The Chinese ambassador to Thailand, Lyu Jian, on Monday presented certificates of honour to 13 students of Wat Suthiwararam School, who had used their Chinese language skills to stop a Chinese man from committing suicide by jumping from Taksin Bridge in Bangkok last month, the Thai News Agency reported via Twitter.
The Mathayom 6 youngsters, led by the school’s student president, Chayutpong Duangkaew, had been performing music on a street near the bridge during the evening of December 17 to raise funds for organising the “Suthi Music Awards 2018” event, due to be held on December 24.
They noticed that a man had made three unusually large donations: the first was 1,000 yuan (about Bt5,000) in cash, the second was a further 600 yuan, and the last was his Apple iPhone 8 for the students to turn into cash to sponsor their cause.
The students felt something was wrong and tried to give back the cash, but the man refused so they tried to speak in Chinese to him to find out what had caused him to want to give so much away.
He told them that he wanted to end his life in Thailand, just like his grandfather and his father, whom he said had both died here.
Having no one left, the Chinese man said he wished to rejoin his deceased relatives in the afterlife. As the man was about to commit suicide by jumping into the Chao Phraya from the bridge, the students held on to him and tried to talk him out of it until police came and took him away.
After the rescue, Chayutpong told reporters that he and friends had tried to help the man because they wanted him to live and regain control of his life, so they were glad to have helped save him by using the language skills they had learned.
