The attack left a girl of 14 with minor injuries, but why did it spark such furious protests in the city of Jiangyou?
It started as an unpleasant, although not uncommon, teenage bullying incident.
On 2 August, a video appeared online, showing a group of teenage girls kicking, slapping and mocking another girl, later revealed to be aged 14, in an abandoned building in Jiangyou, a small city of 730,000 in south-west China. According to the local police, the attack, which took place on 22 July, resulted in minor injuries to the girl’s scalp and knees.
The video went viral in the local community, and soon morphed into a large-scale protest that overwhelmed the streets of Jiangyou, featuring violent clashes with the police and a concerted effort by the authorities to stop news of the event from spreading.
So what was it about this incident that prompted hundreds, perhaps even 1,000, people to gather in the streets of Jiangyou on Monday evening?
