Han Han: Video Of Chongqing Police Subduing A Kidnapper

Han Han is one of China’s most popular bloggers. As a member of the post-80s generation (Chinese born in the 1980s), he is also famous for being a professional race-car driver and best-selling author.

This video (3:06) is a news story about Chongqing police taking down a man who had kidnapped a local woman and was holding her hostage with a knife.

First, the man demands the police find a reporter and gets very upset, screaming “How much time until he’s here?” Then, he rather suddenly decided he didn’t want a reporter, and instead demanded drinks. The policeman was fairly accommodating, even asking if he should open the drinks for the kidnapper, and a few moments later their opportunity to strike came when the man came to the door to shout, asking for a gun, and many, many police officers jumped on him all at once.

From Han Han’s Blog:

Stepping into the breach as others fall

Today I saw a video of police attacking a criminal. In it there were many interesting points:

1. The criminal and hostage came to the door of the police station to ask for a gun.
2. Soon afterward, he demanded a reporter. Very rarely do kidnappers ask for these two kinds of things [guns, reporters] so we can tell the man must have a story.
3. After the reporter arrived, the criminal said he didn’t need a reporter, this shows he already understood, whatever background story he told would definitely be harmonized, so he faced facts, and asked for…
4. …two bottles of beverages, here he was forced to implement some advertisements. [refers to recent Chinese netizen criticisms of too many product placement in the 2010 CCTV Spring Festival Gala]
5. The criminal first gave the woman [he was holding hostage] a drink, and after this, her eyes were very complicated, perhaps the two of them have a story [together].
6. At the climax, the criminal walked out the door, where police officers were hiding fearlessly. They pounced on him, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…please let the national statistics department release an estimate of how many men tackled him. This square meter must have had the highest population density in the entire world; all of a sudden the screen was completely full of [policemen’s] butts!
7. Another interesting point came through the camera lens at 2:27, the middle aged man with a yellow stripe around his sweater really got quite close amidst the chaos of things. As soon as this mysterious pangolin jumped in, an onlooker became a person at the center of things. He served honorably.
8. Another good point: at 2:32 you can see that in the upper left corner the policeman who rushes in is still holding a cigarette in his mouth. He’s really too relaxed [about it].
9. When they dragged the criminal into the interrogation room, the policemen pulled on his hair, showing their power.

Although the result was gratifying, the process of saving [the woman] is certainly worth discussing. I welcome everyone to keep studying the video.

Later, Han Han added a poll to his post:

You most want to know…

• How many police, in total, tackled the man — 4256 votes, 21%
• Why the man asked for one reporter and one gun — 10962 votes, 53%
• What is the post/position of the guy in the yellow sweater — 3317 votes, 16%
• Who is the guy with the cigarette in his mouth — 2159 votes, 10%

Note: There are now over 47,000 votes since this post was translated.

Comments on the video on Sina (not from Han Han’s post):

一叶舟风波里:

Very good, very awesome.

广西柳州网友:

The One Child Policy hasn’t ended well!!

山东网友爱是永恒:

There are too many scoundrels, if more were killed it would be good, they should have shot him on the spot.

北京网友tony:

I think even if he told his background story they wouldn’t report it, they’d only report the heroism of the police.

北京网友santian:

You often see things like this happening in Chongqing, gangsters from the criminal society, it’s very worrying.

DHX212:

The guy is actually pretty handsome, and the girl could be called pretty too.

Better than kidnapping and being piled on by a lot of police officers. chinaSMACK personals.

See the new china/divide blog by C. Custer (and Kai).