A resident of Henan province is suing a micro-blogger for criticizing all Henan people. The lawsuit was accepted by the Zhengzhou Jinshui District People's Court in Zhengzhou, Henan province on Wednesday.

Hu Wei, the micro-blogger, who has 46,000 online fans, registered on Sina Weibo in 2012.

His posts sometimes made light of Henan people, which drew frowns from netizens, according to the local newspaper, Dahe Daily. Hu drew on current hot topics to abuse Henan people several times, including commentaries about actor Wang Baoqiang's divorce, the news report said.

A screen shot showed a posting on Aug 14, saying that "Ma Rong, Wang's wife, has no face, like all Henan people".

The lawsuit was filed by Jing Changshui, 46, who said he had lived and worked in Henan for nearly 30 years and knows the kind of people they are. He said Hu's abuse dated at least to April, and claimed the blogger had suggested there were no good Henan people, which seriously damaged Henan's reputation.

"Central China's Henan province has a long history, and such insults deeply harm the image of Henan, so I chose to deal with it using legal weapons," Jing said.

Jing submitted his lawsuit as "public interest litigation" on Aug 31. Defendants include Hu and Sina Weibo. He demanded an apology from Hu for the alleged insults. He also asked for deletion of material deemed offensive and said Hu must stop making insulting remarks about Henan people.

What's more, he wanted the defendant to make a public apology through the media, and pay 1,000 yuan ($150) as compensation for mental injury.

qixin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 09/08/2016 page5)