Some people raise funds by schmoozing with bankers and investors. Others have to give up something more personal, like their pride or body parts.

A farmer begs for money in Beijing to feed his son after he said they fled the eastern province of Anhui due to flooding. [Reuters]

Early this month, in downtown Fuzhou, some 20 young men and women from a local college knelt down along a busy street to raise money for a classmate who was caught in a sudden twist of fate.

Lin, their classmate, is an honours student whose parents are poor farmers. Since being diagnosed with leukaemia a year earlier, she has been hospitalized 20 times, the cost of which left her family debt-ridden. After exhausting all means of seeking donations, her classmates decided to stage a morality play by appealing to the wider public.

The effort raised 7,600 yuan (US$918) before they were exhorted not to "make a scene".

Less altruistic but no less melodramatic are recent incidents of abasing oneself for financial returns for a variety of causes.

A jobless security guard in Guangzhou sold himself as a human punchbag. For three yuan (US$3.6) a punch, anyone could try out his well-developed muscles.

Zhou Ping, a 35-year-old man in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, shaved his head and sold the newly glabrous spot for advertising.

Then, there are the sporadic reports of hand-written posters in various cities that sell the extra kidney, eye or testicle. Some sellers said they lost all their money to thieves and could not find work in a tight labour market. Some had families in financial difficulties that desperately needed an injection of cash. Others simply wanted to leap out of poverty.

These incidents have elicited a gamut of public opinions ranging from heart-warming admiration to turn-up-the-nose disdain.

Selling one's dignity or body parts for money is the lowest of the low, said some commentators, not to mention it is illegal to sell body parts. Most of these people are not on the verge of starvation. They can climb out of poverty by getting honest jobs.

"In this day and age, almost everyone is seeking a fast buck. Some people have lost their reason or sense of honour when swamped by waves of materialism. It's shocking that money-making has corrupted their humanity to such an extent," said Peng Lianlian, a media commentator.

"We do not have a right to criticize those down on their knees for the life of someone else. The Chinese culture has always placed utmost weight on the moral value of symbolic gestures. The important thing is, these youngsters did not just pray for a miracle. They went out and did something, which may bring about some real improvement to the one they care for," said another commentator.

It's a clash of idealism and reality. "Nobody dares to assign a value to life, but in many cases life can indeed be measured in monetary terms. Sometimes money can mean life or death," wrote Feng Xuemei in China Youth Daily.

Feng went on to say that these fund-raising schemes are bound to lose efficacy when people get used to them.

As for the masochist youth who sells his body for punches, he needs directions to a regular job market.

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