Changing China

The right to play?

Fierce competition for jobs and university places, and great expectations from parents, are pushing China ’s only children to their limits. Two-three year olds learn English, and experimental classes aim to put “little geniuses” in university seven years ahead of their peers. Are the children in this video losing their “right to play”, as stated by UN in the Convention of the Rights of the Child?

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

Video credit: Wang Shubing and Kitty Bu

Are we taking things too far in this pursuit of excellence?

Citius, Altius, Fortius or Faster, Higher, Stronger goes the Olympic motto, but is world sport pushing things a bit too hard?

I’m talking about the way young children are chosen at an early age and groomed for success, often at the expense of their childhood and their education.

In the West, it is often parents who drive their children to achieve what they could not, and there are plenty of burnout stories in sports like tennis to prove the point.

In China, it is the state which selects children at a young age in its relentless pursuit of Olympic success.

Australia’s Briony Cole, who win silver in the women’s 10m synchronised diving, talked of how the Chinese dominance of the sport had created a mentality of China against the Rest of the World among the athletes, and how hard it was to compete.

“They start when they are five … and that’s all they do, they just dive, dive, dive, it’s so different to what we do in Australia,” she said at a news conference this week.

I watched the diving, and frankly it showed. The Chinese pair, Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin, look like winners from their first dive. Afterwards I discovered that Chen was just 15, and Wang turned 16 the day before the final — but was not allowed to celebrate her birthday by her disciplined team.