Viral Fundraising for Chinese Woman’s Scoliosis Surgery Sparks Public Backlash

Chinese couple’s surgery fundraising highlights how sudden fame ignites support, backlash

A woman in China, suffering from severe scoliosis, has gone viral after accusations that she is “making money by doing nothing” surfaced. This scrutiny followed the revelation that her boyfriend, Yan Ruize, worked gruelling food-delivery shifts to fund her much-needed surgery. He Ling, 23, hails from southwest China’s Sichuan province and was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis – a sideways curvature of the spine – at five years old. Now, at just 1.35 metres tall and weighing 31.5kg, she...

By Zoey Zhang