It was inaugurated in 1968 and entered the Book of Records; At this point, it would break a less enviable record: that of suicides, after crossing the balance of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge a few years ago.
On a gray and rainy morning, Chen Si patrols the Nankin Bridge across the Yangtze to keep desperate people from jumping into the turbulent waters of this river, the longest in China.
This bridge is a pride of China, but it sets the sad world record for suicides.
Chen Si has been walking there every weekend for 18 years.
His mission: to convince people who want to commit suicide not to do this. He saved hundreds of them, earning him the nickname “Angel of Nankin” in the local press, the name of the major city in the east of the country.
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Photo: AFP
With a cigarette in one hand and a canteen of green tea in the other, the 50-year-old doesn’t mind. “I’m not an angel. I’m just trying to bring some light to those who are in the dark,” he explained to AFP.
Chen’s life changed when, at the age of 22, he saw a crying young woman who would leap into the void. Chen Si started talking to her and convinced her not to.
She was a labor migrant, like him, who, being born into a poor family, has no difficulty identifying with those marginalized by China’s economic boom.
“I explain to them that I am also an ordinary person. That we all have problems and that they can overcome them, ”explains this man, who likes to read Freud.
“We don’t count them anymore”
Since his first rescue, the man estimates that he has freed 412 people from the abyss, almost one every two weeks.
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Among them a hefty man who was climbed on the bridge between some and another, riddled with debts worth millions of yuan.
Some difficult experiences. Although he has learned to protect himself, he often goes to temples to calm his soul. “I used to have nightmares that couldn’t save me,” he says.
When it opened in 1968, the giant bridge was presented as a feat of Chinese engineering during the great Maoist era. It entered the Book of Records as the longest double-decker bridge (one for trains and one for cars) in the world.
Right now, it would break a less enviable record: that of suicides, after crossing the balance of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge a few years ago.
“When we inspect the bridge in the morning, we sometimes find a high-heeled shoe or a cell phone with a handwritten note,” said Zhang Chun, a member of a local association.
“We don’t count them anymore, but we know that at least 3,000 lives have been lost,” at Nankin Bridge, Zhang said. An underestimated figure due to the number of people who disappear without a trace.
“You can’t save everyone”
According to official figures, the suicide rate fell to 5.29 per 100,000 residents in 2019 (compared to 13.56 in 2000), half the number recorded by the United States.
But mental health problems have increased in China in recent decades, according to a study in the British medical journal The Lancet published two years ago.
The authors mentioned the rapid changes in Chinese society that cause stress in those who cannot adapt.
According to other studies, the country is also facing a shortage of psychologists.
Chen Si does not note that there are fewer suicides on Nankin Bridge. To help, he recruited volunteers, especially psychology students, whom he advised on how to deal with desperate people.
“All we can tell you is that there are people who can’t live without them,” he explains.
In the city, Chen Si transformed a small office into a bedroom, where he can accommodate up to four people who don’t know where to spend the night.
He acknowledges that he had to sacrifice his family life for his mission, which he fulfills in addition to his daily work.
And it doesn’t stop until the day it no longer has the power to direct people to the right side of the railing.
‘I can’t save them all. If it is beyond my strength, I leave it in the hands of the gods ”.