A harrowing note left by the K-pop singer Kim Jong-hyun, who has died in a suspected suicide, has highlighted the pressures facing young people in South Korea's intensely competitive entertainment industry.
Kim, the lead singer of the boy band SHINee, died in hospital in Seoul on Monday after he was found unconscious in his apartment.
Better known as Jonghyun, he had attracted a huge following in his native country and across Asia both as a band member and solo artist, and was among the most marketable figures in K-pop, South Korea's most successful cultural export.
Over the past decade, SHINee, Super Junior, Girls' Generation and other bands have been the driving force behind the Hallyu Wave that has helped South Korean films, music and TV dramas establish loyal followings in Asia and Europe.
However, in a note made public a day after his death, the 27-year-old had said he felt "broken from inside".
"The depression that gnawed on me slowly has finally engulfed me entirely," Kim wrote, adding that he "couldn't defeat it any more".
His friend the singer Nine9 released the note on her Instagram account, saying he had asked her to make it public in the event of his death.
"I was so alone," Kim continued. "The act of ending is difficult. I've lived until now because of that difficulty. Please tell me I did a good job." He ended the message: "You've worked hard. You've really gone through a lot. Goodbye."
K-pop stars are subjected to severe competition and years of training, with every aspect of their lives – from their musical style and fashion to diet and even mobile phone use – dictated by powerful management agencies.
Jonghyun, lead singer of K-pop band SHINee, dies at 27 – video obituary
Like their Japanese counterparts, many are forced to forgo romantic relationships to maintain the wholesome image crafted by their industry handlers.
In Kim, many fans saw a supremely talented singer and dancer who had managed to avoid the hazards, such as alcohol and drugs, that had destroyed the careers of some of his peers.
The shock felt among his fans worldwide was compounded by the fact that he appeared happy and at ease with himself during public appearances only days before his death.
But in echoes of his longer note, he had sought what appeared to be assurances about his achievements from his sister in text messages he sent on Monday. "This is my last farewell," he told her. "Please let me go and say I did a good job."
The relentless pressure to achieve can be found in every sector of South Korean society, from its highly competitive education system to a corporate culture that has little tolerance for failure – factors that experts say contribute to the highest suicide rate in the industrialised world.
Several high-profile figures, including the country's former president Roh Moo-hyun, as well as business executives, have killed themselves in recent years.
In 2009, the actor Park Jin-hee wrote a master's degree paper in which she said 40% of South Korea's actors had considered suicide at least once due to a lack of privacy, online bullying, unstable incomes and the fear that their talents were not appreciated by the industry or the public.
Some of the hundreds of fans paying their respects on Tuesday at the hospital where Kim died spoke of the intolerable pressures that can accompany stardom in South Korea.
"I came here to say my last farewell … since we fans apparently couldn't be there for him when he needed help most," 19-year-old Jung Min-kyung told AFP.
"I think our country has very high expectations of celebrities."
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found atwww.befrienders.org.
K-pop singer Jonghyun's death turns spotlight on pressures of stardom | World news | The Guardian
A harrowing note left by the K-pop singer Kim Jong-hyun, who has died in a suspected suicide, has highlighted the pressures facing young people in South Korea's intensely competitive entertainment industry.
Kim, the lead singer of the boy band SHINee, died in hospital in Seoul on Monday after he was found unconscious in his apartment.
Better known as Jonghyun, he had attracted a huge following in his native country and across Asia both as a band member and solo artist, and was among the most marketable figures in K-pop, South Korea's most successful cultural export.
Over the past decade, SHINee, Super Junior, Girls' Generation and other bands have been the driving force behind the Hallyu Wave that has helped South Korean films, music and TV dramas establish loyal followings in Asia and Europe.
However, in a note made public a day after his death, the 27-year-old had said he felt "broken from inside".
"The depression that gnawed on me slowly has finally engulfed me entirely," Kim wrote, adding that he "couldn't defeat it any more".
His friend the singer Nine9 released the note on her Instagram account, saying he had asked her to make it public in the event of his death.
"I was so alone," Kim continued. "The act of ending is difficult. I've lived until now because of that difficulty. Please tell me I did a good job." He ended the message: "You've worked hard. You've really gone through a lot. Goodbye."
