Chinese community attacks Pumpkin's sister's motives

[wkllaw]

Little Pumpkin's half-sister Grace Xue has suffered a vicious backlash from Chinese community members who are accusing her of trying to cash in on her sibling's tragic plight.

Qian Xun Xue has yet to meet her half-sister but that hasn't stopped Ms Xue from establishing the "Little Pumpkin Trust" to ensure the 3-year-old becomes financially secure.

Ms Xue's comments last week that she might consider adopting Qian Xun and the announcement of the trust have prompted a fierce reaction from many Chinese, leaving the mother of one surprised and saddened.

Dozens of people have posted messages on internet chat sites that imply Ms Xue is only out to profit from Qian Xun and that she should back off and let the child be adopted by her grandmother, who has flown to New Zealand from China.

Some people have gone so far as to wish the 27-year-old Auckland woman dead, while others have placed a curse on her young son.

Ms Xue's spokesman, Tony Edmonds, said she was aware of the comments being made about her and had taken legal advice.

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"It's hurtful and the early legal advice is that it's defamatory."

Edmonds said many of the defamatory allegations being posted about Ms Xue seemed to be the result of cultural differences.

"She's philosophical more than upset, perhaps a little sad about it.

"Grace's advice to me is 'we are dealing with real cultural differences and that's what's behind it all'."

Mr Edmonds rebutted allegations that Ms Xue started the trust only to make money for herself.

It was set up so that could not happen, he said.


"She has consistently said she wants nothing from this other than to help her newly found sister. The financial administration of this now falls on six trustees. Grace is but one."

Meanwhile, a poll running on Skykiwi.com which asks readers who should take custody of Qian Xun strongly favours the little girl's grandmother Xiao Ping Liu over Ms Xue.

In an interview this week, Mrs Liu told Hong-Kong's Phoenix TV that she burst into tears when she saw security footage of her granddaughter at the Melbourne train station.

She said Qian Xun had spoken of her parents, saying: "Mummy is asleep now. She got up and then went to sleep again. Daddy left me at the train station. I don't know where he has gone."

Mrs Liu said her granddaughter grew anxious every time she left the room.

"She is worried that I just disappear at any moment and abandon her somewhere she didn't know."

At a farewell ceremony for Qian Xun's mother, An An Liu, this week Mrs Liu said, "I can't tell you how deep my sorrow is at this moment. My daughter died so young.

"I never got to come to New Zealand to visit her since she came. An An told me not long ago that she'd decided to take Qian Xun back to China. We could then reunite and go to see the 2008 Olympics. It's a promise now that could never be realised."

Qian Xun's Story

* Qian Xun Xue, whom police nicknamed Pumpkin, was left at a Melbourne train station two weeks ago by her father Nai Yin Xue, after he allegedly killed her mother An An Liu in Auckland.

* Nai Yin Xue's estranged daughter Grace came forward after seeing stories about her half-sister and said she would like to adopt her. She also established a trust for her.

* Qian Xun's grandmother Xiao Ping Liu has flown to New Zealand from China saying she wants to adopt the little girl. Grace said she wants the best for Qian Xun and might not attempt to adopt her.

Chinese community attacks Pumpkin's sister's motives - 29 Sep 2007 - The murder case involving abandoned Qian Xue, known as 'Pumpkin'

I remembered the story of the girl wandering in the train station being mentioned once on this board, the story seems to continue with the fate of the girl going to the grandmother, any opinions.

[Bigfella]

As a resident of Melbourne I can tell you this has been a very big story.

Last I heard Grace, the half-sister, had decided not to pursue custody, but wanted to establish some sort of relationship with Qian Xun.

I also heard that she wanted one or more prominent New Zealanders to manage the proposed trust, and had contacted Roger Douglas (a very well known former Treasurer) to do so. If this is the case then allegations that she is in it for the money would seem to be off the mark.

If I were New Zealand's Chinese community I would spend less time attacking the daughter of this bastard & more time asking themselves what they could have done to help his wife, who was quite clearly in an abusive marriage.

As for the bastard in question, I hope he gets to spend the rest of a LONG life rotting in jail. I want him to suffer.

[Parihaka]

Ditto, a long and unpleasurable stay in mt Eden will be just the ticket for him, and whatever the Chinese, Pakeha or for that matter Sudanese members of the community have to say, it's what the social workers say that counts.

Two most likely scenarios are: she returns with her grandmother to China, or her grandparents are offered citizenship here if they wish. Either way she retains her New Zealand passport.

