The region has been enthralled by a young Chinese pair whose struggles to own their apartment shed light on the government’s economic downturn.
The last two years of Zhang Yiliang and his family Dong Lijun’s life, beginning with the instant they bought the apartment, have been documented by the couple, who are both in their 30s. More than 400,000 people have followed their Douyin account,” Liangliang Lijun pair.”
What started out as a party gradually got into trouble, including arguments with the real estate engineer they claimed owed them money. They claimed they were attacked in recent days, and their movies were censored, earning them the pity of millions of online users.
Their experiences as small-town residents with big-city aspirations seem to have resonated with a large number of regular Taiwanese persons, reflecting their difficulties and dashed hopes in the midst of an economic downturn.
A person of Douyin wrote,” What you are posting is genuine life.” In actuality, most fresh people’s lives are difficult. There is n’t a party every night. Their history resonates because they are just like us, according to another post that was liked hundreds of times.
Some claimed that their goals represented the so-called Foreign vision, a notion that President Xi Jinping popularized and supports the revitalization of the Chinese people.
An ex-journalist claimed in a video posted on his social media platform that” Liangliang and Lijun painted as visible models for the” Chinese dream.” The most attentive, law-abiding, and optimistic people do not need the Chinese Dream, let alone others, I’m here to tell people, especially young people. We appreciate the couple’s assistance in exposing us to the harsh realities of China.
However, the film has since been removed, and posting on his Weibo bill has been prohibited.
The child’s apartment, which they purchased in 2021, serves as the focal point of their emotional roller coaster. In November of that year, they made their order announcement on Douyin, the Taiwanese version of TikTok.
Along with the video Liangliang and Lijun shared on their account, the happy couple wrote,” Then among all the lighting, there will be one lit up simply for me.”
They visited the location about every month and posted frequently about the development of their apartment’s construction.
One month later, Ms. Dong returned home with poor information: she had to take a pay reduction, bringing it down to only 2, 000 yuan. She can be seen sobbing in a picture as she tells her husband,” Our wage is already the lowest. What if I do?”
As poverty rose, the film probably echoed similar tales all over China. A comment read,” I ca n’t be the only one crying while watching their videos.”
The worst was still to come for the young couple, though.
Sunac China Holdings Limited, the engineer, acknowledged to having financial issues in May 2022 after failing to meet an interest payment date on a relationship.
Another home builders, like Evergrande, were having trouble at the time to pay off debt and give homes. Mr. Zhang and Ms. Dong, however, remained upbeat. We chose Sunac so we should believe them, Mr. Zhang wrote in a blog days after the announcement. They will deliver the project, in our opinion, and act properly as a business really.
However, two months later, design ceased. They waited for the company to start building again over the course of the following few months, which occurred earlier in 2023. They had a child at that time.
Life appeared to be back on track, but they claimed that the business still owed them a discount of$ 20,000 that they had been requesting for months.
The couple then attended an event hosted by Sunac on November 15 and live-streamed their face. After that day, there are no more articles on their Douyin consideration.
The couple was allegedly beaten during the broadcast, whose picture is no longer available, according to posts and comments that quickly went viral on social media. User-shared screenshots also display a number of articles in which Mr. Zhang is seen visiting hospitals. There are many rules in this world for us to follow, he said in another video that was posted on Ms. Dong’s specific account on November 18. It’s not uncommon for our movies to be blocked or vanished.
The couple claimed that they soon dialed 911. The intruders had been “punished,” according to local authorities, who also promised to look into the situation. Sunac China remained silent in response to the BBC’s inquiries.
Online and in Chinese media, the affair garnered a lot of interest. With tens of thousands of feedback and content, it topped the issue map on Weibo, China’s version of X. While some questioned their account of what happened, some agreed with them.
” People are beaten up and are forbidden from speaking up.” Do they still have a chance to survive? ” A well-liked post reads.” Can we support both our culture and them? ” Another Twitter users enquired.
They repeatedly visited the engineer because they are extremely poor and desperately need that money. Hu Xijin, a previous editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times, wrote on Weibo. They documented the process of being beaten, and although they were wronged, they had nowhere to go.
It is crucial for us to make sure that the efforts of common people are rewarded and that their love and hope for the future endure, he continued.
According to Mr. Zhang and Ms. Dong, the return has not yet been given to them. When they announced last week that they were leaving Zhengzhou and returning to Mr. Zhang’s town, they sparked new conversation that was filled with rage and disappointment.
A Weibo post that has been liked thousands of times reads,” Orderly people like them are the lot, so the way issues ended for them is particularly unpleasant to us.”
However, the couple has since stated that they are unsure. Suspicion and pity were expressed by some people who questioned whether Mr. Zhang and Ms. Dong were making money off of all the online attention.
It’s very difficult, according to a comment on their most recent video posted on Ms. Dong and her specific Douyin account. ” It’s very difficult to be yourself.