Here in Shanghai, the new school semester started only a few days ago. After just two days, four Shanghai middle school students have jumped from buildings to commit suicide.
I read about this on KDS, a BBS forum with mostly Shanghainese. Maybe this is not a big thing on the Chinese internet but it is little more personal to me.
“Two days after school begins in Shanghai, 4 incidences of suicide jumpings“:
- September 1, early morning, Yangpu District, 131 Yanji East Road, a 14-year-old female student jumped from the 4th floor. Although not life-threatening, it may lead to loss.
- Same day, early morning 5:00am, Pudong District, Heze Road, a 15-year-old boy fell from a 8th floor window, suffered serious injuries.
- Same day, morning 9:00pm, Jiading District, Caoyang Second Middle River Bridge Experimental Middle School, a middle school student who failed a grade wanted to commit suicide by jumping, but was eventually persuaded by police not to jump.
- September 2, morning 7:40am, a dull thump breaks the peacefulness of 486 Xianxia Road. Without warning, 12-year-old boy Little Fan (fake name) leapt from a 6 story window and died ten minutes later.
Another KDS topic: “2 days, 4 people jumped to death.”
On NetEase: “Two days after school starts in Shanghai, 4 incidences of suicide jumpings.”
On QQ: “Only 2 days after school starts and 3 students have jumped off buildings to commit suicide” and “Shanghai 13-year-old boy commits suicide day after school begins, died on the spot.”
The first two pictures are of a 12-year-old Hong Kong girl who also committed suicide, probably because of a little fight with her mother but also one day after school started. If this happened in Shanghai and Hong Kong too, maybe there were more suicides in many other cities also.
Comments on KDS:
Today’s children are not capable dealing with pressure.
Today’s children’s hearts are too frail…
The future pillars of society, are inferior to reed poles.
Is starting school that difficult?
The reporter realized during the interviews that in each of the incidences, the main characters were all middle school students. Between learning and life they only met a small problem, but chose to get understanding/sympathy/compassion by attempting to end their lives.
A harmonious society does not automatically become a harmonious society just by saying it should be harmonious.
Caused by summer homework.
Investors? [stock market]
Today’s education system.
Today’s morning newspaper headline was: “Cartoon generation’s psychological endurance is poor.”
I think it should be changed to “mentally retarded generation”90s
In the newspaper, it said that when a teacher tried to explain what “life” is by giving an example that life is lost when all blood is lost. Suddenly, a student of the 90s generation in the class unexpectedly responded: “If there is no blood, just add some more and you can be resurrected.”
Education is moving toward the brink of collapse. I do not want my children to grow up in such an environment and background. Children these days do not have nearly the same ability to deal with stress as we did. Superior living condition/situation is not necessarily a good thing.
1. Product of being spoiled by the family;
2. Example of a useless child.
This kind of children dying is not a pity, even if they grow up they will not have much prospects/ability.
A pity…
Are you doing right by your parents?
Children, if there are problems, talk about it. Come to KDS, auntie and uncle will teach you…
If China’s education does not change soon, it really will become crippled beyond repair. Just look at what kind of people it is raising!
Please refer to China men’s football.
This disaster is caused by being the only child.
Children dying should be a very regrettable thing!
Too bad there are still people on the side making jokes.
The schools need to offer psychological counseling.
Extremely evil China education system.
Unfortunately, it is because the parents who did not teach their children well, allowing them to spend an entire summer watching cartoons and playing video games. Were the teachers supposed to go to their homes every day to check up on them?
A generation without goals.
When we were young, we waited half a year to buy a Transformer toy, we waited a year to buy a 39 RMB black and white handheld electronic toy, getting a video game system we had to wait until the final middle school tests, etc. etc. etc…
A problem with today’s education system. In our time, when school was over and we did not have homework, we played. That is how we all grew up. Nowadays? Home tutoring. Teachers only work for money, everything else they will not do.
Laws of nature, survival of the fittest.
Those who survive, who fight to survive, will be humanity’s future ancestors.
Who remembers the Tianlin elementary school jumping incident? [a 11 year old girl jumped to commit suicide or maybe it was just an accident]
We should scold the parents!
Life’s last summer vacation.
Children’s lives today are too easy. I remember when I was in the first year of middle school I climbed from the bottom 10 to the top 10 of my class just for my first wrist watch.
Students’ stress will only get bigger and bigger, especially the children of ordinary urban residents.
School starts, no more fun.
No more air conditioning, eating ice cream, watching television, playing video games.
Served like a god by one’s parents.
Now what?
Jump.
Shit, besides, even if they grow up, their prospects will only be getting laid off.
Death Note???
When I was a young, unless all the teachers held me down and then threw me off the building, I would never commit suicide in front of them.
Their ability to deal with pressure is too weak. I reckon if they were speculating stocks, they will increase the country’s number of jumping suicides.
They cannot handle setbacks. If I was like them, I would have died several dozens of times already.
Why is everyone’s hearts so bad, feels like everyone lost money on their stocks.
