Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. For one young Nanjing man, that’s meant turning sacrifice, suffering and ultimately, tragedy, in the space of 2 short years, in to an instrument for the betterment of others who may have faced the same fate.
Qiu Shaochun, nicknamed, affectionately but some would say unkindly, Fat Brother, has been through a lot recently. Now though, he’s putting his all in to a snack bar in Confucius Temple, with his nickname as moniker and the aim of helping babies suffering from heart conditions.
And that’s extremely relevant. It all began on 29 May in 2022. That’s when Qiu had gone out for dinner with friends in Pukou and driven back to Nanjing’s Xinjiekou to pick up his girlfriend who was working in a nail salon.
But then, chaos erupted, as a man who was aggravated by his wife went on a rampage, smashing his car into other vehicles, to then emerge armed with a knife. Qiu, who had gone to intervene, got in the way and was stabbed.
He underwent surgery for an ostomy and was left with a bag attached to an opening in his belly to allow for waste to leave his body. But recognition also came his way, with Qiu being commended by Nanjing authorities for his courageous actions, while his story spread online.
Bringing it up to date, on 9 September, 2023, his daughter was born, he having married his girlfriend almost a year earlier.
That’s where the tragedy comes in. In a video he posted online, Qiu said, “My daughter has a serious heart disease and can only rely on ECMO machines to maintain her cardiopulmonary function after surgery. Follow-up treatment also faces high costs”.
A donation channel just 1 day later had collected over ¥110,000, just enough to cover the cost of treatment at that stage. But it was to no avail; his baby departed this world on 30 September of this year.
The whole ordeal would have been too much for many people, but when Qiu tried returning the money to donors, he was met with unanimous refusal, as the Yangtze Evening News reports.
Hence to Qiu’s small new shop in Fuzimiao, selling fried quail and crispy sausage, and to which many have come to meet the new Nanjing legend and, just watch. While he cooks, Mrs. Qiu Shaochun live streams on the side, chatting with her viewers in a lively manner.
Speaking beside a sign in his shop promoting buy-one-get-one-free deals for military, police, firefighters and others, Liu said, “There are also donors who could not be contacted from the beginning. I plan to use the money to set up a fund to help babies with congenital diseases”.