Marine police go online to communicate with the public
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Feng Yixuan (right) and her colleague Xu Zhenyu record a video for the official account of Shanghai Border, Harbor and Waterway Police on bilibili.com.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Feng Yixuan (left) and her colleague Xu Zhenyu record a video for the official account of Shanghai Border, Harbor and Waterway Police on bilibili.com.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Feng Yixuan helps a foreigner on a summer day on the Bund.
Ti Gong -
Feng Yixuan talks to a girl saved from Huangpu River.
Ti Gong -
Feng Yixuan works in the autopsy room of the criminal squad of Shanghai Border, Harbor and Waterway Police.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE
Dead bodies recovered from the Huangpu River used to be dragged in the water by police patrol boats to the dock, but nowadays they are wrapped in a stretcher on boats and carried to shore.
The change is aimed at giving more dignity to the dead, explained Feng Yixuan, an officer of the Shanghai Border, Harbor and Waterway Police, in a video posted on the official police account on a popular Chinese video website.
Her forthright comments came as a surprise to many, who didn't expect the police to discuss a subject like dead bodies in city waterways.
Social networks have given government agencies a new channel to manage public relations. For the police, it has opened a whole new realm for communicating with Shanghai residents.
Feng and colleagues behind the police video account with the most clicks said their recipe for success is simple: attractive presenters and quality content.
Feng, 34, is the video host of the account "Pujiang Meijing" on bilibili.com and the mastermind behind the project. The name of the account literally means "beautiful police officers on the Huangpu River."
In a recent interview with Shanghai Daily, Feng talked about the job of a marine police officer and her new video role.
Now vice chief of the criminal squad, she joined the marine police in 2009 after graduating from a local university with degrees in Russian and finance.
A police career might seem an unusual choice for someone with her educational background, but Feng was fully aware of her decision.
"I longed to work as a civil servant to serve the public good, and I knew I was joining a group of very devoted people," she said.
Feng started out working in the exit-entry department of the marine police, which oversees all cases that arise from foreign ships in Shanghai's waterways. That is a large number. Tens of thousands of foreign ships pass through city waterways every year.
Versed in English and Russian, Feng was of great assistance in tackling cases such as smuggling and theft.
In one case, an expensive pump was found missing from a foreign ship during maintenance work at a shipyard. Since the crew members were from Russia and the Philippines, Feng was engaged in the investigation. Three theft suspects were apprehended within 48 hours.
Her job involves a lot of night work because that's when many crimes are reported.
"We have night missions almost every month, but I'm used to standing by 24/7," she said.
In 2018, Feng became vice director of the Bund marine police station. At the landmark strip in the center of the city, a major part of the job is to rescue people from the Huangpu River that flows past the Bund.
Some of them, she said, are people who fall accidentally into the river; others are those who intentionally jump in because of a broken heart or other personal crisis. After rescuing attempted suicides, Feng and her colleagues try to help people with psychological problems.
On an early morning in June last year, a young girl who was rescued from the river remained silent. Feng tried to get her to talk by asking about her family and her hobbies. The girl, who traveled from another city to Shanghai, finally told Feng that she was depressed and under great pressure before the national college entrance exams.
At the Bund station, police keep donated clothing for people pulled out of the water. Feng brought the girl clean clothes and took her for a hot breakfast. Strolling with her on the Bund, Feng became her new friend and encouraged her to be more optimistic.
The girl later returned home, took the exam and was admitted to a university. Feng said she still keeps in touch with her.
Feng joined the criminal squad in October 2020 and now oversees forensic work on death cases from city waterways.
In suicide cases, Feng's team tries to provide family members with details about the last days of the deceased person's life. That is no easy job and not obligatory for the police, but Feng said it's become a tradition of the team.
"Every life needs to be respected, even after death," she said.
When the border, harbor and waterway police started to reach out to the public on video websites last year, Feng, a seasoned officer with a charming appearance, became an iconic video show hostess known as "Sister Erma." Her co-host is female colleague Xu Zhenyu, known as "Zhenzhen."
Their channel on bilibili.com has uploaded 58 videos and attracted over 10,000 subscribers.
The top clicks mostly involve police operations, including a video of Xu traveling to another city with colleagues to catch suspects, and a video of her explaining the illegal fishing of a kind of crab in Shanghai.
But the video with the most clicks – over 130,000 – is one of a tour of the police canteen.
Apart from admiration for the hosts, viewers in their comments often express their interest in police work.
Feng said the idea behind the videos is to demystify the work of the police while educating the public on the law. Video websites also help them target certain segments of the public.
On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, videos about illegal fishing are aimed at fishermen, Feng said.
"People message us with clues, and with one clue last year, we caught a sailing ship that had illegally turned off its automatic identification system," she said. "The ship turned out to be involved in the smuggling of frozen foods."
Feng said she enjoys her new online role and views it as a new step forward in her mission as a police officer.
"We work for the people, and we have found a new way to do that," she said.