Different environment/circumstances. When we were small, our environment valued people who had personal strength, never letting anything overwhelm us, always keeping a straight back no matter what happens. If others were fierce, we have to be even more fierce. Whoever did not have personal strength would be laughed at by others. No one wanted others to laugh at them so we forced ourselves not to cry or to shed tears, thereby exercising our willpower. In this regard, our teachers contributed, wantonly punishing us to copy passages 100 times to the point where we did not know what desperation was. Looking at those QQ homepages, from a small age they have learned to cry without pain, and everything is always life or death. This is their environment.
Loading ...
Related Posts:
- A shocking video of young Chinese students fighting each other at a middle school in Guangdong, China. Why and is this related to black society or triads? » 89 comments
- Pictures of a Chinese schoolgirl caught on camera giving a blowjob to schoolboy posted on BBS forums in China. Chinese netizens offer some funny comments. » 29 comments
- China's education department is requiring Chinese students to run 1000-2000m every day throughout the next semester to celebrate China's 60 year anniversary. » 17 comments
- 3 young Hubei university students who can't swim drown while rescuing 2 little boys trapped in a river. Chinese netizens wonder if they were heroic or foolish. » 48 comments
- Pictures of an elementary school in a poor rural mountain village of China, its dedicated teacher, and the frightening path cut out of the side of the mountain. » 26 comments
Chinese Middle School Students Crazy Fights 
Caught: Chinese Middle School Students Having Oral Sex 
Students Run 120-240km For China’s 60th Anniversary 
Hubei University Students Drown While Saving Children 
An Elementary School In The Clouds 
Look at Japanese, the suicidal phenomenon among teenagers is well-known there. That’s what happens when society develops.
I read Little Fan’s story on netease(163.com). His grades are above the average according to the report and pressure to kids at his level should be the minimum. It seems that it was lack of education of “the preciousness of life” that was the problem. Some school kids got the knowledge that death is like losing blood(or health points) in computer games and after recharging life will come back.
RE: Suicide attempts
It seems that all too often people create a direct association (here, I mean) between grades, school success, and suicide attempts. I’m not nearly qualified to make a judgement on this, however..um..considering all the domestic abuse and domestic issues which are swept away (everywhere..really), why is the immediate assumption that teenage suicide attempts are caused by some horrible incident at school or bad grades? More likely it’s something that may happen at home as a result of those bad grades, or something entirely unrelated which is the real source of the problems troubling these youths.
Very unfortunate, whatever the case.
So sad. I think that the children most suceptible to doing this probably have other problems building up in their lives so that when one more thing comes along that is difficult to deal with they collapse. The straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. Perhaps they have mental problems, perhaps they have poor family life that offers no support, etc. Then when some problem comes along they cannot handle it.
I expect that, except for the ones with mental problems, the parents are at the root of the problem. The are either not available for their children, do not provide emotional support, are actively harming their children (even just mentally), just don’t know how to be parents, are too focused on their careers and making money and thus don’t do their job as parents.
“Extremely evil China education system.”
Chaching!!! Right on point! All these ‘children of today’ comments are not unfounded, but the issue is the pressure. It’s all in parenting and ability to give a child something to live for.
The poor kids could have done it for any number of reasons. Maybe they were mentally ill, maybe they were bullied, maybe they were under too much pressure to succeed in school, who knows. There isn’t enough information on their particular circumstances to make a judgement as to the cause(s).
In my middle school, a boy committed sucide (shot himself) because his girlfriend broke up with him. In high school, we had a student die every year for the four years I was there, but those were all car crashes and ODs.
Just look at the posts on this blog, and everything should be clear. There’s a generation of “young emperors”, spoiled and non- patient. First, they didn’t have real childhood, they where emperors. Everything was there for them. Then, school came. Pressure and expectations raises. They become teenagers, a very hard period of life. They got some other interests (cosplay if you are from Anhui, mafia play and sluts if you are in Beijing or Shanghai, fleshsearch elsewhere). It is harder to fulfill demands. And there’s non-returned love. Life collapses. No real friend, ‘cose they are stuck in game farm, or it is hard for them to talk without QQ. Parents only want high grades, and girl want’s from boys to use Korean made gel for making double eye lids and Europe made cars. Chinese one are not enough safe for them. \
On other side, just 4 deaths on 1,3 bilions… I think suicidal rate in Europe is higher than that
re: just 4 deaths on 1.3 billion… am I missing the sarcasm?
Not to mention, most suicides are females and rural.
The PRC has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Roughly 287,000 people every year. That’s about 23 per 100,000 population, close to Japan, Ukraine and not to far from South Korea.
On top of that, for every actual suicide, there’s 10 attempted ones.
This is very sad. I have counselor friends who shared that surveys to high school/college students in China show many have considered suicide because of the pressure from family, teachers, etc…
This is a tragedy and no one should jump to victim blaming. I was appalled by some of the translated comments – don’t these people know better than to speak ill of the dead?
Suicide happens for a lot of different reasons and even if we don’t think they are worthy of such drastic measures, think of how much pain a child must be in to have hardened his/her resolve to perform the act. It says something about society in general when children in such a densely populated country can go about living in emotional anguish and feel like there is no one to talk to about it.