[GeniusNZ]

An an did go to the Shakti Asian Women's Refuge - her husband just collected her from Wellington and took her back to kill her. I imagine those who did so much work to get her free felt they had saved her up until recently.

Also the Chinese community is not some monolith. There will always be those that don't like her and will run around saying it what ever you do - short of legal action I suppose. I guess they will butt heads with suporters on the forums, just like on all the fights on the political forums over politicians.

BTW I think she still wants custody, I believe what she meant was that she would not fight in court against the Authorities decision.

[Bigfella]

Pari,

Apparently the grandparents run a hotel in China. If so, they can afford to give Qian Xue a decent life, and will probably stay in China. As long as she gets to keep her NZ citizenship this would seem to be as good an outcome as we are likely to see.

It sounds like she may actually have seen the murder, so she will need a lot of love & a lot of counselling as she grows up. Just makes you want to cry.

Genius,

Didn't mean to smear the whole Chinese community, just those who are sniping. It reeked of blaming a victim to me, and suonded like some cheap shots. I realize that there were those who helped An, and they are to be commended.

[Parihaka]

Originally Posted by Bigfella

Pari,

Apparently the grandparents run a hotel in China. If so, they can afford to give Qian Xue a decent life, and will probably stay in China. As long as she gets to keep her NZ citizenship this would seem to be as good an outcome as we are likely to see.

It sounds like she may actually have seen the murder, so she will need a lot of love & a lot of counselling as she grows up. Just makes you want to cry.

.

Agreed, best outcome all round I'd say. As far as I'm aware Qian Xue has had no contact with her half-sister until now, but has had prior contact with her grandmother.

[Justin]

That's enough!

I'm not a forum person, but as a friend of Grace and Shane, I just could not stand the vicious attack on Grace anymore. I've known Shane since high school and Grace around 2000. I cannot read Chinese, but my wife has helped to translate many of the aggressive posts on skykiwi, and I could not believe how brutal and cruel some people are.

There are hundreds of posts about Grace, calling her nasty names for no obvious reasons, threats on her life and safety, curses placed on their family including their young son, someone even posted their home address and calling people to stone Grace to death and burn their house! ........ The posts are not in any discussion format, just purely personal assaults and most of the posts are about hooray to all the assulting posts. Some "polite" ones state that Grace wants to adopt Qian and treats her horribly as a stepmother because she is jealous of her little sister; Grace wants to adopt her little sister only because she can take all the trust money; Grace set up the trust so she can have a job; Grace has her eyes set on her father's properties; Grace has bought her father the ticket to fly to Los Angles; Grace’s university degree is fake; Grace is a liar because her father is a liar .... I'll be too ashamed to have most of the skykiwi posts here. I could not believe this is happening in our society.

I just want to let others know a few events that I do remember about Grace and Shane.

- Around 2000, the couple were both struggling through university, one late night after we left school, we came across a old lady at the intersection. The lady knocked on the window and asked for direct to a bus stop. It was Grace's car and she was driving, she stopped and offered to take the lady to the nearest bus stop. We then discovered that buses were all gone for the day, Grace asked where the lady needed to go, and she offered to take here there which is a suburb that's 20 kilometres away from the bus stop. I knew she never wasted any money and was very conservative about petrol cost and it was 10pm the night before the final exam. She took us to the car parks so we can drive home first and sent the lady home.

- Grace and Shane have never been greedy or selfish with their friends, around 2004, they bought $5000 worth of shares from their friend's start-up company. I didn’t believe the investment was worth while, and when we were talking about it, they said they weren’t 100% sure about the business neither, but their friend is in some financial trouble, they hoped it would take off and trusted their friend's ability and persistency.

They are one of the most caring couple I've ever known. They always bring something when they visit us and always tell us about any sales information they have on the items they know we would be interested in. Grace is a very intelligent woman, but I have never seen one occasion where she wanted to compromise her principal for money. She's very positive in life and has a bubbly personality. Shane has a very good job, and Grace quit her job and is working from home part-time now to look after their son. I don’t doubt that there would be stories they don’t tell me, but I just could never believe that their purpose for doing all of this is what the Chinese community are saying. I think all their friends would agree with me.

I hope some authorities would do something about those vicious people and the websites that are allowing it. They are destructing the peace we've always enjoyed in NZ.

[wkllaw]

It sounds awful what some people from the chinese community is thinking and saying, but I doubt they represent how the people generally feel. I personally see this whole thing as unncessary and the attention should be focused on the little girl's future and not what Grace is doing.

