Indian-origin student dies in Beijing fall

A 20-year-old Indian-American student from Texas died in a freak accident in Beijing on Saturday when he fell from the rooftop terrace of an apartment building, evidently while partying with friends.

Arun Stewart, who was pursuing East Asian Studies at Brown University in Rhode Island, was in Beijing’s premier Tsinghua University under a year-long exchange programme.

“We learned that he was attending a gathering of friends on the rooftop terrace of a Beijing apartment building and lost his footing,” Brown University president Ruth J Simmons said in a statement.

Arun, better known to his Beijing friends by his Chinese name Dan An Long, was a fluent Chinese speaker (which he learnt during his early schooling years in Hong Kong, where his family lived) and was enormously popular, his friends told DNA. “In fact, he was keen to acquire mastery in a traditional Chinese comedic routine known as xiangsheng (cross-talk),” a friend recalled.

“At Tsinghua, (Arun) had the ambitious goal of becoming fluent enough in Mandarin to write and perform creative works that drew on classical texts,” Simmons noted.

Arun also played the bass guitar, “but above all else, he embraced life and the cultural diversity that in many ways defined him,” a friend added. “He had a keen interest in Chinese language and literature, and an incredible sense of humour.”

Charles Laughlin, Beijing-based resident director of the inter-university programme that brought Arun to Beijing, recalled that Arun was a “bright, enthusiastic and fun person”.
Arun’s parents, who live in Dallas, travelled to Beijing to receive his body. Arun’s student peers in Tsinghua have responded to his passing with an outpouring of anguish and grief in their campus writings.