K-pop stars are subjected to severe competition and years of training, with every aspect of their lives – from their musical style and fashion to diet and even mobile phone use – dictated by powerful management agencies.
Jonghyun, lead singer of K-pop band SHINee, dies at 27 – video obituary
Like their Japanese counterparts, many are forced to forgo romantic relationships to maintain the wholesome image crafted by their industry handlers.
In Kim, many fans saw a supremely talented singer and dancer who had managed to avoid the hazards, such as alcohol and drugs, that had destroyed the careers of some of his peers.
The shock felt among his fans worldwide was compounded by the fact that he appeared happy and at ease with himself during public appearances only days before his death.
But in echoes of his longer note, he had sought what appeared to be assurances about his achievements from his sister in text messages he sent on Monday. "This is my last farewell," he told her. "Please let me go and say I did a good job."
The relentless pressure to achieve can be found in every sector of South Korean society, from its highly competitive education system to a corporate culture that has little tolerance for failure – factors that experts say contribute to the highest suicide rate in the industrialised world.
Several high-profile figures, including the country's former president Roh Moo-hyun, as well as business executives, have killed themselves in recent years.
In 2009, the actor Park Jin-hee wrote a master's degree paper in which she said 40% of South Korea's actors had considered suicide at least once due to a lack of privacy, online bullying, unstable incomes and the fear that their talents were not appreciated by the industry or the public.
Some of the hundreds of fans paying their respects on Tuesday at the hospital where Kim died spoke of the intolerable pressures that can accompany stardom in South Korea.
"I came here to say my last farewell … since we fans apparently couldn't be there for him when he needed help most," 19-year-old Jung Min-kyung told AFP.
"I think our country has very high expectations of celebrities."
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found atwww.befrienders.org.
Lunch With Sumiko: Want a Smart Nation? Then make sure you get talent, says Philip Yeo
The first thing that strikes me are the books and files. They are everywhere and they look scarily erudite.
Mr Philip Yeo has opted to have lunch at his office on the 21st floor of Symbiosis Tower in Fusionopolis. I'm early, he is not in yet, and his secretary has led me to his office-cum-library to wait.
Sunlight streams in from tall windows, giving the room a pleasant, airy feel.
His books and files occupy two large shelves. A long glass table - where we later have lunch - is also completely covered with plastic files filled with articles, all printed on cream-coloured paper.
In front of me on the table is an article titled, "A reversible haploid mouse embryonic stem cell biobank resource for functional genomics".
Next to it is a paper headlined, "Analysis of Fusobacterium persistence and antibiotic response in colorectal cancer". Other articles are on topics like molecular drug targets, gut microbiome and gene editing.
I turn to the shelves to see if there's anything in simpler English.
There are six folders on cancer labelled Cancer 1, Cancer 2, Cancer 3 and so on; three folders on drugs; and other folders on topics like drones, sugar, oil and energy, 3D design, brain, climate and water.
The books are also arranged by subjects like war, history, Singapore, America, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Greece.
Under the literature section, I finally spot some names I know - Robert Ludlum, William Safire, Germaine Greer and John Gray.
A voice outside signals that Mr Yeo has arrived. He enters the room and greets me cheerily, a slim man who looks younger than his 71 years. He's dressed in office garb of long-sleeved shirt and slacks paired with bright blue Nike trainers.
I'd been warned that he isn't easy to interview because he speaks fast and his thoughts zigzag from one topic to another. I discover this to be true. He also doesn't sit still and I count at least a dozen times he gets up from his chair during our nearly three-hour chat, to ask his secretary for something or to grab a book or magazine to show me.
Mr Yeo with his wife Jane and children Eugene and Elaine. On the need to nurture talent, he said: "There's no such thing as smart nation, it's smart people. People make a nation, whether a scientist, a journalist, it's all people." PHOTO: ST PRESS
His secretary brings our food in and he proceeds to clear the files on one corner of the glass table to make space for it. We're both having a salmon bento set.
"Let's have our lunch first," he says in a friendly manner.
It's the first time we are meeting but he's easy to warm up to and like. He asks if I'd gone on holiday and when I say I'd just come back from Spain, he's happy to chit-chat about tapas and the best cities there, and also how he has visited Spain's medical research centres.
