Student Chen Xiaogeng, of Dynnyrne was hit in the eye with a bottle.
Horror scars of bar attack
TIM MARTAIN
October 12, 2009 08:31am
CHEN Xiaogeng might lose the sight in his left eye following an unprovoked attack in a Hobart nightclub.
The Chinese university student was at the Observatory Bar on Friday October 2 to celebrate China's national day with a friend when he was hit in the eye with a bottle.
The blow dislodged a piece of bone on the inside of his eye socket which could damage his optic nerve if left untreated, but the operation to repair it could also leave him blind in that eye.
Mr Chen, a 26-year-old Bachelor of Business student at the University of Tasmania, has had to defer his final exams because he still suffers double vision.
Mr Chen is the latest victim of a spate of violence in public places in Hobart.
"I was in the bar with one other friend, we had only been there maybe 10 minutes, we had just bought a beer and were standing by the dance floor talking," he said.
"There were four or five guys standing around near us. I looked over at them and saw them looking at me but didn't think anything about it.
"Then next time I looked over they were still looking at me and every time I looked they were staring at me but I didn't pay much attention.
"Then suddenly someone hit me in the eye with something, I think it was a bottle. I didn't have any time to respond or react.
"Everything went black. I couldn't see."
The only thing Mr Chen remembers about his attacker is that he was wearing a yellow T-shirt.
His friend, Fang Zhen, was also punched in the side of the face during the attack.
Mr Chen said there were no bouncers nearby when he was attacked but when he found security staff they gave him an ice pack and one of the bar staff drove him to hospital.
Bar security were unable to find the attackers.
After being treated at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Mr Chen and Mr Fang went to the police station to report the incident.
"I got home about 5am and it was still bleeding out from my nose. It was so swollen I couldn't even open my eye," Mr Chen said.
UTAS Chinese Students Association vice-president Wen Zheng said it was unclear whether the attack was racially motivated.
He said the unprovoked nature of the attack meant the question of whether it was racially motivated should be asked, especially following the recent murder of Chinese student Zhang "Tina" Yu and ongoing reports of Asian students being pelted with eggs from passing cars and other more serious assaults.
"A couple of months after Tina's case, we haven't seen the attacks on international students on the streets reduce and there is even more violence on the streets," Mr Zheng said.
"It shocks us how many violent attacks happen here so we don't know whether this was a racist attack or not."
Last month another university student, Ryan Brown, suffered a fractured eye socket and serious cuts and bruising after he and a friend were allegedly set upon by three men in North Hobart. Mr Brown, whose mother is Indonesian, said he and his sister had been racially taunted previously.
Last week Legislative Council member Jim Wilkinson moved to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the spate of attacks in public places.
http://www.themercury.com.au/art ... _tasmania-news.html |
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