Model's murder raises questions in China

[Ochi Chernye]

I didn't see this posted...

Model's murder raises questions in China
Chinese police embarrassed by slaying, modeling industry criticized

Diana O'Brien of Canada went to China hoping to model. Instead, she was asked to dance at bars. After two weeks, she wanted to go home. Before she could, she was killed.

by Cara Anna

SHANGHAI, China - In the two short weeks the 22-year-old Canadian model was in Shanghai, China, she found only disappointment, and then a violent death during a robbery.The seemingly random murder so soon before the Olympic Games has shocked a city that prides itself as China's most modern. It also raised questions about a freewheeling fashion scene that lures growing numbers of young foreigners — who find some job requests require no posing for the camera.
Days after Diana O'Brien's body was discovered, police in Shanghai said Friday they had arrested 18-year-old Chen Jun. Police said Chen confessed to following her into her high-rise apartment, robbing her and killing her when she tried to fight him off.
The slaying embarrassed police, who waited two days after O'Brien's body was found to release a statement — a brief two sentences — about her death.The murder was a blunt ending to O'Brien's unhappy stay in China, where her modeling dreams met the reality of Shanghai's often unregulated industry. The same city that hosted Salvatore Ferragamo's 80-year retrospective this spring also has foreign models, some just teenagers, dancing in bars and promoting alcohol.
The details of O'Brien's death remain unclear. The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto reported she was stabbed and found in a pool of blood in a stairwell, with a trail of blood leading from her apartment.
Suspect allegedly found with belongings
Her body may have gone unnoticed for hours. The police report said Chen entered her apartment Sunday night and that the first emergency call did not come until about 5:30 a.m. Monday.
Chen was found Friday with a laptop and other items from the apartment, police said.
O'Brien, who came from a small community outside Vancouver and was described by friends as outgoing, had been homesick and uncomfortable with her work in Shanghai.
"There were few modeling jobs. 'Why don't you be a hostess?' as they put it," said Barry Kazakoff, a friend in her hometown of 10,000, Salt Spring Island. He said O'Brien planned to cut short her three-month contract and return home early but was waiting to do one last modeling job.
The little-known Shanghai-based modeling agency that brought O'Brien to China and arranged her housing and security, JH Model Management, has disappeared. Its Web site was taken down Tuesday, and a young man at its listed address, an apartment, said he didn't know of the agency or O'Brien's case.
Wang Jiwei, an official in the news department of Shanghai's Public Security Bureau, declined to answer questions Friday. Canada's foreign affairs department did not immediately respond to a telephone request for information. Her father, reached by phone in Canada, also declined to comment.
'A free spirit, but not a risk-taker'
O'Brien, who had been modeling for three years, almost didn't go to China because she was worried about losing her boyfriend — but her recent modeling work in Milan, Italy, motivated her to go, Kazakoff said.
"She was a free spirit, but not a risk-taker," he said. "She wanted to see the world, and the way to do that was to step out of her comfort zone and be a model."
O'Brien was expecting runway work but quickly faced requests to dance at bars to attract customers and work corporate parties.
"She had talked about it not being what she wanted to be doing — she doesn't drink, and it didn't really fit into her profile" said longtime boyfriend 32-year-old Joel Barry, speaking from his home in Salt Spring Island.
"She wanted to come home. We're in the summer here and we're on a dock on the lake and there's a lot of love between us and I guess China is just smoggy all the time. ... She was extremely homesick."
O'Brien's modeling agency in Victoria, Canada, released a statement denying she had been asked to dance in bars.
"She often said it was a dream come true for her and wanted to travel the world with her career," the Barbara Coultish agency said. "She told us that she was happy in Shanghai and enjoyed the agency, the city and her roommates."
Others in Shanghai's modeling world said they thought the murder wasn't connected to O'Brien's work, but they worried about the risks to aspiring models drawn to the city's growing fashion scene.
Little oversight of modeling industry
"So many agencies send girls here without really knowing," said Marion Dorel, a former model from France who spent 13 years in the business in China. "Be careful, clients can ask for weird things — to sleep with them, to sleep with their clients, to go to karaoke. Of course you can say 'no,' but it's not a nice situation."
One Shanghai casting call asked for models to strip to their underwear and jump on a trampoline while being filmed, said Jeremy Stockton Johnson, a fashion photographer who said he also has been asked if models are available to strip at parties.
Worse cases include agencies that take away a model's passport or withhold payment until the end of a contract.
"You could run a modeling agency out of your apartment with a cell phone," Johnson said.
The city's Agent Committee, under the Administration of Industry and Commerce, said more than 1,800 "entertainment agents," including modeling agents, have passed a test to be qualified. But there's no further oversight, people in the industry said.
"So far, the problem with China's modeling industry is that there's no strict regulation," said Wang Yiqun, a professor of modeling at Donghua University in Shanghai.
But models and agencies say the local industry is quickly leaving its past behind.
Where backpackers and English teachers made up a large number of the modeling gigs even a half-decade ago, about 70 foreign models are now contracted to local agencies. The foreigners bring in about one-tenth of the estimated $14.6 million the local industry makes a year, according to Johnny Zheng, the director of Esee Model Management, one of Shanghai's largest agencies.
O'Brien's death has motivated some in the industry to take security more seriously. A few hours after Friday's arrest, Sarah Feng, owner of TiModels, sent a text: "We're hiring a pro trainer to design and teach a self-defense workshop for all of our models as part of the response to the tragic event."

