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    Half Tones

    First Trial for Writer Accused of Defaming Dead Girl’s Crowdfunding Parents

    Aug 14, 2019

    A Shanghai court on Wednesday began hearing the case of a Henan couple who are suing a well-known entertainment commentator over her claims that they misappropriated publicly raised funds while treating their dying 3-year-old daughter.

    The family of the now-deceased girl, Wang Fengya, filed the lawsuit with the Minhang District People’s Court last September, accusing the writer, Chen Lan, of defamation. They have asked that she apologize publicly in domestic newspapers and on microblogging platform Weibo, where she has over 900,000 followers, and pay a minimum of 130,000 yuan ($18,500) in damages. In April of last year, the family faced a barrage of online criticism after Chen alleged on Weibo that they had scammed users of crowdfunding platform Shuidichou who had donated toward their daughter’s medical expenses.

    In September 2017, Fengya was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare malignant eye cancer. The mother, Yang Meiqin, took to crowdfunding platforms to help raise 150,000 yuan for her daughter’s treatment. Fengya died in May 2018, just eight months after her diagnosis. A police investigation later found that nearly all of the 38,638 yuan her parents had managed to raise had been spent on their daughter’s treatment. (Image: @作家陈岚 on Weibo)