The Conversation with Liming Guan, a Chinese Journalist Covering News in the U.S.
A story behind Jiverly Wong’s shooting case…
Why was this Story?
The reason liming Guan decided to write this story was not only because of his duty as a breaking news reporter, but also because he is Chinese, and four Chinese victims died in the famous Binghamton shooting case.
“When I heard this news, I was shocked and painful,” said Liming Guan, a Chinese reporter in the U.S., he continued, ” I volunteered to investigate this breaking news, I felt this decision was not because of my responsibility anymore…”
Liming Guan had been working for China Daily (Beijing) for three years before he decided to immigrate to America. He applied the grad school at Temple University and studied journalism there. After he graduated, he went to Columbia University to continue his study in history. Up to now, he has been working for the China Press (Qiao newspaper), in New York City, for 12 years.
“It was an afternoon,” Guan said, “the editor came to the office in a hurry and told us a gun shot took place in Binghamton.” The editor told them that an estimated of ten people died, which also included Chinese. He immediately realized how serious the situation was. He stood up and shouted, “Let me cover this.”
The real situation…
The shooting case took place on April 3, 2009, at the American Civic Association immigrant center in Binghamton. The offender-Jiverly Wong- who was Vietnamese but originally from China, entered the association center around 10:30 a.m. and shot a dozen people who were in English class. The shooting caused 13 people to die and four people were wounded. Wong committed suicide after the shooting.
Most of the people killed were immigrants and from nine countries. Four were originally from China, and the others were from Pakistan, Brazil, Haiti, Vietnam, Philippine, and Ukraine. The oldest victim was 71 years old and the youngest was 22 years old. They all came to the association for ESL classes, including Wong.
His approach and result…
Guan said that after he volunteered to investigate this case, he soon packaged his luggage and along with two other co-workers, drove from Manhattan to Binghamton. On his way to Binghamton, Guan planned his next steps. He knew as a professional journalist, where he should go- talks to the police and goes to the scene where the gunshot took place. However, for this time, he wanted to focus more on the story behind these immigrants, both the shooter and the victims.
When he arrived in Binghamton, he went to the opening meeting that held by the Chinese Deputy Consul General Shi Yong and other consulate officials. Shi Yong gave a general information session of the four dead Chinese. Liming asked questions to Shi Yong about what will be the Consul’s next steps. Shi Yong answered, “We will eliminate the similar situation to happens again, and contact and comfort the victims’ family ASAP.” When Liming kept asking how this would be done, Shi Yong didn’t answer. The meeting ended.
“I was really sad about what happened,” Liming said, “Chinese immigrant community, includes other country’s immigrant, should be given more attention by the government.” I understand why Guan said this, the killer, Jiverly Wong, also an immigrant from Vietnam and suffered from the life in the U.S.
Guan went to the killer’s house as the next step. When he arrived, he saw an isolated house without close neighbors nearby. Liming took some pictures around the house, but the house was protected by the police because of the investigation, he could only take long- distance photos. He then waited outside to see if anyone would walk out the house could accept his interview. However, after 45 minutes waiting, he saw Wong’s parents walked out, but they refused to talk with reporters and got on a police’s car.
“I can tell that Wong was an unsocial person,” Guan told me, “you can tell something from one’s living area, no neighbors even knew him.”
Guan went to the scene where the gunshot took place. When Liming arrived, the police isolated the association and prohibited anyone into the building. He got nothing from there.
Since his focuses were the Chinese immigrant community, he decided to interview the Chinese victims’ friends and family members. According to the list announced by the Chinese Deputy Consul, the four killed Chinese included three immigrants Hai Hong Zhong, Hong Xiu Mao and Jiang ling, and one visiting research scholar, Li Guo.
He searched the social media used by Jiang Ling, and reached out to her friends here. “She immigrated to the U.S. several years ago and is a student at Binghamton University,” said Yiyao zhang, a student also from Binghamton University, “She attends the ESL class at the civic association because she wants to improve her English quickly in order to involve in America.”
Guan also contacted with Hai Hong Zhang’s neighbor, Mary Colvin. “She was a nice person, friendly and helpful,” Mary said, “She was struggling with English for a long time, I know she wants to improve it because she won’t back to China since her daughter attends college here.” Liming was tried to contact Hai Hong Zhang’s daughter, however, she was so disappointed and refused to accept the interview.
“I could imagine how hard these victims was struggling to settle down, “Guan said in a disappointed voice, “they deserve a better life, not like this.”
In addition to these people, Guan reached out to John Gavazzi , who has a wife from China. “She usually goes to the ESL class with these victimes together, so lucky she missed that class,” Gavazzi said, “the America Civic Association is a place where immigrants relying on and seeking for help.”
What cause the tragedy?
“I am Jiverly Wong shooting the people.”
The police published the letter received from Wong later, which was a two-page long, all hand-written letter. The letter used nearly all capital letters and included many spelling and grammar mistakes. The content of this letter was to describe how Jiverly Wong dissatisfied with his life in the U.S. and how unhelpful and unfair the police and government was.
The police soon proved that Wong has psychological illnesses. The situation that described how police keep bothering him in the letter were all illusion. The pressure from unemployment, language and culture barriers finally resulted Wong to trigger the gun.
“I don’t understand why the government always pay attention after the tragedy happened,” Guan said, “this tradedy was very simmilar to the Virginia Tech shooting case in 2007, both the criminials were immigrants, with language barrier, and isolated.”
Guan later published this news in the China Press. He described the facts as the duty of journalist and also included his interview contents. Besides these, Liming appeals the government and people to pay more attention to the immigrant groups.
The mental illness would happen on different people while new immigrants have more situations on this, they lack of friends, lack of communication, and lack of the attentions from the society. However, they don’t lack of guns. …
In the end of the conversation, he said: “the power of the press, is to appeal, and to prevent.”
