Chinese student commits suicide after draining tuition fees

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Press Trust of India Beijing
Last Updated : Jul 01 2013 | 12:25 PM IST
A 20-year-old Chinese student has committed suicide in the country's northeast after she spent two years worth of tuition fees in a massive shopping spree.
Chang Yanan, a third-year student at the China University of Geosciences' Great Wall College in Baoding city of Hebei province, jumped to death from her 13th-floor room on June 18.
Chang had spent more than 30,000 yuan (USD 5000) on clothes, cosmetics and skin care products. Most of the money was syphoned off from her annual tuition fee of 11,500 yuan sent by her parents, the China Youth Daily reported.
Friends had often confronted Chang on her shopping habits. Each time she would only answer- "It's enough", the paper said.
Chang's parents, from Xinjiang province, were left baffled and suspicious each time they received a notice from the school regarding outstanding tuition fees.
They worried that she might have fallen victim to a scam or had been cheated by a boy.
Chang's father, Chang Shuzeng, said that she had once lied about losing her ATM card and had even told them that 20,000 yuan was stolen from her account.
Chang's mother, Xu Qingfang, said she had last spoken to her daughter a day before the suicide. "We argued about the school fees but in the end, I said 'just don't lie to mother and tell the truth, I will believe you'," a heartbroken Xu recalled.
"This is not the fault of anyone and there is no need to feel regret. I was in pursuit of a different sort of lifestyle. All these problems are self-created and self-inflicted," Chang said in her suicide note.
Chang's funeral procession took place in Hebei on Thursday. She was cremated along with some of her skin care cosmetics, the report said.
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First Published: Jul 01 2013 | 12:25 PM IST

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