Judging by his reading material, science and medicine seem to occupy his mind. Is all this just your personal interest, I ask.
"Yah, personal interest," he says. "Curiosity."
Doing medicine in university was something he had considered. "Then I realised that there was no scholarship to study medicine, so forget it, I chabot to engineering." He did industrial engineering at the University of Toronto on a Colombo Plan scholarship.
But he has always kept in touch with the subject. It featured in his long civil service career, and he's now involved in a company that does medical devices. He also sits on university boards.
The reason we're meeting has also to do with a book - his successful biography, Neither Civil Nor Servant: The Philip Yeo Story. Surprisingly, I don't see it on his shelves.
Published by Straits Times Press and written by journalist Peh Shing Huei, it recounts the roles he played in key areas of Singapore's development.
There were the Ministry of Defence years where he worked closely with Old Guard ministers Goh Keng Swee and Howe Yoon Chong to build Singapore's fledgling army.
This was followed by his Economic Development Board (EDB) years where he led the charge to get MNCs to set up shop here.
Then there were the A*Star years where he spearheaded the economy's move into biomedical science.
In the book's foreword, friend and former minister George Yeo describes him as an "atypical civil servant" who disliked bureaucracy and would speak his mind freely, "sometimes too freely". He attracts fiercely loyal supporters, who still refer to him as "chairman", as well as detractors.
More than 20,000 copies of his biography have been sold since its launch in November last year, and the book spent 55 consecutive weeks on The Straits Times' bestsellers list.
Even more impressively, autographed copies have raised $700,000 for charity. He's grateful to his generous donors, who include well-known businessmen.
The money goes to the EDIS Cares Fund. In 2013, he set up Economic Development Innovations Singapore (EDIS), a company which does consultancy in areas like economic development. Clients include foreign governments. EDIS Cares is its social responsibility arm and provides help and mentorship to children of low-income families.
"The key is not money. The key is finding people who have the compassion to help them, to be a mentor, big brother," says Mr Yeo, who is also chairman of Spring Singapore.
He has roped in past scholars from EDB and A*Star to be mentors.
He has always been big on nurturing talent and had set up scholarships in the organisations he headed. "The key to an organisation is talent... even if they finish their bond, they leave, they are everywhere."
He recounts how board members of Japanese conglomerate Hitachi - he is a director - were in town and visited Sentosa and Changi Airport.
They were surprised by how many people in leadership positions they met used to be his scholars. "They said, 'My god, everybody work for you?' I said, no... I take people then I let them go."
Many of the scholars still keep in touch with him and he speaks about them with fondness and pride. He remembers the universities they - and even their spouses - attended, their grades and career choices. It's a rarefied world of people with postgraduate degrees and PhDs.
His two children are also in the medical field. Eugene, 40, is an engineer turned scientist, entrepreneur and inventor, and Elaine, 31, is a psychologist. Both are in the United States.
I wonder if non-scholars and more, you know, average-minded people figure in his world.
"I don't look at just scholars," he says. "I want to mould people, and when you join my organisation, I don't care. If you are good, you are good."
But he has high expectations of scholars because "we paid so much for your education, so the onus is on the scholars to work harder".
He believes intelligence has to do with both nature and nurture, but says hard work and effort can get you far. "The key is that if you are willing to work, you can do well, unless you fool around," he says.
"I think anybody with effort can do it. It's nothing to do with brightness, unless you're mentally handicapped or physically handicapped."
What about students who have been put into, say, the Normal stream, I ask.
"Normal-level people, they can continue to do the next O level. It's a matter of effort. Some people bloom later. My own view is that with sheer sweat, you can do it."
In fact, a few days after we meet, The Straits Times has a story about a Normal-stream student who is now studying medicine at the National University of Singapore.
He e-mails me the story with a pithy note: "Those who sweat it out, can rise up."
BECAUSE he has been involved in so many aspects of Singapore's economic development, I ask what he sees as the next big thing.
He believes science will continue to be very important as people search for cures for diseases, how to age better as lifespans increase, and grapple with technology, whether robots or electric cars.
"It's all science. I think science today is a pre-requisite. If anybody wants to be a political leader and he doesn't read, God help us, man."
Does his crystal ball see Singapore surviving into the next, say, 50 years?
