The Spankings


Do they really treat kids in China like that?

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I'm not sure if the Opera schools still do that but they certainly did at that time and I'm betting they still do since achievement is still such a big part of the culture there. I wondered the same thing (as what you asked) when I saw the men and women's gymnasts from China perform at the Olympics this year. I can't imagine they achieved so much so early without facing tremendous discipline and probably a number of lashings, as well.




Baba mi Ogun modupe

President Barack Obama

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I have a modern documentary "Children of the Chinese Opera" which shows a little bit of physical corrction but nothing to the extent of FMC. However, it is probably true enough. Jackie Chan has spoken of the beatings and physical hardships he, Sammo and Yuen Baio had to face in their school.

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Probably not now any more. But it is still acceptable, shall I say.

Actually at that time almost all the countries in the world would regard physical punishment as an effective educational method, as in schools in the British Commonwealth, and the U.S. too. It was not until after WW2 that physical punishment became unacceptable in the western society.

Different schools, different areas, different social groups have different standard on this problem. I am from Shanghai. When I was a kid there was only few occasions that I or other kids got beaten at home and totally no beating at school at all. So you can safely say that school beating in Shanghai is not acceptable any more. But it is very hard to evaluate how much violence is involved in family environment. But when I was in primary school I was not in another province, and it is DEFINITELY another story, you know what I am saying?

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At my British private school in the 70s/80s the headmaster still caned kids, so that was a long time after the Second World War.

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I don't know about now, but beating kids was pretty normal "back in the day" even up till the 90s in mainland China.

I was beaten with bamboo sticks when I was kid from my grandpa (he's from mainland China) and well. That was how he was treated when he was a kid, all my cousins were beaten as punishment, etc. I guess it's generational. I never had a problem with it but I know from a... "Western" perspective it looks cruel. *shrus* It's a sign of the times I guess.

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