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Mid-Term Stress: 10-year-old commits suicide

According to Sina, on the night of November 17th, a child in Guangzhou committed suicide by hanging himself in his home. Prior to the boy taking his own life, his grandmother discovered that the child had only scored 39 points on his mid-term English exam.

Manya Koetse

Published

8 years ago

on

Trending on Sina Weibo today is the tragic of a ten year old boy who committed suicide by hanging (#10岁男童上吊自杀#).

According to Sina, on the night of November 17th, a child in Guangzhou committed suicide by hanging himself in his home. Prior to the boy taking his own life, his grandmother discovered that the child had only scored 39 points on his mid-term English exam. She told him not to play outside but practice his texts instead. In his diary, the boy wrote: “I regret that I only scored a 3.9, I wish I had listened to my grandmother the day before the test.”

Netizens have responded in various ways- most are shocked that a boy as young as ten years old knows how to hang himself. Others blame the existing pressure in China for children to get high scores at school.

“So many mistakes- it’s all the child’s fault. The parents are not to to blame, the teachers are not to blame, the education system is not to blame. Poor parents, poor teachers, poor school, that this kid did not listen, that this kid was so bad, so bad since he was born,” one netizen writes.*

Although China has recently seen a drop in suicide numbers, suicide amongst young people is still a problem. A comparable suicide case to the Guangzhou one occurred in China last year, when a 10-year-old boy jumped from a building after being scolded by a teacher. Suicide is the top cause of death among Chinese youth; school stress is often a major factor. The Annual Report on China’s Education has stated that there were 79 suicides by elementary and high school students last year that were directly related to extreme pressure to study (Caskie, 2013; Roberts 2014).

 

References

Caskie, Susan. 2013. “The rise of youth suicide in China.” The Week, 1 Nov. http://theweek.com/article/index/252199/the-rise-of-youth-suicide-in-china (Accessed November 21, 2014).

Roberts, Dexter. 2014. “China Exam System Drives Student Suicides.” Bloomberg Business Week, 15 May. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-15/china-exam-system-drives-student-suicides (Accessed November 21, 2014).

*(我是钢铁土豆 – #10岁男童上吊自杀# 千错万错，都是孩子的错，家长没错，老师没错，教育没错！家长可怜啊，老师可怜啊，教育可怜啊，这个孩子太不听话了，这个孩子太坏了，这个孩子生下来就这么坏啊。父母太伟大了，老师太伟大了，学校太不容易了。这个孩子伤害了父母，伤害了老师，伤害了同学，伤害了教育制度，该死).

 

[box] This is Weiblog: the What’s on Weibo short-blog section. Brief daily updates on our blog and what is currently trending on China’s biggest social medium, Sina Weibo.[/box]

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Manya Koetse

Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.

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China and Covid19

Anger over Guangzhou Anti-Epidemic Staff Picking Locks, Entering Homes

While these Guangzhou homeowners were quarantined at a hotel, anti-epidemic staff broke their door locks and entered their homes.
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Published

3 weeks ago

on

July 19, 2022

By

WEIBO SHORT ｜ Weibo Shorts are concise articles on topics that are trending. This article was first published

Dozens of homeowners in Guangzhou, Guangdong, were angered to find out the locks of their apartment doors were broken during their mandatory hotel quarantine.

The residents had gone to a quarantine location after a positive Covid case in their building. Afterward, anti-epidemic staff had entered their homes for disinfection and to check if any residents were still inside.

The incident happened earlier this month in an apartment complex in the Liwan district of the city.

The incident first gained attention on July 10 when various videos showing the broken door locks were posted online. During the morning, the property management had conducted an ’emergency inspection’ of 84 households. The doors were later sealed.

The case went trending again on July 18 when the residential district apologized to all homeowners for the break-ins and promised to compensate them.

“What’s the use of apologizing?” some Weibo commenters wondered. “Where is the law? If this even happens in Guangzhou now and people in Guangdong put up with this, what else will they dare to do in the future?”

On Chinese social media, most comments on the Guangzhou incident were about the break-ins allegedly being unlawful.

Media reporter and Toutiao author Kai Lei (@凯雷), who has over two million followers on Weibo, said the incident showed that those breaking in “had no regard for the law.”

To read more about Covid-19 in China, check our articles here.

By Manya Koetse
With contributions by Miranda Barnes

 

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China Local News

Shanghai Ruijin Hospital Stabbing Incident

The police opened fire and subdued the suspect, who stabbed at least four people at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital on Saturday.

Manya Koetse

Published

1 month ago

on

July 9, 2022

By

WEIBO SHORT ｜ Weibo Shorts are concise articles on topics that are currently trending. This article was first published

On Saturday July 9, a stabbing incident that occurred at Shanghai’s renowned Ruijin Hospital (上海瑞金医院) shocked Chinese netizens as videos showing the panic and chaos at the scene circulated in Wechat groups and on Weibo.

At around 11:30 AM the police department started receiving calls that there was someone stabbing people at the hospital, which is located in the city’s Huangpu district. At the scene of the incident, at the 7th floor of the outpatient clinic, they found a knife-wielding man holding a group of people hostage.

According to police reports, the police opened fire and subdued the suspect. Four people who were injured during the knife attack are now being treated, none of them are in a life-threatening situation.

The case is currently under investigation.

According to The Paper, Ruijin Hospital resumed its outpatient services at 14:08 this afternoon.

This is the second stabbing incident in Shanghai this week. On Monday, a man was arrested after going on a random stabbing spree in Shanghai’s Jing’an District.

While some Shanghai residents say the recent incidents made them feel less safe, others praise the fast police response to the incident.

One doctor from Shanghai posted on Weibo that hospitals should have proper security checks in place in order to prevent these kinds of incidents from happening again in the future.

By Manya Koetse
With contributions by Miranda Barnes

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