Taiwanese entertainment and cultural news was rocked heading into this weekend with news that a beautiful and best-selling first time young author had committed suicide. 26 year old Lin Yi Han hanged herself in her bedroom and was discovered by her husband of two years. Her debut novel Fang Si Chi’s First Love Paradise was just published in February of this year and immediately shot up the best selling charts, currently in its 5th printing. Lin Yi Han was well known even before publishing her novel, coming from a prominent doctor family with her father and brother both physicians, and she scoring perfect on the college entrance exam and getting into Taiwan University’s medical program.
But she dropped out in two weeks and re-enrolled in college as a literature major but leaving in her junior year. Lin Yi Han wrote her debut novel while prepping her for wedding, explaining that she was wracked with pain and depression and had a story she needed to tell. Her parents have gone on record after she passed to say that the debut novel’s 13 year old female student protagonist was in fact Lin Yi Han herself and the story of how she was groomed and sexually abused by a teacher which lead to her mental illness and finally suicide. Everyone, suicide is never the answer so please seek help if ever there are such thoughts. For Lin Yi Han, her intelligence and talent was indisputable and her debut novel garnered raves for her writing and raw emotion, but sadly it was at the expense of her suffering such an awful trauma.
Lin Yi Han’s novel bio reads:
“Out of all my identities, I am most accustomed to my role as a mental illness patient. My dream is to write novels, and like what Kenzaburō Ōe said, advance myself from a mere reader of books, to a person of culture, to an intellectual.”
Her story is why teacher-student romances is inherently problematic for me even when dramas or movies try to explain the inappropriateness away by using specific sets of facts that make that particular relationship less wrong. But for every happy ending student-teacher romance, and right now in the news French presidential candidate Emanuel Macron comes to mind, there are many more like Lin Yi Han where the student ends up emotionally manipulated and traumatized. Lin Yi Han’s story as told in her debut novel is about a young teen girl who is so systematically fed charming words and made to believe that she’s old enough to consent to sex with an adult male because it’s true love and special and unique to her. I feel so bad for the loss of this beautiful writing talent and I hope she is finally at peace.
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This is so sad to read.
Thanks for sharing.
ah awful,awful.some teachers can be so bad.what a waste of young life.praying for her to rest in perfect peace and the teacher get his deserve punishment.
I'm loss for words... she was so beautiful. to us suicide may sounds extreme but to this girl, it's probably the only answer to end the suffering.
I am at loss of word, I hope she can find her peace now.
I too was groomed and sexually abused by my teacher at 14yrs. He is a cripple in a wheelchair but he is very strong. I am still suffering from PTS and affected my marriage very badly. I understand her pain...I wish I could help her. I am in my 40s now and found a way to move on and live as normally as others. Not easy but definitely possible.
I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad that you finally moved on. I hope others in similar situation will find helps too!
May she rest in peace. Her life story is such a sad thing to read. Adults who groom and sexually abuse children, whether pre-pubescent or adolescent, in facilities that were supposed to be safe environments for learning and growing are the worst excuse of human beings. They knowingly abuse their authority and exert their emotional power on CHILDREN. Children that young are not able to sexually consent, their brains haven’t even fully developed to handle those feelings and these ’’reliable’’ adults in their lives use that to their advantage. Not everyone are able to overcome traumas. It’s extremely rare that teacher-student relationships end up like Macron’s. Thank you for posting this story Koala.
I hope the family press charges on the teacher. He ruined such a talented and girl and a precious life.
The family knew of the culprit since the incident and did not press charges or has the teacher been convicted years ago when this happened? The family is said to prominent and wealthy so did not do anything until this unfortunate death??
They did tried but was stopped, I think the bad guy threatened them and also they have to think about their daughter's future, she can be accused of being a third party in his marriage, will be charged by law (ridiculous i know)....
The disgusting teacher's family background (his wife), apparently have money and power too. Really disgusted with his wife, if she knew about it and do nothing.
Very sad story. May she finally rest in peace.
I'm not sure you can compare this teacher student relationship to Macron's. Each relationship is different. From your description, this little girl was groomed at a very young age and the teacher sounded like he had previous experience preying on the young and vulnerable.
What I would like to know more is was she on treatment for depression when the suicide happened. Did she try to take her own life before?
People have been explaining away abuse of boys in this fashion for years by saying that they are less damaged by it. I don't care about Macron and his wife either way but there's no denying that there's something seriously wrong with a woman (or man) who encourages sexual advances from adolescents.
There is no indication Macron was abused by his then teacher and now wife. This is your interpretation.
Never said Macron was abused, try reading my comment again
Your comment clearly talks about abuse of boys, any abuse is wrong, boy or girl. The abuser may not necessarily be a teacher. They can be any figure of trust or authority. We don't know the full story of Macron. They haven't released all details so can't make full judgement. If you read the teacher's side of the story, she was a lonely wife. Of course having an affair with an underage was wrong but that was in the past. They are now married. I'm surprised she wasn't imprisoned for the offence.
bout the Macron issue, I am completely fine with their student-teacher romance, but one thing that I am not quite okay with is they started the relationship while the wife was still married to somebody else.
I am still quite conservative, so I am still a bit of uncomfortable to accept the fact that it's okay to pursue someone who has been married.
or let yourself pursuing someone else or be pursued while still being married