The little girl has enough to worry about without the media dragging this case further. I was honestly surprise the story continued when I checked up on the girl's situation. She's young right now and hopefully she can forget the whole incident. I was hoping to get some information on the case and I was dissapointed that the case turned to such a dirty corner.

[Parihaka]

Originally Posted by Justin

That's enough!

I'm not a forum person, but as a friend of Grace and Shane, I just could not stand the vicious attack on Grace anymore. I've known Shane since high school and Grace around 2000. I cannot read Chinese, but my wife has helped to translate many of the aggressive posts on skykiwi, and I could not believe how brutal and cruel some people are.

There are hundreds of posts about Grace, calling her nasty names for no obvious reasons, threats on her life and safety, curses placed on their family including their young son, someone even posted their home address and calling people to stone Grace to death and burn their house! ........ The posts are not in any discussion format, just purely personal assaults and most of the posts are about hooray to all the assulting posts. Some "polite" ones state that Grace wants to adopt Qian and treats her horribly as a stepmother because she is jealous of her little sister; Grace wants to adopt her little sister only because she can take all the trust money; Grace set up the trust so she can have a job; Grace has her eyes set on her father's properties; Grace has bought her father the ticket to fly to Los Angles; Grace’s university degree is fake; Grace is a liar because her father is a liar .... I'll be too ashamed to have most of the skykiwi posts here. I could not believe this is happening in our society.

I just want to let others know a few events that I do remember about Grace and Shane.

- Around 2000, the couple were both struggling through university, one late night after we left school, we came across a old lady at the intersection. The lady knocked on the window and asked for direct to a bus stop. It was Grace's car and she was driving, she stopped and offered to take the lady to the nearest bus stop. We then discovered that buses were all gone for the day, Grace asked where the lady needed to go, and she offered to take here there which is a suburb that's 20 kilometres away from the bus stop. I knew she never wasted any money and was very conservative about petrol cost and it was 10pm the night before the final exam. She took us to the car parks so we can drive home first and sent the lady home.

- Grace and Shane have never been greedy or selfish with their friends, around 2004, they bought $5000 worth of shares from their friend's start-up company. I didn’t believe the investment was worth while, and when we were talking about it, they said they weren’t 100% sure about the business neither, but their friend is in some financial trouble, they hoped it would take off and trusted their friend's ability and persistency.

They are one of the most caring couple I've ever known. They always bring something when they visit us and always tell us about any sales information they have on the items they know we would be interested in. Grace is a very intelligent woman, but I have never seen one occasion where she wanted to compromise her principal for money. She's very positive in life and has a bubbly personality. Shane has a very good job, and Grace quit her job and is working from home part-time now to look after their son. I don’t doubt that there would be stories they don’t tell me, but I just could never believe that their purpose for doing all of this is what the Chinese community are saying. I think all their friends would agree with me.

I hope some authorities would do something about those vicious people and the websites that are allowing it. They are destructing the peace we've always enjoyed in NZ.

Firstly Justin, welcome to the board, and I assure you, no one on this board is attacking Grace, her motivations, or her family. My only take on it is that the NZ social services will be good a deciding what is best for Qian Xun, and I'm sure either Grace and her family or Qian Xun's Grandparents would make excellent caregivers for her.

[Justin]

Originally Posted by Parihaka

Firstly Justin, welcome to the board, and I assure you, no one on this board is attacking Grace, her motivations, or her family. My only take on it is that the NZ social services will be good a deciding what is best for Qian Xun, and I'm sure either Grace and her family or Qian Xun's Grandparents would make excellent caregivers for her.

Thanks Parihaka. This is indeed a balanced discussion forum. Sorry to have made the post here, it should have be on skykiwi where it belongs(wish I could type Chinese). I agree with the last thread that the focus should be about Clare's future not Grace's motives and we all know that there're strict laws governing how the money can be spent. I'm sure Sir Roger Douglas is capable of guarding the trust fund from anyone with alternative motives.

I personally hope Clare would stay in NZ, as Grace is at the perfect age to be her mother and the best is to forget about the whole thing and get on with life. However, considering the way some people like to talk here, it might not be a good idea after all. I know Grace has her sister's best interest in heart, and the trust fund was set up to help other children in similar circumstances on both sides of the Tasman also. It is always sad to see our children in situations like this.

[GeniusNZ]

The story was a bit of a perfect storm. It has many factors that are good for selling news.

[Expat Canuck]

Poor little thing.... I hope she forges what she saw.