A Taiwanese college student tragically chose to set himself on fire recently after an apparently pretty harsh argument with his father over video games.
Xue Zhenjun, a student of Taiwan’s Chienkuo University of Technology, reportedly chose to end his own life in one of the more horrific ways imaginable because his father told him to get some sleep instead of staying up all night playing an online game.
Singapore’s Stomp magazine says that the student got into a fight with his father after his father told the boy to quit playing an unspecified online video game. Xue supposedly then took off on his motorcycle or moped – which are ubiquitous enough in Taiwan as to not warrant specification – and doused himself in several gallons of petrol before setting himself on fire.
As much as I would love to talk about this in a way that is hilarious and interesting as we usually do here, there’s nothing funny about a kid killing himself over family drama.
According to Stomp, Xue was being pressured by his family to finish his college studies and quickly find a job, which very likely means Xue was using the online game as a form of escapism from said pressure. There’s a tendency in the media to blame gaming on suicidal and/or homicidal tendencies while mostly ignoring family pressure, depression and other teenage dilemmas.
It appears that Xue just happened to reach his breaking point after an argument over a video game. Here’s hoping his family manages to cope with their loss.
Source: Stomp
Image: Wikimedia Commons