"It depends on the leadership, if the leadership is supportive, encouraging. But if they say you must do it the Frank Sinatra way, then you have a problem." (I'm guessing he is referring to the Sinatra song, My Way.)
The Singapore economy, he notes, is now flat and coasting. "We're not growing at more than 3 per cent because we've got no more labour. But the trouble is not labour. It is what kind of labour you take and what kind of talent we have."
A country without natural resources must bank on developing talent. "A smart nation needs smart people. There's no such thing as smart nation, it's smart people. People make a nation, whether a scientist, a journalist, it's all people."
And if people like scientists are expected to do great work, they can't be micromanaged, tied down by bureaucracy or rushed for results, he believes.
"The trouble with science is you have to be patient but our people want instant results. But if you build a strong science capacity in Singapore, we are the best in Asia. Science is expensive in terms of human talent and money but, don't forget, if we achieve that level, who can beat you?"
He also thinks Singapore needs to "kidnap" talent. He points out that the country has fewer than 40,000 babies each year, which means the top 1 per cent of talent will number fewer than 400 people.
The key to supplementing the population is to attract smart, young people. "My way is, if I really want to nurture a Singaporean, whether it's from Vietnam, China or Malaysia, I will take them young, Sec 2, Sec 3. Then they grow up, they stay in dormitories, you are creating a new Singaporean. When you bring them as adults, their value system is different.
"But today, people say, why are you doing this, you have Singaporeans. So now we become like America - inward. We will suffer."
WHAT WE ATE
2 salmon bento sets
Green tea
Red bean soup
He adds: "We are not asking for foot massagers. We're looking for talent. You bring lots of foot massagers, I can understand, it's stupid, right? But I'm bringing in young people at 15. I mould them. So my scholars come back, bring their spouse, whether it's German or whatever, they bring the talent."
I ask what unfinished business he has at this stage of his life.
His aim is simple: to support a generation of young people to do well - and then leave it up to them to live their lives because the rest is up to them.
The $700,000 raised from his own incredible life story will certainly go a long way to changing young lives.
Twitter @STsumikotan
• Neither Civil Nor Servant: The Philip Yeo Story is available at bookshops at $37.45 (inclusive of GST).
Police arrest gang who pickpocket shoppers along Orchard Road
Shoppers at Orchard Road. TODAY file photo
Published23 DECEMBER, 2017
UPDATED 24 DECEMBER, 2017
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SINGAPORE — The police have arrested three women who allegedly worked as a team to pickpocket unsuspecting shoppers along Orchard Road.
The victims in the three separate cases of theft reported that items such as wallets and a mobile phone were stolen from their bags at malls along the shopping belt on Thursday (Dec 21).
The police identified and arrested the three suspects on Friday. TODAY understands that the three women are Filipinos.
Three mobile phones, an EZ-Link Card, one internet banking dongle and cash amounting to S$1,117.20 were recovered and seized as case exhibits.
The trio's modus operandi was to distract the victims before stealing their valuables, the police said in a statement on Saturday. They are also believed to be involved in several other cases of pickpocketing.
The three women will be charged in court on Saturday. If convicted, they may be jailed up to three years or fined, or both.
"The Police would like to remind members of the public to be vigilant of their surroundings and to safeguard their belongings in crowded places, especially during this festive season," the police said.
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Is Apple slowing down old iPhones? Questions and answers
SAN FRANCISCO (NYTIMES) - For years, some consumers have suspected Apple of a nefarious plot: The company, they said, was slowing down their older iPhones to get them to buy new ones.
Now, many of them feel vindicated.
In a statement on Wednesday (Dec 20), Apple said that it had released a "feature" that occasionally reduces processing power on older devices to prevent them from unexpectedly shutting down.
The reduction, Apple said, was necessary because older batteries could otherwise periodically overload. The statement came after reports on Reddit and Geekbench were picked up by technology news sites.
Some users saw the announcement as proof that the company had engaged in "planned obsolescence," a scheme to degrade the old devices to force users to upgrade.
Others felt betrayed. And still others were simply confused.
Here is a Q&A with Brian X. Chen, the lead consumer technology writer for The New York Times, about what the announcement really means.
Q: Can you translate? Is Apple saying that it intentionally slows down older iPhones as new ones are released?
