Surveillance video shows a boy standing in a middle school hallway near a window. A crowd of students had gathered. His mother, nearing hysterics, slaps him twice in the face.
She scolds him without pause while he remains motionless. After his mother leaves, the boy stands silently for a few minutes. He climbs up to the window and jumps without hesitation, leaving behind classmates too dumbfounded to react. They call for help.
The video received millions of views within the 24 hours it was posted online on September 17. Soon after, Jiangxia District education authorities in Wuhan, Hubei Province released details about the case.
The student, surnamed Zhang, was a ninth grader at the district’s No.1 Middle School. His teacher had caught him and two others playing poker in class, and called their parents to come in and “cooperate in disciplining” the students.
Zhang jumped from the fifth floor. He was declared dead at the scene.
There was much discussion on social media network Weibo. Most comments railed against the mother’s insensitivity toward the fragile self-esteem of adolescents. “Did this mother ever consider that she was scolding and hitting him in front of his teachers and students, including his friends, classmates and longtime crush?” one popular comment read. “You shattered this child’s self-esteem, his own mother.”
On video-sharing site Bilibili, one user claiming to be Zhang’s classmate said the boy’s mother would often scold and beat Zhang, and that his father did not live with them. “He had no one to talk to and share his feelings,” the user wrote. “The suicide shows the ongoing conflicts between the parents and their child had reached a tipping point.”
Zhang’s death is among a string of teen suicide cases this year. In an article for the September issue of Educator magazine, Professor Bai Yuping with the Beijing Education Science Research Institute wrote about three teen suicides in July that involved either conflicts with parents or frustrations over academic scores.
Youth suicide is not a new problem in China. According to statistics from 2000, suicide ranked among the top three causes of death among people between 15 and 34. The Investigation Report on Risk Behavior of Adolescent Health in Beijing from 2014 said that in the past year, 11.42 percent of surveyed students reported having suicidal thoughts, 6.41 percent had planned to commit suicide, and 2.51 percent had attempted suicide.
A researcher into teen suicide who requested anonymity told NewsChina that despite the lack of comparative studies, there is evidence that teen suicide rates are higher in China than most other countries. “Statistics that I have obtained that are not available publicly indicate that teen suicide has increased in China over the last decade,” the researcher said. “The situation is even worse this year. Teen suicide saw an explosive increase, double the rate of last year.”
According to Bai, adolescent suicide in China goes beyond issues in the education system. “Higher suicide rates are common in societal transition periods. Research indicates that suicide surges during social transition and economic depressions,” Bai told NewsChina. “Specifically, during this year’s Covid-19 pandemic, adolescent suicide rates in China were clearly higher than usual.” Bai said that as teens experience hormonal changes and pursue social interaction and independence, social distancing and home quarantines during the pandemic have only intensified temperaments and parent-child conflicts.
“There are many high-risk factors that lead to suicide in adolescents, such as anti-social behavior, poor school and family environments, and lack of a support system. But most suicides result from the pile-up of multiple issues,” Bai wrote in his article.
Bai also blamed China’s recent material abundance for “weakening the enterprising spirit of adolescents.” “After over 40 years of reform and opening-up, the living standards of our people have greatly improved, and young people are used to easy access to food and clothing, thus they lack life goals and a willingness to struggle.”
Most middle-age interviewees like Bai, do not have much sympathy for Chinese youth. Yan Li, a 40-year-old mother, told NewsChina that she felt that Western influences are responsible for the disappearing traditional value of filial piety among younger generations of Chinese. “When I was a kid, we would never challenge our parents when they scolded us for our mistakes,” Yan said. “But younger generations never follow traditional rules in respecting or obeying their parents anymore.”
“I agree that the mother in Wuhan was too harsh on her son and hurt his feelings, but I don’t think it was so serious to cause the boy’s suicide,” said another interviewee surnamed Xie, also in her 40s. “I remember how teachers and parents would often scold us at school and home, but we were not that sensitive and didn’t care that much. The younger generation is too psychologically fragile.”
Dr Xu Kaiwen, deputy director of the Center for Mental Health Education and Counselling at Peking University (PKU), calls the phenomenon “Hollow Heart Disease.” According to his research into first-year undergraduate and graduate students at Peking University, 30.4 percent of them said they disliked their studies or thought studying was meaningless, while 40.4 percent responded that life was meaningless.
“Suicide is a non-adaptive behavior with multiple factors that requires in-depth and long-term sociological research to find solutions to meet the challenge in different social environments,” Bai told NewsChina.
Research into adolescent suicide in China is hindered by obstacles set by administrators in the education system. “Adolescent suicide is a sensitive issue for high-ranking education officials, who fear that any research or report might trigger a public opinion crisis, or unrest and dissatisfaction among parents,” the anonymous expert told NewsChina, who likened this reluctance to the government’s unwillingness to release news it deems negative.
“Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, it is hard to obtain statistics or to conduct field research at any school,” the source said. “We can’t get deep into it, or get real data and concrete materials. At all levels, from administrative to city, county and school, the topic is taboo and they are unwilling to cooperate.”
With little research at hand, experts in China struggle to advise educators on policy for teen suicide prevention. Lack of counseling or crisis intervention resources at schools leave students in need with nowhere to turn. For example, a teacher at a Beijing middle school told the reporter there are no guidance counselors or psychologists on staff.
Even at prestigious universities like PKU, students complain of inadequate mental health resources. During a recent Tencent News program, Li Xueqin, a comedian and PKU alumnus, spoke of her negative experience seeking help for depression at the campus mental health assistance center. “Despite pleading with the doctor not to tell my situation to anyone, to my disappointment, the doctor told school administrators and asked my classmate to watch me to ensure my safety,” Li said. “It came as a huge blow to me, since I trusted the university. It betrayed me, which did not help. It made me feel even more desperate.”
The recent cases of teen suicide have triggered heated online debate, with some parents reflecting on how they communicate with their children. Other social media users have called for more societal efforts to address the issue. “Society should care more about the psychological health of adolescents and adopt more scientific education methods,” a netizen named Yu Yue commented on Weibo in late September.
“Adolescent suicide may continue to be a lingering problem due to complicated reasons involving both historical and current factors in China,” Bai told NewsChina. “We need to pay attention to but should not panic when addressing the issue. More importantly, we should do what we can to find the best solution.”