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25642790/?GT1=43001

 

[kala_dev]

truly saddening !!
seems most people in the fashion industry in china still doesnt know about this incident !!

 

[bluedolphin]

sad!

 

[angel222]

A few weeks earlier in Shanghai a crazy guy went into a police station and killed 6 policeman with a knife. If a group of police can get killed this girl didn't stand a chance. Shanghai isn't a top model destination and yes it involves models doing shows in late night discos, and shows.

 

[yellow-submarine]

O'Brien was expecting runway work but quickly faced requests to dance at bars to attract customers and work corporate parties.

I have no idea why, but using foreigners as a way to sell items in China usually results in good business profits. Agencies should be more careful about what they are really sending their models to do overseas. My condolences go out to her family.

 

[lollicandy]

Frightening! I'm considering going to China for an extended period as well, and this isn't making me feel very confident about my safety if I'm to live alone. I feel horrible for her family.

 

[Artemis]

^China, like anywhere, has it's dangers, but don't let that hinder you.

This is really sad and horrible. My deepest condolences to her family.

 

[Fontenrose]

canada.com

Model Charlotte Wood talks about the Shanghai murder of her friend Diana O'Brien, the young woman from Saltspring Island killed while working as a model in China.

Friend's murder haunts model

Memory of finding body of Diana O'Brien in Shanghai still painful for her ex-roommate


Published: Thursday, August 28, 2008
VICTORIA I Charlotte Wood faced a barrage of interrogation from Chinese police after her roommate, Saltspring Island model Diana O'Brien, was killed in Shanghai in early July.
But of all the questions Wood faced, there was one issue Chinese investigators just wouldn't let go: They couldn't understand why she would walk up six flights of stairs to her apartment instead of taking the elevator. And they kept returning to the subject, Wood said.
"I did it just to get some exercise," Wood said. But "they were surprised that I was walking up the stairs.


"They just thought it was weird. Chinese don't really do that."
The 21-year-old model, who is now living in her mother's Metchosin home after a three-month modelling contract in Shanghai, discovered O'Brien's body on July 6 in the stairwell of the apartment building in which the two were living.
Chinese police arrested and charged an 18-year-old migrant worker with murder in O'Brien's death. Chinese television has also broadcast an interview with the accused, in which he confessed to stabbing the 22-year-old model during a bungled robbery.
Wood said the memory of coming upon O'Brien's body lying in the stairwell is still painful. Initially, she didn't even realize who it was, because of the hair covering the face.
"Although, I kind of knew [who it was] because I couldn't find her anywhere," Wood said.
Wood met O'Brien in passing before leaving Victoria. But over the two weeks they shared lodgings in Shanghai they became quite close, Wood said, hanging out, going out at night and shopping.
She said following O'Brien's death, the next few days were a blur of questions and interviews. And Wood said when she spoke with her mother on the telephone, she was told it was chaos back home.
So she decided to stay and signed on with another model agency, a busier one than she worked for initially, and plunged into work. It kept her focused on something other than her roommate's death, Wood said.
It also meant Wood could later leave China behind with memories of working and coping instead of a homeward flight after a friend's horrible death.
And, perhaps strangely considering what happened there, Wood said she enjoyed Shanghai. "The people were so good and I always felt safe there."
After her contract ended, Wood opted to return to Vancouver Island. Upon her return, her mind strayed to what happened to O'Brien and she is now working to deal with the resulting emotions. "As soon as I got back here, it just hit me so hard," she said.
But she still likes the idea of modelling as a career. "I have always dreamed of travelling and modelling, but I never thought it would actually happen."

So she felt safe in China overall. I wonder which agency she went to.

 

[silk skin paws]

What a terrible and unfortunate story.

 

[pealike]

A few weeks earlier in Shanghai a crazy guy went into a police station and killed 6 policeman with a knife. If a group of police can get killed this girl didn't stand a chance. Shanghai isn't a top model destination and yes it involves models doing shows in late night discos, and shows.

I think you get that wrong, those killed people weren't policeman, they were working for the traffic communication department. It is totally their faults, people in China actually don't pity the deads. Policeman are very self-righteous in China, and they think they can do whatever they want to poor people.

It was them, who arrested the murderer for apparently no reason but bad attitude. He appealed to the court, but obviously the justice was not given to him. So, he brought a knife to kill 6 pple.

