Friends mourn China’s ‘perfect child’ Zheng Shaoxiong gunned down on Chicago street
- The 24-year-old graduate was shot in the chest and died on Tuesday close to his home in the quiet neighbourhood of Hyde Park
- A former HKU student, he had not seen his family in Sichuan province for more than two years because of Covid-19 travel restrictions
Just three weeks ago, Zheng Shaoxiong was crowing to his friends on social media about his latest achievement. “The best player of [online kart racing game] QQ Speed who used to shake the whole school finally got his real-life driving licence!”
But before the 24-year-old had a chance to conquer the roads in real life, his own came to an abrupt end on Tuesday at the hands of a gunman, who left Zheng lying on the pavement just a few steps from his tiny rented flat and not far from his alma mater, the University of Chicago, where he had recently graduated.
Police said a dark-coloured car had pulled up to Zheng and a man, carrying a gun, had got out and demanded his belongings before shooting him in the chest. Zheng was rushed to the university’s medical centre, less than a kilometre (half a mile) away, but died from his injuries.
Zheng had not been home to see his family in the small city of Leshan in Sichuan province, southwestern China, for more than two years. Like hundreds of thousands of other Chinese students studying in the US, he had been stranded by the travel restrictions imposed because of the pandemic.
To his friends, Zheng had always been the “shining star” or “the child of others” – a popular term in China which references the perfect child that Chinese parents usually compare to their own children.
