The grieving family of Zhi Song are stunned by their son's violent death. Now they just want to take him home, they tell Kitty Holland
Zhi Song called his mother, Zhang Chun Siang, in China last week, as he did every week. "He said he was going to come home for good, in maybe August. He told me he was missing me a lot and wanted to come home," says Zhang Chun.
Sitting in the cramped back bedroom of the B&B on Dublin's South Circular road, where she, her husband Ji Dong, and her brother and sister-in-law have been staying since they arrived in Ireland last weekend, Zhang Chun hardly makes eye contact.
Staring ahead, looking occasionally to her son's friend, Tracy Zhou, who is interpreting for us, she tells how her only child had been in Dublin since June 2000. He had left his home in Dalian - a thriving port city on the Yellow Sea in northeastern China - to come here and study English.
"Ireland is very popular because people say it is the best place to learn English. His second language was English and he had a great interest to come here to learn it better."
Early last Wednesday morning, Zhi was fatally stabbed at the house he shared with five other Chinese nationals, on nearby Reuben Avenue in Rialto.
His parents had saved almost since Zhi was born to send him to college. His father, formerly a sailor, is now retired, while his mother describes herself as a "normal worker". Both look to be in their early 50s.
"He was very intelligent, hard-working, always a leader," says Zhang Chun. "In middle school he was a monitor [class president]. He liked to help people and a very happy boy, liked meeting people and not shy.
"We hoped he would go to study music. He was very good at it and loved singing." Looking to her husband, who is sitting at the end of the bed on which she is resting, she says that people likened his voice to that of Liu De Hua, a famous Chinese pop-singer. Ji Dong smiles and nods.
"He had a chance to study music but he decided he wanted to come to Ireland to study English," continues Zhang Chun. "He said he would come to Ireland for three years."
While we talk, a framed picture of her son is cradled on her lap. Taken a few weeks ago, he is wearing a red T-shirt and grinning at the camera, holding up two fingers in the jovial "V" sign of friendship. He looks happy, relaxed - a handsome young man of 23.
It was taken at a party he was at with colleagues from Sodexho, a catering company based in Blackrock, Co Dublin. Tracy shows me a book of condolences his friends there had put together for his parents. "One in a million", says one, "The King, you will always be in my heart." "You will be missed."
"There was a lot of people crying yesterday when we went out to Sodexho." says Tracy. "He really was an excellent person. Everyone liked him a lot and he was very kind and funny."
HE CLEARLY BROUGHT his parents great joy, and they were looking forward to having him home. They were also looking forward to his future. "In China, because most families have only one child, parents really love their children a lot," says Tracy. "They put all their savings into their education, and look forward to having grandchildren. Now they have no son and will have no grandchildren."
His parents are also very worried about money. With social welfare almost non-existent, children are expected to support their parents after they retire, she explains.
And they borrowed heavily to pay €3,500 for their flights here last week. Though Zhi's body is expected to be released to them on Monday, they cannot see how they will manage the estimated €10,000 to fly his body home.
"We have no money," says Zhang Chun, explaining that her and her husband's combined income is about €160 a month. "Food and our accommodation here even is a big problem."
It has been suggested to them that cremating Zhi's body would lessen the expense of bringing him home. "We want to bring him home whole. His grandparents have not seen him for more than two years and they are waiting to see him again," she says, her face crumpling. Both the Chinese embassy and the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed they had no budget for helping with the repatriation of bodies.
Tracy says she knows Zhi had been determined to go back to China in coming weeks as his mother's health is not good. She has been hospitalised three times in the last year because of heart problems. "He called his mum at least twice a week, for at least half an hour, maybe an hour. Not many sons would be like that. He was a special son."
She describes him as having been "always happy". He had a lot of loneliness and problems when he first arrived in Ireland, she says. "The language was difficult for him. There was trouble with the financial side, because he did not have much money and things are expensive here. He was always cycling everywhere to save money on buses".
But he always looked to the bright side of any situation, she says.
His mother nods. "He was always talking about the good side, about every little good thing. He was a very good person."
When it is put to her that she must be exhausted, she shrugs weakly. "I cannot cry anymore. I have no tears left. I just want to take my son home now."