A sadder version of the rich selling off their used Gucci bags on Ebay, this time a former Chinese marathoner, Ai Dongmei (ËâæÂܨʢÖ) has no choice but to raise funds to survive, by putting all her medals for grabs, via EastSouthWestNorth blog (photo: the collection of all of Ai’s medals, via ESWN):
My lawsuit has not reached a resolution after several years. I have not gotten my back wages. My life is in desperate straits. In order to feed my family, I have decided to go into business. I don’t know what I can do, but I decided to sell clothing because I know something about that. I haven’t done anything else before, but I have sold clothing. There is a practical problem which is causing me a headache. That is money: money to rent a store, money to buy clothes, etc. I don’t know what to do. Where will I find that money? Earlier, my husband’s 300 RMB monthly pay was cut off by the Railroad Sports Association. Neither one of us are working and we have to raise the child and pay the rent.
So I thought about the prize medals. I trained in sports for so many years and these medals are all I have left. They were my spiritual support through my sporting life. If I did not reach this stage, I would not sell them. When I earn enough money, I hope to buy them back. I don’t know how much they are worth. But here are the photos. [Full Text]
– Ai Dongmei’s blog (Chinese) on Sina.com