Kong (11:16PM Sat October 5, 2024).
5th October 2024 – (Xiamen) Reports circulating on mainland Chinese social media indicate that Lin Shengkuai (–> Lin Shengkui), the Director of the Fujian Provincial Medical Security Bureau, died after falling from his home on Wednesday, 2nd October. Official sources have yet to confirm the details surrounding the incident.
Images shared online depict a scene outside a residential building covered by a blue cloth, with multiple police officers present to secure the area. The individuals nearby remain unidentified, raising questions about whether they are family members of Lin.
Prior to his untimely death, Lin, aged 59, had been active in public service and was seen participating in a recitation event organised by the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party and the local Medical Security Bureau on 29 September. His extensive career includes notable positions such as Deputy Director of the Fujian Provincial Health Department and Deputy Director of the Fujian Health and Family Planning Commission. Since 2020, he served as the head of the Medical Security Bureau and was also a Vice Chairman of the Education, Science, Health and Sports Committee of the Fujian Provincial Political Consultative Conference.
VHM: His name is pronounced Lin Shengkuai here, but in modern Standard Mandarin, it should be Lin Shengkui 林圣魁.
Another report in English brings up many suspicious aspects of Lin's death:
"Lin Shengkui fell to his death" (2024-10-16 23:12)
After I saw the news, I felt very upset. I felt that Director Lin Shengkui's story was not far away from us. Such things happened in our society, which made people think deeply.
The cause of the incident was that Lin Shengkui, director of the Fujian Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau, fell to his death. According to a report by Economic Observer , the news was revealed by multiple sources on October 9, 2024. Immediately afterwards, an obituary issued by Lin Shengkui's wife and daughter showed that he died on September 30, 2024, and a farewell ceremony for his body was held on October 4. This sudden change shocked and regretted many people. On October 9, the official website of the Fujian Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau updated the information, deleted the relevant information of Lin Shengkui, and only left the information of Deputy Director Cheng Xueying. And just one day before Lin Shengkui's death, at around 10 pm on September 29, he attended a public event. The sudden departure of such an active official at work is indeed surprising.
Xi's visit to Fujian is rare, despite the fact that he was governor of the province of Fujian from 1999 to 2002.
Suffice it to say that people were very upset by the news of medical official Lin Shengkui being "jumped" off the building in which he lived, and it became viral on Chinese social media.
Selected readings
- "Trespassed update" (10/15/24)
- "Passed" (10/14/24)
- "Thou shalt be trespassed, as it were" (4/27/24)
- "You will be trespassed automatically" (8/1/23)
- "Not permission, to violate to punish" (5/8/14)
- "The aggrieved passive voice" (3/16/09)
John from Cincinnati said,
October 24, 2024 @ 4:55 am
The usage was entirely clear to me as a native speaker of American English, because I personally was "retired at" by my corporate employer. That is to say, an event — my formal retirement — happened, but the circumstances were not something I chose for myself. The expression is used ironically, of course.
David Marjanović said,
October 24, 2024 @ 5:14 am
I think it all started when people "were disappeared" by Argentina's military dictatorship.
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
October 24, 2024 @ 9:14 am
I know it's not kosher around here to call something "untranslatable", but how would you translate "bèi zìshā / 被自殺" into Italian?
Italian has "uccidere", which corresponds to "殺" (kill).
But for the verb "to commit suicide", Italian forms this reflexive verb from the substantive, "suicidio" (自殺), which is _already_a reflexive form of "uccidere" (殺), and _then_ adds the reflexive suffix "-si" to form "suicidarsi". So, with the double-reflexive there, I'm not sure that translating "被自殺" as "essersi suicidato" would convey the sense that the "suicider", uh, "had help".
—
UPDATE: The internets say that "essersi suicidato" does not in fact mean "被自殺", _except_ in the past tense and stripped of its reflexive suffix. Thus, the newspaper, "La Repubblica" gives the definition: "Suicidare (v.tr.) iron. Uccidere qualcuno simulandone il suicidio: è stato suicidato dai servizi segreti" (To suicide (ironic use). To kill someone (while) giving the impression of suicide: 'He was suicided by the Secret Service'". See also https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache/stato-suicidato-svolta-30-anni-sulla-morte-calciatore-1976628.html
Brett said,
October 24, 2024 @ 10:27 am
@David Marjanović: Interestingly, that use of disappeared is about a decade older than the Dirty War in Argentina. The OED says that sense is: "Originally and frequently with reference to Latin America," and the earliest citation (from 1965) refers to Cuba, although the locution sounds a little odd: "One day, without explanation, he ‘was disappeared’ to Czechoslovakia, say reliable Cuban sources."
Hans Adler said,
October 24, 2024 @ 2:08 pm
I have heard "to suicide someone" so often that I thought it had long been part of the English language. The meaning is of course to murder someone in such a way that it appears as suicide.
Wiktionary lists this transitive usage and provides a quotation from an 1898 issue of Punch:
Have bought The Shanghai Chopsticks. Proprietor at first refused to sell, but when I ordered the boiling oil he became more reasonable. Editor reports that circulation is not what it ought to be. […] Will publish proclaimation, "Any person found not in possession of The Shanghai Chopsticks (current number) will be suicided."
(Presumably "The Shanghai Chopsticks" is a fictional newspaper. At first I thought it was a restaurant, making the last sentence confusing.)
Lars said,
October 24, 2024 @ 6:06 pm
In Danish we have an expression, "blive gået" (i.e. being walked) which means to be forced to resign. I reacted to this like John from Cincinnati.
Jerry Packard said,
October 24, 2024 @ 7:40 pm
I think ‘to suicide someone’ or for someone ‘to be suicided’ can also imply that said person was caused to commit suicide due to duress.