East should learn from West, place priority on leisure time
This weekend, a student at my university here in Hong Kong committed suicide by jumping from the top of an eight-story dormitory in broad daylight in the afternoon, a dorm I had lived in a few months ago. Numerous people saw the incident from their windows, and I have friends who saw the grieving parents of the boy as they identified the body. The news was shocking, to say the least.
However, what was even more shocking to me as the day proceeded was the nonchalant atmosphere of the rest of the school. There was no official announcement from the school regarding the passing of the boy, no candlelight vigil. Many students were oblivious to the event, despite the boy's body being in the road for hours. Everybody carried on as usual, and it wasn't until later I spoke to my roommate, a fourth-year student, about the incident, to which she shrugged her shoulders saying, "Oh, there are at least a couple suicides here per semester."
Asian culture is, of course, infamous for its horrific stories of ruthless academia, of duty and obligation, of endless familial pressures causing children to be shoved forcibly into areas of society of which they have no desire to be a part, of 4-year-olds taking remedial math classes. In the five months I've been studying here, I've witnessed the diligence of many of the local students in Hong Kong, their dedication to schoolwork taking precedence over the many other things in life that we, as Westerners, find crucial to daily existence — a social life and leisure time with our friends, just to name a couple.
But it is because of this competitive schooling environment that many Asian students suffer from another huge problem as well, a deeper and more severe sort of psychological consequence in which these students have been deprived of the ability and the means to express themselves. Essentially, their dedication to academia, in many cases, has stripped them, from a very young age, of the ability to create the outlets that serve the fundamental purpose of helping to maintain balance in their lives and keeping them sane. The unreasonably rigorous academic system has not only begun to oppress students but has also caused them to feel trapped and lonely.
The worst part is that the tragic suicides of the many students each year have done very little to change anything about the education system in China or spur responses from the people. On the contrary, their names have even been somewhat forgotten, as evidenced by the casual reactions, if any at all, to the death of the student this weekend. I could not help but think that if numerous suicides per semester were to occur at any one school in America, there would be protests and outrage, and values would be questioned over and over again.
Perhaps it is time for China, too, to begin to question.
More Like This
Column: Educational system contributes to inequality
By Martin | Jan. 25, 2016