A print screen of Ban Yalun's video

A video showing a Chinese young woman refuting people waving "Hong Kong independence" banners in Cologne, Germany went viral online.

The woman, Ban Yalun, used three languages and clear logic and evidences to hit back at protesters.

She was praised for her courage to stand up and point out Hong Kong rioters' wrongdoing.

Hitting back

Ban is from Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, which neighbors Hong Kong.

She told the Global Times on Friday that she has been living in a small town near Cologne, Germany for years.

On November 2, Ban was leaving for Cologne to shop and have dinner. At the train station, Ban found a group of people holding "Hong Kong independence" flags and showing materials with false messages about Hong Kong.

Ban could not stand the scene, and went up to refute the demonstrators. The scene was filmed and laer uploaded online. 

She said she was mad at the time, even though her boyfriend told her not to engage them. 

Screenshot of Ban Yalun (far right) arguing with the protesters

Ban did not rehearse anything, but had a lot to say and could not miss the opportunity. In the 18-minute-long video, Ban admonished riot sympathizers about their alleged target to "build a new Hong Kong." Ban asked immediately, "By how? By destroying the city? By setting fire in the metro stations? By stabbing police in the neck?"

"Why do you sabotage your city in a peaceful age?" she asked. "You destroy, you set fire and you blame all on China." 

Ban spoke fluent Chinese, English and German in the process of argument.

The protesters could not talk back, and could only respond by shouting and even insulting Ban.

On Sina Weibo, a hashtag related to Ban has garnered 97 million views with more than 6,600 comments as of press time. Many people praised Ban's courage and wisdom in the video.

"Her disposition, logic and language largely overtook those protesters. I am proud that our country has such a young person," a Sina Weibo user said.

"She was so patient. But it's a pity that you could never wake up those who pretend to be asleep," another said.

Disclosing truth

Facing provocations and insults, Ban said that she "was not afraid at all" during the debate.

According to her, those protesters asked her "Didn't the Communist Party of China also achieve its goals through violent revolution to gain power?" Ban responded by saying "Our revolution did not target the people!" and ended the "battle."

Ban said that when she left, she found that the protesters were also packing stuff and leaving. "Actually they had been ready to leave, but I went up to argue with them, and they had to stay in the cold wind."

City view of Cologne Photo: VCG

A long-time resident of Germany, Ban told the Global Times that German people are also concerned about the situation in Hong Kong, but most of them do not dig into the facts to see what is really happening, but only read what the Western media "feed" them.

If the media show the scene of Hong Kong police tear-gassing rioters, many Germans would sympathize the rioters. But when Ban shows them the violence and damage done by the rioters, the Germans change their minds quickly and disapprove the riots.

Ban graduated from primary school and secondary school in Shenzhen. She went to Germany for high school and afterward studied at Germany's RWTH Aachen University, according to Shenzhen Evening News.

Her father, Ban Weizhong, told the Shenzhen Evening News that Ban decided to speak English at the beginning of the video, because she wanted people outside China to hear the voice of Chinese people.

Newspaper headline: Trilingual Truth