Girl, boyfriend ran away several months ago

Tuesday was the 100th day since Yi Ping, an 18-year-old local high school student fled home with the boyfriend her mother ordered her to stop dating. Tuesday night was also the 100th sleepless night for her mother, Liu Guoying.

"My dearest daughter, we are missing you. Don't you hear our days-long calling for you? Please come back to us," the helpless mother wrote in a letter to her daughter that was published in the local media two days ago.

Yi Ping, who was a grade-11 student at a key high school in Fengxian District, left home on January 12 with her boyfriend, surnamed Dong. She took along a purplish red suitcase, her and her mother's ID cards and a bankbook for an account containing 40,000 yuan (US$4,819).

She took the money out of the account shortly after leaving, but didn't leave any note to her parents about where she was going or if and when she would return.

"She was quiet and normal that day. None of us could predict her running away," said Liu.

Liu said her daughter was a docile girl who never said "no" to her parents, even when her underground love story was exposed to them last summer.

"I told her they had two choices: Both enter the same university or break the relationship. She accepted my suggestion without any struggle," Liu said.

In Liu's eyes, the girl was a good daughter at home and an excellent student at school. Teachers, however, said the girl was sensitive and moody.

"She was extremely sensitive. When she was in low spirits, she fled school with Dong," said her teacher, surnamed Yao.

He said family pressure and her parents' high expectations might be a major reason for her frailty and the lack of communication among family members.

He also said a growing number of high school students are falling in love, an unthinkable act just a few years ago.

"I don't know how to deal with these hot-blooded young lovers," he said. "Unlike five years ago, today's students do exactly the opposite if you shout at them and force them to stop. But if you talk to them gently, they simply turn a deaf ear."

A recent survey of 5,000 students in 10 local high schools found that 30 percent had fallen in love, more than 30 percent have experienced kissing and cuddling and 3.5 percent had lost their virginity.

(eastday.com April 21, 2004)