In 2011, China's online environment was rapidly evolving, and video and image social platforms were emerging. In this context, a post-90s woman named Guo Meimei became popular on the Internet.
She has a sweet appearance and flamboyant demeanor, and often talks about the extravagant life in her videos, showing netizens brand-name bags, luxury cars and high-end restaurants, showing a level of consumption that is difficult for ordinary people to achieve.
Guo Meimei's style attracted a lot of attention at the time, and her fans grew rapidly. When facing the camera, she always acts very excited and conceited, often talking about the "bitter tears" of easily blowing up hundreds of thousands of credit cards when shopping.
Because of this, Guo Meimei rose quickly and became one of the top Internet celebrity bloggers on the Internet celebrity list that year. Although her lifestyle was questioned, the online environment was not perfect at that time, and this post-90s female Internet celebrity was once all the rage.
Just when Guo Meimei was hyping herself and attracting attention, the outflow of news made her popularity temporarily stagnate. It turned out that netizens found that the title of this Internet celebrity turned out to be "General Manager of the Red Cross" through various diggings.
It immediately caused an uproar.
The Red Cross quickly clarified through official channels that Guo Meimei was not its employee, but the move did not quell the doubts of netizens, but instead caused greater dissatisfaction.
People began to question Guo Meimei's true background, eager to understand how this post-90s girl had huge wealth and lived an unreserved and extravagant life.
Under pressure, Guo Meimei's mother had to come forward to make a statement. She tearfully said that the reason why Guo Meimei was able to live a wealthy life was because her biological father was a wealthy man named Wang Jun who had been supporting his daughter's life.
However, netizens soon debunked the truth about Wang Jun's family members and found that the remarks of the mother and daughter were purely out of nowhere. In the end, under the strong pressure of public opinion, the lies of the mother and daughter were revealed.
And Mr. Wang Jun, who funded Guo Meimei at the beginning, never showed up again.
While those lies were exposed, netizens gradually understood that Guo Meimei was not born in a wealthy family, on the contrary, her parents had illegal records, and she lived in poverty since she was a child.
Guo Meimei's father was an alcoholic, often beating her and his wife, and was eventually imprisoned for defrauding others. Although Guo Meimei's mother is very beautiful, because she does not have much education, she can only work in a sauna to make ends meet.
In such an environment, Guo Meimei has always longed to escape poverty since she was a child. This desire has led her to develop a character that is extremely fond of vanity but lacks a sense of justice.
At the age of 16, Guo Meimei chose to drop out of school and no longer continue to study. She spends her days hanging out outside the school, hanging out with some unemployed vagrants and thugs. This exposed her to more negative values, believing that if you want to get ahead in this world, you have to fight for it, not make money through your own labor.
She has always dreamed of becoming an enviable star or a rich woman, eager to become rich overnight.
Guo Meimei began to go astray, she stopped thinking about the future, indulged in online social networking and satisfying vanity, in order to make more money and attract attention, she created rumors and hype on the Internet, and embarked on an improper path.
This eventually led to her gradually descending into a series of scandals and crimes.
When Guo Meimei was 18 years old, her situation changed dramatically. At that time, she met a wealthy man named Mr. Wang at a party. Mr. Wang was attracted by her beauty and offered to sponsor her life and study.
Guo Meimei gladly accepted this matter, and since then, Mr. Wang has become her "godfather".
With Mr. Wang's increasing financial support, Guo Meimei lived a luxurious life. She buys designer cosmetics and clothes, lives in the most exclusive apartments, and drives around in a sports car.
You can display luxury goods on the Internet without any constraints. But this caused dissatisfaction among many netizens, who questioned where the money of the post-90s generation came from.
In the face of doubts, Ms. Guo's mother immediately lied that she was Mr. Wang's daughter, a move that sparked a wave of discussion on the Internet. Later, some netizens revealed the identities of Mr. Wang's family members, proving that it was Guo Meimei's mother lying.
Eventually, under the pressure of public opinion, the mother and daughter duo had to admit that they were lying. This made Guo Meimei the first scandal to spark public outrage. And Mr. Wang, the rich man who once supported her, has not been heard from since.
In 2015, Guo Meimei was sentenced to five years in prison for opening a casino. Originally, it was an opportunity for her to reflect on her actions and get back on track.
However, after Guo Meimei was released from prison in 2019, she did not choose the right path. She immediately cried online about how miserable her experience was, claiming to have repented, like a saint.
Guo Meimei quickly found a rich second-generation boyfriend, and then began to sell goods online and became self-reliant.
However, in 2021, Guo Meimei was arrested and imprisoned again for being involved in a food safety scandal, this time for more than two years of serious crimes.
So far, she has been imprisoned twice for her violations.
Guo Meimei has never been able to correctly recognize her mistakes in her repeated life, and she has not truly repented. She continues to go her own way, regardless of the consequences, and will eventually suffer another tragedy.
She let go of this opportunity so easily, and I don't know if she'll ever turn back.
Guo Meimei's repeated life trajectory makes us sigh that this is the sorrow of a fallen woman.
Guo Meimei was born in a troubled family, and the family environment has a huge influence on the growth of children. Due to her parents' illegal behavior and constant domestic violence, it was difficult for her to develop correct values and cognitive abilities as she grew up.
Her values have been skewed, and she is overly interested in money and status.
Driven by this, Guo Meimei finally embarked on a wrong path. She constantly broke the law, going in and out of prison again and again. Although she claims to want to change, in reality her inner values have not changed and she still longs for a life of vanity.
The tragic root of Guo Meimei's life is that she has never been able to understand herself correctly, nor has she truly repented. Her repeated behavior is a portrayal of the helpless and sad woman who struggles in the mire of mistakes.
We cannot be too harsh on her sentence, because in many ways it can be the helplessness of fate.
Guo Meimei's life trajectory is tortuous and circuitous, and the path she chooses is suffocating. However, when it comes to moral and legal matters, history will surely give a fair judgment.
We should not just condemn one person's crimes, but dig deeper into the deeper causes. The reason why Guo Meimei went astray is that family and native environment are obviously an important influencing factor.
At the same time, in this era of unusually huge influence of Internet celebrities, it has also deepened her delusions and arrogance.
Therefore, we need to reflect not only on the lack of personal morality, but also on the great impact of this era on young people, and the importance of family in a person's upbringing.
Only by addressing these problems at their root can we avoid a recurrence of the tragedy.
The law will inevitably sanction violations, but we should also have compassion and respect for the dignity of life. This is a truly just and tolerant society.
So, history will give itself a conclusion. What we can do is to maintain good intentions and reflect on the factors of the times to prevent the tragedy from happening again. This is the attitude we should have.