Restless spirits at Foxconn plant
Restless spirits have been blamed for the spate of suicides at Foxconn Technology Group's Longhua plant in Shenzhen, China.
According to locals, the plant was built on the burial site of more than 1,000 babies.
They believe that the spirits want "replacements" which resulted in the suicides among Foxconn employees, Eastweek magazine reported.
A total of 10 workers committed suicide by jumping off the buildings this year. Eight of them were from Longhua plant while the others were from Guanlan plant.
The first victim died in January, followed by another in March, two in April and six in May.
Three other workers sustained injuries in separate suicide attempts.
The cover of Eastweek showing Foxconn Taiwanese owner Terry Kuo Tai-ming praying for the deaths during his visit to the plant in Shenzhen last week
According to the article titled The most evil suicide series in history, the site of the Longhua Foxconn plant was formerly barren land.
It was flattened and turned into an industrial area about 20-over years ago.
About two to three hundreds years ago, some 4,000 Hakkas lived around the land which is as big as about 40 football fields.
It was a tradition for the residents to bury their dead babies in a mass burial plot called Pizhai Yuan.
And not far from Pizhai Yuan is the Gui Tou Tan (Ghost Head Lake), which has claimed so many lives that the locals dare not go near it even in bright daylight.
A check by an Eastweek reporter revealed that Foxconn's C2 employees' quarters, where most workers have jumped off from, is located in between Pizhai Yuan and Gui Tou Tan.
Feng: Over 1,000 babies were buried at Pizhai Yuan
"When I was a child shepherd, my mother warned me not to enter Pizhai Yuan even though the cows had gone into it.
"My mother rather lose the cows then have me get into the area," said 78-year-old Feng Yuhu, ex-village head of Shuidouxin Weicun located south-east of Longhua Foxconn.
Feng said the infant mortality rate in the old days was very high due to the lack of hygiene, medical knowledge and facilities.
Besides, parents preferred boys and many baby girls were killed.
"More than 1,000 babies were buried at Pizhai Yuan," he said.
Feng said the local Hakkas believed that the infants could not have their tombs as their "status" was too low.
The parents were also not allowed to recite prayers or make offerings to them. Thus, their spirits were restless.
A security guard of Longhua Foxconn said the fifth victim Lu Xin told him "something" he could not see was following him. Six days later, Lu jumped to his death on May 1.
On May 11, worker Kuang Chenming jumped off the building of her flat. A CCTV clip showed Kuang moving her body as she walked to the rooftop, as though she was dragged there by an "invisible hand".
Speculation also has it that a new bridge in the industrial area has spoilt the feng shui of the place and the people are calling it the Nai He bridge, commonly believed to be used by the spirits to cross into the underworld.
Source and photo: Eastweek, Hong Kong
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