1
I couldn’t suppress the urge to continue writing based on yesterday’s article. It’s too painful, not because I empathize, but because the adults in this society are too calculating and despicable regarding the responsibility for left-behind children, making me sick, and I must write to vent.
Nowadays, how many people still remember the tragedy of the left-behind children in Bijie, Guizhou?
Exactly 12 years ago, on November 16, 2012, on Huandong Road in Bijie City, five street children (the oldest about 13 years old, the youngest about 9 years old, four of whom were left-behind children) died in a trash can. These children died of carbon monoxide poisoning because they lit a fire in the trash can to keep warm.
Two and a half years later, on the evening of June 9, 2015, it was also in Bijie City. Four left-behind children in Tiankan Township, Qixingguan District, collectively drank pesticide and committed suicide at home. The four children were a brother and three sisters, the oldest brother was 13 years old, and the youngest sister was only 5 years old.
In just two and a half years, there were two consecutive tragedies with a shocking number of deaths. Not to mention humans, even if you saw four or five dead cats and dogs lying there in a trash can or a simple room at dawn, it would be enough to be shocking.
During these two and a half years, the Bijie government did not fail to pay high attention, at least it appeared to pay considerable attention, and even went all out: it required schools with 50 or more left-behind children to establish standard ‘rural left-behind children’s homes’ as required, and the name was not unfeeling, and it also established ‘surrogate parents’ and other volunteer teams.
What was the result? Did it work? It did work, but it was useless. Just two and a half years later, a seemingly extremely low-probability tragedy once again shocked the world, and this time the left-behind children were more proactive and persistent in seeking death, thinking clearly, and showing a courage that adults could not muster. Let me say it again: the oldest brother among them was only 13 years old.
Since ‘young people don’t know the taste of sorrow’ and not to mention suicide, a 13-year-old can be so ruthless to themselves, why can’t another group of 13-year-olds be ruthless to others, even more cruel and perverted than adults? It’s all a game of probability, the problem is that this probability is unbearable, not to mention that behind the extreme cases suggested by the probability, in the countless corners of this vast land, how many ‘ordinary’ campus bullying incidents are happening every day that are ready to escalate into tragedies.
This is the key reason why I was extremely skeptical in my article last night about the real effect of so-called severe punishment in effectively suppressing this kind of tragedy. If this society does not face reality, face facts, and start to solve the real problems behind it in the face of such a scene, then the useless performance like Bijie will only be a self-consoling performance art in the gaps of repeated tragic cycles.
I also saw countless discussions online about the behavior of left-behind children and the degree to which they might pose a threat to society, which were lengthy, full of saliva, and lively.
It’s not wrong to suspect that left-behind children have inherent problems, just like worrying that orphans are naturally more lacking in love and more prone to psychological disorders, which is not a problem in itself. The problem is, does the thinking stop at the step of left-behind children? Do you think the problem is only with left-behind children, and even in the end, you forget what caused the left-behind children, and pour all the dirty water on the left-behind children, as if the left-behind children are demons that suddenly appear in the air in the middle of the night.
I want to say: In this society dominated and run by adults, which claims to be civilized, adults, have you never experienced the torment of conscience, shame, and the inability to see your own despicableness? Have you never thought about how the way this society operates has hindered the education of so many left-behind children over the years and put so much pressure on their physical and mental health?
