Across China: Tibetans launch life-saving social media campaign

Dekyitso, a Tibetan Buddhist musician, suspended her Tibetan New Year trip with her parents after she heard that one of her former schoolmates was seriously injured in a traffic accident.

With the consent of the man's family, Dekyitso posted his story on Chinese messaging app WeChat on Tuesday in order to seek help for her schoolmate, who is in a coma.

The post was reposted widely and she had received more than 61,000 yuan (around 9,300 U.S. dollars) in donations from friends and strangers as of Wednesday afternoon.

"Many Tibetan Buddhist monks and living Buddhas from the provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan also joined me. A girl even donated 24 yuan, all the digital 'red envelopes' she received during the New Year, to the victim," said Dekyitso.

In addition to donations, people prayed for the man, Yang Yanqing, who is the father of a nine-year-old boy. The 34-year-old is a teacher at a Tibetan school in Maqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Gansu Province.

Yang has devoted his life to this cold, remote place. Maqu is located on the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with an average altitude of 3,300 to 4,800 meters.

He was injured in a car crash in early January and has been in the ICU for a month. His family has already borrowed between 400,000 and 500,000 yuan from relatives and friends for treatment so far, and will need more in the future.

"We Tibetans believe that people who help others will sow seeds of good fortune for themselves," said Dekyitso.

Dekyitso graduated from the School of Music at Minzu University of China. She knows the feeling of losing loved ones. Her own brother died years ago in an accident.

"I think seeking help for Yang through social media is the most meaningful thing I did during this Tibetan New Year. Perhaps people's philanthropic acts will help save his life," she said.

Mobile Internet and social media apps are reshaping the philanthropic sector in China.

"As a new communication tool, social media apps can help pass on positive energy in society and shorten the distance between people," said Liu Min, former deputy head of Gansu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

However, Liu pointed out that the public should also be careful of those who attempt to swindle money from Good Samaritans online.

"Doctors warn he might become a vegetable," said Yang's younger brother.

Perhaps moved by the campaign to save his life, Yang opened his eyes on Wednesday morning after more than a month in a coma. "It gives us a glimpse of hope. Let love create miracles," his brother said. Endi