 

[Petit Lucille]

"so"? injustice doesn't give anybody the right to kill!

 

[Fontenrose]

This issue of injustice speaks to the question of whether the accused was guilty. It can be very tempting for police to 'solve' a crime quickly and take the pressure off.

a comment made to the CBC article (based on a 45 min. interview) that is underneath was interesting. No idea if this comment is true.

Actually this was a really informative article and probably does exactly what the propaganda machine wants... to distract the public from the fact that there are too many things that did not add up, including why the law enforcement agencies in Shanghai took so long to say anything. Could it be they had to take care of their own or at least find a way to save face because the crime was out of their hands?

Currently attributed to having come from the foreign affairs offices here in Shanghai, is a story that makes sense to many long-term expatriates here in China that have a better view of how some things work here:

It seems Miss O'Brien was assigned to some unseemly clubs and gigs, one of which was at a KTV Nightclub owned by certain well-connected military people. She may have inadvertently caused someone important to lose face and so someone went out to teach her a lesson. Instead, she ended up dead. The crime scene was then addressed and the civilian police took over from there. The actual culprit was handled through military means (aka. summarily executed as the military everywhere does not take too kindly to these kinds of mistakes) but then the civilian law enforcement agencies had to figure out a PR move to save face and minimize bad press before the Olympics.

They found a willing participant in a migrant worker already in trouble with the law, to confess to the crime in return for his family being taken care of. Case solved both in reality and in the media.

Believe it or not. Its up to you.

cbcnews.ca

O'Brien, left, and Wood, second from left, enjoy a meal with some friends in Shanghai. (Courtesy of Charlotte Wood)

B.C. model's roommate still haunted by Shanghai slaying

CBCNews.ca Monday, August 25, 2008

The roommate of a Salt Spring Island model who was murdered in Shanghai, China, says the experience still keeps her awake at night.
Charlotte Wood, 21, was the first to find the body of Diana O'Brien in their building's stairwell on July 6.
Earlier that Sunday evening, O'Brien had returned from a modelling job to the apartment the two shared.
The two had a bite to eat together, and then Wood went out with friends while O'Brien stayed home to rest.
Hours later, Wood came home to find a woman's stabbed body in their apartment stairwell. She immediately ran upstairs to get O'Brien.
"I didn't make it in. I just saw stuff happened in my apartment," Wood told CBC News on Monday in an exclusive interview at her mother's home in Metchosin, a suburb of Victoria on southern Vancouver Island.


The furniture in the apartment was overturned, and there was blood on the floor. It was O'Brien who had been killed.
Wood was questioned for hours by Chinese police. When they let her back into the apartment a week later, it was still a grisly crime scene.
"I tried not to look at Diana's room because it was the worst," Wood said. "I went in there. It was a blur. I just grabbed my things … It was too emotional being in there. It wasn't the same apartment."
Less than a week later, police arrested Chen Jun, 18, who had recently been working in a nearby coffee shop, and charged him with murder.
He allegedly confessed to entering O'Brien's apartment to rob her, saying he stabbed her when she tried to hit him and run away.
Critics have suggested the swift arrest and the man's inconsistent confession make his arrest look more like a public relations move before the Beijing Olympics rather than real police work, but Wood disagrees.
"They showed me tapes of the guy entering the building, riding his bike around, leaving with my stuff," she said. "They found all my stuff with him. So, I don't know. I don't know how they could have planted something on a random guy."


Modelling agency shut down


Victoria's Barbara Coultish modelling agency contracted Wood and O'Brien to JH Models in Shanghai, a new, small agency, which immediately shut down after the slaying.


The agency only had three models at the time of the killing: Wood, O'Brien, and a man. Wood said the agency asked her and O'Brien to do some strange jobs like dancing on stage to promote a new brand of liquor.
"We both didn't want to do it," Wood said. "We did it twice. We were both like, 'We don't want to do this anymore'."
O'Brien was disappointed with the work and missed her boyfriend and wanted to return home, Wood said.
After the killing and the investigation, Wood stayed and picked up work with another agency.
But now that Wood herself has returned home to British Columbia, she says she is still struggling with the reality it could have been her home alone in the apartment that night. The unthinkable tragedy is only starting to hit home now, she said.
"It's just hard," Wood said. "It's just weird being home and finally dealing with everything."

 

[Fontenrose]

The lower levels of modeling can be quite risky. This girl (the roommate from the same little Canadian agency) has a modelmayhem account under her own name (this site is to link up 'models' with 'photographers', where any girl is a model and any person with a camera is a photographer).

There she also names the Chinese agency she went to after the murder. She is certainly not turned off modeling.

Apart from modeling I can also act, and would be interested in any acting jobs. I just got back from China, I was there working with Baystar Model management on a three month contract.
Contact me if interested, thanks!

You better make sure your agency has good contacts if you are going overseas.