It was an unbelievable sight – a young woman standing against a board that said “human target, 10 yuan (S$2.10) a shot”, inviting passers-by to shoot arrows at her.
A bow and arrows sat on the floor while another woman started to “hawk” the “service”.
Luckily, police put a stop to the fund raising “effort” on Monday (May 23) morning before anyone released an arrow – not that anyone was likely to, seeing as how members of the public were trying to dissuade the women.
The incident happened in the city of Hangzhou, in Eastern China’s Zhejiang province.
It turns out that the “target” Miss Ji Jiali, 21, was trying to raise money for her sister’s cancer treatment, Hangzhou Daily reported.
Producing a stack of papers at the police station to prove that she wasn’t a fraud, she explained that she was trying to raise funds for her sister Ji Jiayan, who is receiving treatment for leukaemia in a hospital in Kunming, in Southwest China.
She said she resorted to desperate measures as there seemed to be no other ways for the family to raise the 300,000 yuan needed for her sister’s treatment.
It was reported that Miss Ji’s cancer-stricken sister once ran away from home last year to spare the family the burden of paying for her treatment.
Hangzhou Daily reported that Miss Ji and her mother are supporting their family after her father died in a traffic accident in 2014. Miss Ji left her home in Guizhou when she was 18 to work in Zhejiang province, and now works in a factory.
Police released Miss Ji and her friend on Monday after counselling them, the report said.
A report on Wednesday (May 25) in another newspaper said that Miss Ji Jiayan has received more than 30,000 yuan in donations after the “human archery target” reports were widely shared on the Internet.
sinsh@sph.com.sg
