ping值多少正常:Ambitious parents and pliant kids invite scor...

Ambitious parents and pliant kids invite scorn
Global Times | July 21, 2011 22:42
By Rong Xiaoqing
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Huang Yibo, a 13-year-old from Wuhan, and Wu Zhixu, a 12-year-old from Chengdu, don't seem to have that much in common. But thanks to the Internet, the two have been both at the center of a discussion about how screwed up childhood can be in the hands of aggressive parents with big dreams.
Huang was the deputy president of the League of Young Pioneers of Wuhan until he became too old in May. He has a good academic record, has published many articles in newspapers, and has been writing a blog. Meanwhile, he spends a lot of time volunteering in environmental protection and senior care programs and donates thousands of yuan of his income from writing to children in need.
But the pictures in which he poses and the entries he wrote about his expectations of himself and the country carry more resemblance to those you would expect from a typical Party official than from an ordinary teenager. His claims of watching CCTV news since he was 2 years old and reading the People's Daily since he was 7 drew more scoffs than admiration. And netizens have questioned whether Huang has been "designed" by his parents to become a professional politician.
Compared to Huang, Wu looks like a "normal" kid. And his broad interests - ballroom dancing, music, drawing and sports - make him an all around child that teachers and parents would dream to have. But what's unusual is that Wu's spare time is completely packed with training, performances and competitions. He has won more than a hundred championships. And he still maintains high exam marks. When asked by a reporter whether he felt tired, Wu said "No, because I have been doing what I'm interested in."
This answer is considered more an adult cliché than a genuine kid's response by many netizens. And Wu's busy schedule also prompts some to ask whether his parents are killing his childhood.
The negative comments about these two "outstanding" kids reflect a gradual shift about the perception of education within China. Traditionally, the Chinese believe children have to study extra hard for a better future. The parents won't hesitate to force the children to do so, even in extreme ways, and the public have respected that model.
Old legends like the poor kid who had to make a hole in the wall to "steal" the candlelight from his richer neighbors to keep studying, the young man who tied his hair to the ceiling to keep himself awake when he studied, or Mencius' mother who kept moving until she found a good study environment for her son, have been popular for thousands of years.
There are still a lot of parents following the old ways. But the wind is clearly starting to blow in a different direction. Take the recent controversy stirred in the US by Amy Chau, a Harvard scholar known as the Tiger Mom. But her strongest challenger has not been any Western parent but the Chinese "Cat Dad" from Shanghai whose soft parenting also worked in making his daughter a professional dancer and a Harvard student.
This is not a surprise. While Chinese immigrant families like Chau's are determined to keep their traditions intact, others are changing.
The Chinese and American approaches to education have been starting to converge. In the US, there's a nationwide trend to prolong the school day, shorten summer holidays and adopt more tests.
But in China, more educators are calling for less tests, more free time, and a more relaxing study environment. And the Western style of parenting is now a popular approach among more educated parents.
Yet it's unfair to leap to cultural conclusions about cases like Huang and Wu. In fact, neither would be considered unusual in the US where children mimic the behavior of presidential candidates in their class monitor elections from kindergarten onwards.
But the question is not whether the two are the puppets of their parents but who has the right to tell children what childhood should be like. Those who expect all children to spend their childhoods on games may be hurting them just as much as those who force them not to.
The author is a New York-based journalist.rong_xiaoqing@hotmail.com
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