Signifying Injustice, Famous Chinese Drama ‘Snow in June’ Becomes Reality

“Snow in June” is a famous Chinese drama written during the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), which tells of a young lady named Dou E who is wrongly convicted of crimes by a corrupt official for actions perpetrated by a rejected suitor of Dou. Before her execution, Dou cried to heaven to prove her innocence, bringing three unusual phenomena to her hometown: blood rain from the sky, snow in June, and a three-year drought. These three prophesied phenomena indeed occurred following Dou E’s wrongful death. Until today, “Snow in June" is still widely used among Chinese speakers as a metaphor for a miscarriage of justice. In some areas of China’s Xinjiang region, heavy snow started to fall from the evening of June 28. By June 29, the ground was covered with 30 centimeters of snow.