Chen Si () (born 1968) is a Chinese man who has stopped more than 400 people from committing suicide off the

Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge (), previously called the First Nanjing Yangtze Bridge, is a double-decked road-rail truss bridge across the Yangtze River in Nanjing, Jiangsu, connecting the city's Pukou and Gulou districts. Its upper deck i ...

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

, China.

Early life

Si was born in

Suqian Suqian (, IPA: ) is a prefecture-level city in northern Jiangsu Province, China. It borders Xuzhou to the northwest, Lianyungang to the northeast, Huai'an to the south, and the province of Anhui to the west. History Suqian was said to be the si ...

in the province of

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

. After dealing with poverty as a child, he dropped out of high school and left for

. After opening an independent fruit stand in the 1990s, he saw his fortunes improve.

Interventions

He first intervened in someone's suicide attempt in 2000, and saved the woman's life. Since 19 December 2003, Chen Si has spent every weekend on the

, a notorious spot from which to commit suicide. Chen patrols the bridge on foot and on his motorbike, looking for people who might be contemplating suicide. To Chen, these are people "who look depressed, those whose psychological pressure is great" and whose "way of walking is very passive with no spirit, or no direction." He then approaches them and tries to talk to them; sometimes they are already over the railing, and he has to grab them and pull them back over. In his talks with these people, Chen seeks to learn about their troubles and then find a solution. For example, Chen helped Shi Xiqing, a man who tried to commit suicide because of the $15,000 bill for his daughter's leukemia treatment, by phoning him every week and talking to his creditors.

Media response

Chen and his activities have received ongoing attention from the media, both in China and abroad. Louisa Lim of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

called him an "unlikely guardian angel." A German TV-program also reported about Chen Si preventing suicides.

Feature documentary

Filmmakers Jordan Horowitz and Frank Ferendo released a documentary film about Chen in 2016 called ''Angel of Nanjing''. The documentary won over 13 awards at prestigious festivals, including seven for Best Documentary.

References

External links