Shocking video of the fatal plunge by a Chinese daredevil who filmed himself scaling skyscrapers for social media emerged last week, with police on Friday confirming his death occurred last month.
Yongning Wu, 26, attracted about 50,000 followers on Weibo, where he posted clips of himself performing incredibly risky stunts on some of China’s landmark high-rise buildings without protection, calling himself China’s “first high-altitude challenger.”
According to mainland news reports, Wu filmed his final stunt on Nov. 8 when he fell from near the top of the 263 meter-tall Huayuan International Centre building in Changsha city.
Footage of the fall emerged in Chinese media last week and has been posted to YouTube (WARNING some viewers might find content disturbing).
It shows Wu hang from the edge and perform two pull ups before appearing to struggle about 30 seconds into the stunt. After unsuccessfully trying to pull himself up, Wu loses his grip and falls out of frame and to his death.
Police confirmed to the Beijing Youth Daily on Friday that Wu landed on another building and died.
According to information from police cited in other reports, he died from the fall when he landed on a terrace 15 metres below the ledge.
His step-uncle, Feng Shengliang, told the South China Morning Post: “He planned to propose to his girlfriend. He needed the money for the wedding, and for medical treatment for his ailing mother.”
According to reports, Wu was an actor with some martial arts experience who began doing rooftop stunts for social media about nine months ago, exploits that earned him cash.
He reportedly told his girlfriend two days before his death that he stood to earn RMB100,000 (US$15,000) for climbing the 62-story building from a company whose name was not mentioned in the reports.
Wu has also earned RMB55,000 (US$8300) by posting 301 clips and live streaming 217 to huoshan.com, an online community for video sharing, which allows viewers to “reward” people who submit clips with payments.
Wu presented himself as unperturbed by the risks of his stunts, once responding “hehe” to one of dozens of netizens who expressed concern for his safety.
“I’m the most relentless [high-altitude challenger] in China, because I do it everyday. I’m playing with my life,” Wu once told reporters when alive, as quoted by The Beijing News.
“It might look like I’m seeking for death sometimes, but I know what I am doing. I’ll give up when it gets too dangerous,” he added.
Comments by his former climbing partner, Hu Tong, however suggested Wu was not as in control as he made out.
Tong told Hongxing News that he had twice had to rescue Wu when he got into trouble.
Tong said he stopped performing with Wu months before the accident, saying he was concerned about the possibility of an accident.
“What could I say to his family if anything happened?,” he said, discussing his thinking at the time.
Following the incident, some netizens took aim at the video-sharing and live-streaming apps for failing to regulate clips of people engaging in dangerous activities.
In response, video-sharing services Meipai, Kuaishou and huoshan.com told ThePaper.cn that they would modify and improve their regulations.
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