A: What Apple is acknowledging is a power management technique in which the iPhone scales back processing power to keep the device running for longer when its battery health is low. Lithium ion batteries have a limited number of charge "cycles" before they can no longer be recharged properly. Apple's website says the battery loses about 20 per cent of its original capacity after 500 charge cycles.
In other words, if your iPhone is beginning to run out of battery capacity, these slowdowns might kick in to keep it running for longer or prevent it from shutting down unexpectedly.
Apple is not admitting to planned obsolescence. If Apple explicitly said that they injected code into older iPhones to slow them down because new ones came out, that would be admission. All it is admitting to now is trying to keep the old iPhones running for longer.
Q: Does this change your conclusion last month that this is not a conspiracy to force users to buy new phones?
A: The premise of my previous column was that the vast majority of slowdown problems are fixable without buying a new phone. That point stands, and now we have even more information supporting that premise: a battery replacement also helps.
Q: How many users does this affect?
A: Apple has said the power management technique works on iPhone 6, 6S, SE and 7.
Q: What else could be slowing the older phones down?
A: Often, a buggy operating system upgrade can cause glitches when running apps. Another common cause is having little available device storage. Smartphones rely on flash storage, which keeps data in the cells of semiconductor chips. When stored, that data is scattered across the drive. So when you call it up by opening an app or a document, you are retrieving it from multiple parts of the drive. If lots of space is occupied, the data gets crowded and the device may feel sluggish.
Q: Some users say that installing bigger batteries seems to fix the problem. Does that make sense? What else can users do to, short of buying new phones?
A: I would recommend paying a third-party repair shop to replace the aged battery with a fresh one. This will cost between US$20 and US$70, depending on where you live and which iPhone you own. Repair shops will probably recommend against installing a battery that has a larger capacity than the original, as there can be risks of damage.
The other solutions I wrote about in my last column included doing a clean install of the operating system and freeing up storage on the device. There is a scenario where you absolutely can't get around buying a new phone: App and game makers design their software to work better on newer, faster devices. So if you have an older smartphone and you want a brand-new game with heavy graphics to work as well as it possibly could, you'll want a new phone.
Q: Is this unusual? Do other smartphone makers - or, more broadly, electronics companies - do this, too?
A: I don't find the power management technique that surprising or unusual. You have probably noticed that when your smartphone (iPhone or Android) is running out of battery, like when there is less than 10 per cent, the device begins to run more slowly. That is partly to keep it running for longer.
Q: Could Apple have avoided this by, say, using a different type of battery?
A: We all dream about the day that the tech industry will adopt a longer-lasting, smarter battery than lithium ion. But battery technologies have to pass rigorous safety testing - if something goes wrong, they are miniature bombs. (You saw what happened with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7.) Lithium ion, though flawed, is still the safest and most easily reproducible battery technology on the market.
Q: Apple is known for its masterful marketing. Do you think it has handled this controversy well?
A: No, it could have avoided controversy by being more transparent to begin with. It could have notified people that a power management mode was kicking in to keep their iPhones running for longer because their batteries are running out of juice. That would also inform people that they should be getting their batteries replaced. Because Apple was not transparent, it's natural for people to suspect it of deliberately crippling their devices to get them to buy new ones.
This episode is a good reminder that even digital devices need maintenance. Many people believe that because gadgets lack moving parts, they should keep working as intended. But we still need to take care of them.
Last year, I wrote a column about maintaining our devices, which included tips like replacing aging batteries, freeing up storage and, in the case of desktop computers, removing the cover and blowing out dust.
Death of Annie Ee: Tragic case highlights conditions needed for sound court system
Ms Annie Ee, the young woman who was abused to death, drew a postscript for her tragedy as three parties came out to clarify the issues behind the court outcome for the offending couple.
The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) explained why it could not press murder charges, the Law Society stressed the critical role of defence counsel in safeguarding the due process of the law, while a "troubled" Law Minister urged the public not to put pressure on judges over their sentencing decisions.
Ms Ee, a 26-year-old waitress with intellectual disabilities, died after daily beatings by her flatmates.
The couple, Tan Hui Zhen, 33, and her husband Pua Hak Chuan, 38, who were initially charged with murder, pleaded guilty to various charges for the extensive torture of Ms Ee over eight months.