2
In 2021, a report clearly pointed out that the number of children of migrant workers in China reached 130 million, exceeding 40% of the total number of children in the country, and the education of these children is facing extremely severe challenges, manifested in a clear dilemma: If parents bring their children to the city, the children will encounter various difficulties in attending schools in the city, and if they leave their children in their hometowns, the parents will not be able to provide the necessary care and love during the children’s growth. Although some policies have been improved in recent years, the children of many migrant workers can finally attend public schools with their parents, but about half of the children still cannot live with their parents. And as time goes on, the children face more difficulties in terms of policies and social rules, especially when taking the high school entrance examination and the college entrance examination↓
In this process, the mental health of left-behind children has generally been significantly affected. Especially during the three years of the new crown epidemic, parents could not go home, which exacerbated the loneliness and anxiety of left-behind children. Studies have shown that even after a short reunion, it is difficult to improve the left-behind children’s longing for their parents and emotional dependence, as well as the loneliness, sadness, and frustration caused by family separation. Even, the occasional separation of parents after family reunions makes many left-behind children show more obvious and complex psychological fluctuations, emotional depression, especially during the epidemic↓
It’s not that there are no solutions. In fact, as early as 9 years ago, in 2015, Southern Metropolis Daily wrote an editorial ‘Breaking the Dilemma of Left-behind Children Requires Social Forces’, mentioning that the essence of breaking the dilemma of left-behind children is nothing more than, one is ‘letting parents go home’, and the other is ‘leaving with parents’.
But the article also mentioned that behind all this is a highly complex and systematic institutional problem. Well, here it comes again, seeing these four words starting with ‘system’, you think there is no solution, and I also think there is no solution, so I have to remain silent. But silence is completely different from performing bravely in a safe zone, being obedient and considerate to others, being all things to all people, shirking responsibility and pouring dirty water on the weak and vulnerable groups, and inciting the populist rhetoric of ‘increasing the sentence for juvenile offenders!’ which is enjoyable but regardless of the consequences. Silence, at least, upholds the principle of not being a ghost. In this era, silence is golden, and silence is already gold enough.
3
Speaking of this era, many adults on this land, not to mention that silence is golden, not to mention setting an example for the next generation, cannot even do the most ordinary things in daily life, such as not showing hostility to children and not encouraging hostility.
Do you remember the video of a parent filming and uploading a video of ‘the sister denouncing her younger brother who loves Ultraman’ that went viral a few months ago? Facing her younger brother, who looked no more than 3 years old, the sister’s thinking mode of connecting the love of Ultraman with revolutionary martyrs and so on was so ridiculous that it was both funny and amazing, and it was hard not to make me feel the urge to ‘resist stupid people before resisting Japanese goods’. But the problem is that the sister herself is also a child, who made her like this? It’s the adults, the parents who filmed this video, it’s her mother.
That’s fine, I’m not interested in chewing on that kind of stupidity, such stupidity is now everywhere, this is not the point. The detail that really made me feel chills at the time, I guess few people would care—that is, the hostility that this sister showed throughout the whole process: the violent tendencies shown in both language and behavior—she gritted her teeth, alternately pointed at the door, pointed at her brow, and repeatedly said to her younger brother, ‘Get out of here’.
When it came to emotion, the emotions were intense, and she even grabbed her brother’s collar and violently pushed him onto the sofa.
This is really terrible. This is her own younger brother, a 3-year-old younger brother, does the sister need to communicate with him with such hostility? Not to mention the ridiculous and stupid content, even if the sister understands the truth of the universe, such behavior has no legal or reasonable basis. This is not communication? This is simply domestic bullying. But the most terrifying thing is not the sister, the sister is also a child, it’s her parents, they witnessed all this, were unmoved, did not feel ashamed, but were proud, and couldn’t wait to upload it to share their boundless happiness and pride with the whole society—look, our children are so patriotic and sensible from such a young age, and they are so clear on the big issues, how successful our education is!! They may not even realize that this is actually bullying, what kind of fanatical hostility is rising behind the violent words and deeds of the sister towards her brother involving the risk of personal injury, and what an ominous sign it is. This is still the atmosphere of a decent middle-class family. In the living environment of left-behind children in backward areas where even videos cannot be sent out, to what extent will the atmosphere of daily fighting and bullying, the law of the jungle, be brewed, I am afraid only imagination can tell.
This video, which has caused a huge amount of traffic and likes, is just a microcosm. It reminds people who still have the ability to think about what state our education is in in some areas.
I’ll stop here. The last thing I want to say is: The murder of left-behind children in Handan, Hebei, is a tragedy for left-behind children, but it is also a tragedy for the adults in this society.
May the dead children rest in peace.
Discover more from 自由档案馆
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.