Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Li Wenxian

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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a deletion review
). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep and move to Li Wenxiang Star Mississippi 14:46, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Li Wenxian

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This article should be deleted because there is no substantial coverage of Li Wenxian. The only known mentions of him are brief descriptions in crime encyclopedias. The most detailed mention of him is a one & a half page description in the book "Still at large : a casebook of 20th century serial killers who eluded justice" by Michael Newton. That's another weird thing. That book, an encyclopedia about unidentified serial killers came out in 1999, three years after Li was supposedly caught. Half of the time, the case is treated like it's unsolved. The other half, the case is treated like it is solved. The conflicting reports are a BLP concern, so I believe it should be deleted for that reason as well. Silent-Rains (talk) 20:44, 26 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  • Delete unless better sources can be found. In addition to the strange inconsistency between sources that User:Silent-Rains has pointed out, it's weird that no one has been able to find any Chinese-language sources about the subject. I've looked but haven't found any. The sole source currently cited in the article gives a different name (Lu Wenxian instead of Li Wenxian) and seems questionable, as it claims that "it's unlikely that the world will ever hear" about any other Chinese serial killers, but we have articles about many others from before the source was published (look in Category:Chinese serial killers and subcats for more).
The lack of decent sources makes me wonder if this supposed "Guangzhou Ripper" is some kind of hoax perpetrated on or by Michael Newton. —Mx. Granger (talk · contribs) 21:25, 26 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, User:Cunard. As always, I'm impressed with your ability to find sources on obscure topics like these. Using some of the information that you quoted, I've managed to find sources in Chinese like this one. It seems that the subject's name is actually Li Wenxiang (李文香), not Li Wenxian — that's part of why I was having trouble. Mistransliterations like this are fairly common in southern China. I think we should keep and move to Li Wenxiang. 02:08, 27 February 2023 (UTC)
This is a really good find. I was unable to find the subject's Chinese name during my search for sources, but through your excellent research skills you were able to find it. I agree that the article should not be at
WP:COMMONNAME for the subject. But I looked at list of nicknames of serial killers, and it seems that most articles of the identified serial killers are titled by their actual names rather than nicknames. Cunard (talk) 05:09, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply
]
  • Keep.
    WP:GNG. Even beforehand, the inclusion in global crime books should have served as a warning that there would be no case whatsoever for deletion. The article is short because it had been slashed without good reason. With the new sources, some or all of the deleted texts should be included in the article again. gidonb (talk) 06:00, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  • Keep per Cunard. Silent-Rains (talk) 21:54, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep per Cunard. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:12, 1 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a deletion review
). No further edits should be made to this page.