High Court Justice Hoo Sheau Peng sentenced Tan to 16½ years' jail, while Pua was given 14 years' jail and 14 strokes of the cane for their "extremely cruel and inhumane" abuse.
In pressing for a deterrent sentence, the prosecution said: "If appropriate punishment is not imposed, or if it is generally perceived as being proportionately inadequate, the wider community will be left with the sour taste of injustice and grievance."
Disquiet did, indeed, follow with more than 35,000 appearing to have joined an online petition seeking harsher punishments. Netizens even flamed the defence lawyers.
Clearly, the public was baying for blood. But - and this is the issue central to the legal aspects of this tragic case - emotion on the ground cannot be allowed to influence the proceedings in court.
People wanted the couple charged with homicide or murder. But the AGC explained that the prosecutor's duty was to only prefer charges supported by evidence. And evidence showed that while Ms Ee was beaten severely, she died of fat embolism - which would not normally result from her injuries. "(So) the offences of homicide and murder cannot be proved against them," said an AGC spokesman.
The Law Society drew attention to the ire directed at the pro bono, volunteer lawyers who represented the couple. Its president Gregory Vijayendran pointed out that it was the duty of criminal defence lawyers to give voice to their clients and to extenuating circumstances. "We should not shoot the messenger because we neither like the message nor the client he represents," he said.
And yet, it is also true that the public keeps making its voice heard, ever louder, on high-profile cases in Singapore.
In an opinion piece for The Straits Times in August, Senior Counsel Tan Cheng Han noted that in this highly wired city, "anyone in Singapore has the means to weigh in on a court case, and to have his or her comments widely amplified with the help of social media".
In that sense, it was refreshing to see the AGC go the extra mile to explain the decision to prosecute for grievous hurt.
The AGC said on its website: "We do understand that there may be a desire to understand in some detail our decisions in certain cases. As we have noted before, we may issue statements to explain our position in a specific case, and to address misconceptions that may arise... about the law and the legal process."
But the matter went beyond legal explanations. A line was probably crossed when an online petition tried to put pressure on judges to impose harsher sentences on the couple.
It was perhaps this that prompted Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam to step in and put things into perspective.
He said: "As a society, we have to try and avoid putting public pressure on judges to impose harsh/lenient sentences. We have a well-functioning court system. We must have the confidence that our judges will do the right thing."
Mr Shanmugam also reminded those fanning the flames to remember that, one day, they could find themselves on the other side of the divide. "Someone known to anyone of us could be charged for any offence at any point in time," he said.
The tragic case has brought many issues to the fore. It has invoked righteous anger among people.
But it has also served as a reminder that for the court system to stay sound, prosecutors must be allowed to frame charges as they see fit, defence lawyers must be given the freedom to speak up for their clients and the judge left alone to mete out appropriate sentences.
Chinese rooftopping star confirmed dead after fatal fall from skyscraper
Alice Shen
Chinese rooftopping star confirmed dead after fatal fall from skyscraper
A 26-year-old Chinese rooftopping enthusiast has been confirmed dead more than a month after the popular online star abruptly stopped posting videos on Weibo.
Police said Wu Yongning fell to his death from the 62-storey Huayuan Hua Centre, one of the tallest buildings in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, on November 8.
The rooftopping challenge had come with 100,000 yuan (US$15,000) in prize money, his family were quoted as saying by Xiaoxiang Morning Herald on Saturday. No details were given about who the sponsor was.
Wu, from Ningxiang in Hunan, worked as an extra in films before turning to a career in rooftopping. He began posting his daredevil exploits on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, in February. With more than a million followers, Wu regularly featured in advertisements on social media and live-streaming platforms.
His girlfriend, identified only by her surname Fu, called police on November 9 after he failed to return, The Beijing News reported on Monday.
Wu might have risked his life to take home the prize money, his step-uncle Feng Shengliang was quoted as saying.
"He planned to propose to his girlfriend [the day after the challenge]," Feng said. "He needed the money for the wedding, and for medical treatment for his ailing mother."
Wu was famous for scaling skyscrapers without any safety equipment, relying only on "martial arts training and careful planning", according to one of his posts on Weibo. He had shared nearly 300 videos of his adventures atop various buildings in China, the report said.
