Who is Xiaoyun from Sichuan?

Here’s a picture of her:

To see more photos of Xiaoyun, you can visit bbs.ganji.com. Who is this mysterious Sichuan girl who is posting up semi-nude pictures of herself online for all to see? Well, if you have been following the newspaper lately, The New Paper just ran a story about her:

Attention seeker or charitable soul?
Beijing teen posts sexy pictures online asking for Sichuan earthquake donations
By Liew Hanqing

SHE poses suggestively and flashes a megawatt smile.

Her plea: ‘Donate money to help my compatriots in Sichuan, please.’

Known only as Xiaoyun, the Beijing-based teen wrote in a recent forum post that she had decided to circulate revealing pictures of herself to ‘encourage people to donate’.

More than 100 photographs of her are now circulating online. There are also pictures of her posing in what appears to be her bedroom.

Her post has caused an online uproar with mixed reactions. Some have applauded her for ‘expressing herself’, while others have labelled her an attention seeker.

Since the pictures were posted online last week, they have attracted more than one million hits, according to online news reports.

A blog search with the keywords ‘Xiaoyun’ and ‘Sichuan’ yielded more than 6,500 related blog posts.

In the original forum post, Xiaoyun claimed her efforts were inspired by her affinity with Sichuan, her hometown.

She wrote in Chinese: ‘I am from Sichuan. My hometown has been badly hit by the recent earthquake. It’s encouraging to see people donating to help – I will release more photographs of myself to encourage more people to donate.’

About 69,000 people were killed in the earthquake that struck the province on 12 May.

It is not known whether she is personally collecting donations, or how much she has managed to raise.

‘I just want to give something back to my hometown,’ she wrote.

MIXED RESPONSES

Responses to her ‘donation drive’, however, have been mixed.

One blogger questioned whether the teen genuinely wanted to help, or whether the stunt was simply to help catapult her to online fame.

The blogger wrote: ‘These photographs look like they were carefully selected. She probably just wants to use the viral nature of the Internet to raise her profile online.’

Another blogger lamented: ‘It’s a pity that these ‘post-90′ (referring to the year 1990) girls are so shameless. Is this all they know how to do? What happened to their dignity?’

However, another blogger lauded her, saying that he admired her ‘willingness to express herself’.

‘It’s a pretty creative way to get donations – we need more creative people like her around,’ the blogger wrote.

Some were more flippant, like one netizen who noted Xiaoyun’s unshaved armpits.

The issue has also been hotly debated on the popular Tianya.cn forum, where Xiaoyun herself posted a response.

She wrote in Mandarin: ‘I would like to thank both those who have supported and criticised me. You have made me more mature, and given me a better understanding of what people are really like.’

She stressed that she had decided to post her pictures not for self-promotion or money, but because of a genuine desire to help the earthquake victims.

‘I urge you to admire my photographs from an artistic point of view. Womens’ bodies are meant to be admired that way,’ she wrote.

She added that she had seen most of the comments left about her on the forum.

Responding to several personal messages sent to her through the forum, Xiaoyun wrote that she ‘felt terrible’ and was ‘nearly in tears’ after reading some of the more hurtful ones.

‘I don’t regret posting the pictures – I only regret that they have been seen by people who cannot appreciate them,’ she wrote.

She added that she hoped her critics would hear her out before judging.

‘I hope that you will read what I have to say and change your mind about me. I am still willing to be your friend,’ she wrote.

I don’t know whether this Xiaoyun story is true or if she is being sabo-ed, but it did strike me that teens nowadays are getting more expressive on the Internet, with the world audience as a platform.

In this case, at least it was for an altruistic purpose, unlike the China, Liaoning girl incident or our very own racist blogger, Fragrance Prince. 🙂

Technorati Tags: sichuan earthquake, liaoning girl, fragrance prince, singapore, xiaoyun, sichuan xiaoyun, stripping for charity, beijing teen, unshaved armpit, post-90, tianya.cn, 90后女孩, 小云, 全裸照, nude photos