@James
I didn’t try to be sarcastic. Here, in Serbia, rate is about 20 people on 100 000. And rate is growing. mostly, they are men in 60ies, with small pensions. Political transition took the little of dignity they have.
Reasons of suicide always came from outside. Scholars says that suicidal tendencies can be recognized, but we, as society, become to selfish to see it.
BTW. my the best friend committed suicide one day after his birthday. At that time, I was in China. Last time I saw him, he was happy, with will for life. Why he did that, I’ll never know.
KRDR,
This is 4 deaths in one city on the first day of school. That is the shocking part. It’s not the death but the student suicide on the same day in the same city. Be assured that other cities had suicides as well…just not reported as such.
@Veer
Any suicide of teenager is shocking.
Group suicides are popular in Japan nowadays. This might be the next ‘fad’ in China.
One can only hope
Chinese are taught from a young age that the individual is useless, this is done in order to emphasise the power of the government. Well congratulations, this is the result, you got what you always wanted. A truly great society! ;) I just wonder how they will turn this to blame it on the parents, teachers, or foreigners.
@Rushnikus
Aren’t american society oriented on sole individualism? Are american society have greates cirme rate? Are american society each year suffer from mad sniper?
It’s such a pity these children turned to suicide without even learning the meaning of life yet.
I blame society and above all the parents. There is much too pressure on children, Chinese parents do not come across as being particulary loving and affectionate.
Children need love and affection and good communication with their parents.
What a terrible waste of life.
A spate of suicides by high-achieving students at an elite high school in California…
1300 confirmed suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, whose victims included a teenager, artist, mother, doctor, war veteran…. people are unhappy enough to kill themselves no matter what system of government even in the democratic USA where freedom and individuality is stressed.
Ah, yes, Lowell High School. I actually decided not to apply for that school (even though my teachers tried to get me to) because of the pressure. And the suicides. Hell, my algebra teacher knew one of the dead.
The pressures that build up in those going through the most significant changes in life (puberty) can be many. If one does not feel connected to others and loved, if one is crushed by the cruel judgments of one’s peers, if one is made to feel helplessly bound to a demanding routine that defies broad differences in how we learn, then one can feel alone, unloved, hated, helpless, and without value. For a young person attempting to find their place in this world, such a terrible series of stresses can seem impossible to cope with. After enduring enough pain, the attraction of ending it, at any cost, can overcome the will to continue existing at all.
Also, understand that suicides tend to beget more suicides, so when a suicide of a child is made widely known through television and radio, the chance that others will follow this example rises dramatically. Suicide has often carried with it a sense of shame and feelings of failure for the parents, as well as just being the saddest possible event imaginable, and it was more likely in the past that society would keep this as quiet as possible.
Previous suicides (especially those of children) would not likely be published, so even if such events happen throughout history we are far more likely to learn about them only now in the age of satellite television and other mass media.
The same is true for earthquakes and floods and hurricanes. We simply are more aware of the ones that happen now than ever before in the history of mankind.
Finally, these children do not deserve our anger and dismissal…
They deserve our compassion and love.
One more thought:
About these all happening right at the beginning of the school year, it may not be so surprising when one considers that human beings are better able to endure actual pain than the ANTICIPATION of pain. It would be more surprising if they killed themselves at the end of the school year, I think.
It’s been said that suicide is the most selfish act of all. So, should anyone be surprised that kids who are often catered to like little kings and queens decide to settle a problem by commiting suicide?
Unofficially, it’s called ‘little prince’ and/or ‘little princess’ syndrome. And it’s certainly something I’ve noticed over here since beginning work in winter ‘06.
A word to Asian parents: Instill some character in your children. Don’t give them everything they demand. Make your kids work for it. By following the above advice your child will most likely develop coping skills and won’t find themselves perching over the ledge of a building.
Its an Asian education thing. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, all of those cultures, if you fail at education you are worthless. Cram schools, school from 7am to 5pm and cram school until 10.
Absolutely horrible mental condition these kids are growing up in. Worse they are not learning, merely memorizing, the result is people not able to apply their knowledge.
At least in the West children don’t kill themselves en masse over the brutality of school.
I thought memorizing was the first step in learning?
“At least in the West children don’t kill themselves en masse over the brutality of school.”
You have some short memory. Weren’t the Littleton high school and Virginia Tech massacres in the West? The perpetrators not only killed themselves, but dozens of schoolmates and teachers as well.
v-tech was done by a Korean dude.
Video on Compulsory Schooling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uexMYBkfCic
i believe we should not blame it on anyone, ife is a roller coaster ride and we have emotioms that change one min. to the next, and some can’t deal with them and ya we have to blame the kids who make it hard on others but maybe that’s there way of helping there self, but it does not make it right, love everyone
I love how everybody trashes this generation as though they are lazy, ignorant whelps, unable to handle pressure, who have doomed the human race. Five minutes of research at your local library would have revealed that suicide rates are the same now as they were fifty years ago (in the United States, anyway). Don’t blame society, video games, or loud music. It’s just part of the human condition. That you hear more about it is thanks to the evolution of news-media, which now floods your home, your workplace, your everything and everywhere.