Hundreds of thousands of supportive viewers flooded actor Li Yapeng”s Douyin livestream on Friday, snapping up tea products in a charity-driven surge to help save the children’s hospital he cofounded from closure.
The outpouring of public support followed widespread attention to the financial plight of Beijing SmileAngel Children’s Hospital, which provides free and subsidized cleft lip and palate surgeries. The hospital faces accumulated debts exceeding 26 million yuan ($3.5 million) in unpaid rent and fees and risks being shut down.
After Li addressed the hospital’s situation online earlier this month, donations to the Smile Angel Foundation — a fund he established under the Chinese Red Cross Foundation to…