At 5:40PM, on July 15, 2021, Douyin influencer Xiao Qiu Mei fell 160 feet to her death after climbing a crane.
Xiao was a very popular figure in the social media app Douyin, which is the Chinese version of Tiktok since Tiktok is banned in China. She would often go to construction sites and record videos of herself operating a tower crane, since she professionally worked as a heavy machinery crane operator. She would show her slim body by doing dance moves and operating the machinery for her 110,000 followers! But as several netizens warned her, making viral videos while working on the site is a gnarly risk, even for a professional.
Soon enough, the grim reaper knocked on her figurative door. She decided to record a livestream, and while doing so, she died.
In Quzhou City of the Zhejiang Province, Xiao decided to record another video for her stans and fans. While recording a livestream with her smartphone, she was attempting to step over something, but she miscalculated and stepped over air. The misstep caused her to fall thru the metal and down 160 feet, where she died upon the harsh landing. In the live stream, you can see the moment she begins falling, and you can hear her yelp as she falls and hits several metal railings. Nothing could stop her path nor fate. The lack of awareness or care for her own safety led to her death. The moment was also recorded on a surveillance video, as shown the CCTV recording.
the 23-year-old Zunyi (Guizhou) native was a mother who left behind two children, even tho her small body is questionable by social media viewers. Regardless, they are saddened by her death.
Strangely, her family insists that her phone was in her purse and that she was not recording at the time of her accident. Netizens disagree. Jiangshan government staff reported that their were no witnesses of the accident, and the lack of machinery security has concerned some netizens.
The investigation for the cause of the accident is still underway. Xiao Qiu Mei’s ashes have been sent to Guizhou, and once returned, were brought to the corner outside of her local home after her funeral.