Society

Do young Chinese need death education?

By Du Wenjuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-03-31 16:36

A 6-year-old girl asks after watching a movie with her mother, "Mom, will I die?" The mother immediately replies angrily, "Shut up! Little girls should never mention death. It's bad luck!"

"In this case, the mother lost an important chance to explain to her daughter about the meaning of life and death, which could have also been a lesson on safety," said Yuan Ailing, a preschool education professor at South China Normal University.

This mother, like any other parent in China, may not see it as an appropriate question from a child. They believe it's such a heavy and horrible issue that it may inhibit healthy development of a child's views on life.

"It's not necessary to give a lesson on death to primary school students, and basic knowledge about health is enough for them," said Xia Xueluan, a renowned Chinese sociologist.

"But in college, students are adults and need proper education to teach them not to take the easy way out and cherish life," Xia added.

But in a society where talking about death is taboo, China's suicide incidents sporadically reported in the media prompt strong responses and debates. Last year, a string of suicides involved nine workers at Foxconn, an electronics contractor, in about half a year.

Still, some scholars say China's suicide rate is not alarming when compared with other countries. Jing Jun, a sociologist at Tsinghua University, put his calculation of China's suicide rate in 2004 at about 0.01 percent and 0.007 percent in 2009, which were both lower than the world average.

But statistics released by the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center in 2007 showed that more than 287,000 people end their own lives every year on the Chinese mainland. According to the report, suicide was the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 34.

"The point of providing education on death-related issues is to tell people about the meaning of life and urge them to extend the length of their life, during a time when the risk of losing life exists every minute," said Zou Yuhua, a professor and lecturer on death education at the Public Health School of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University.

Zou, an advocate for death education for all ages, told chinadaily.com.cn that the high suicide rate in China is related to society's lack of attention to death education.

"Lack of study and educators in this field have led to difficulty in China in infusing correct views on death into school curriculum to fend off bad influence from negative content in entertainment activities such as playing unhealthy video games," Zou said.

Lang Zheng, a 3-year-old boy rescued from the rubble after a devastating earthquake in Beichuan, Sichuan province, saluted rescuers at the scene. [Photo/qq.com]

A time to remember, reflect and be thankful

As a tradition, Tomb-sweeping Day (Qingming Jie), typically falling on April 4, 5, or 6, is celebrated two weeks after the vernal equinox. On that day, Chinese go to the tombs of relatives who passed away to pay their respects, setting out offerings of food and spirit money. It's also a time for people to use this opportunity to go outdoors and experience spring, flying kites or climbing mountains.

But with the decaying of traditional festival popularity and calls for green memorials such as online mourning, people seem to be losing a much-cherished chance for death education.

"It's really good to help people to have some serious thoughts on death, which equals loss in psychology," said Li Yawen, a psychiatrist and mental counselor at Beijing Anding Hospital.

"It's kind of a mental aid and support for the living people to reduce their fear of death," said Li. "It's especially important for youths and children to participate in such activities, to see the tombs as something real that people cannot avoid."

She said the festival is a good lesson that teaches delivery and placement of emotions and confirm the cultural ritual as a symbol of connection and redemption through loss.

Sociologist Xia Xueluan also agreed that the festival is an occasion to think about gratitude through emotional release.

"Though online memorials are considered energy- and time-saving, it's far less educational than the activity of going to the sites," said Xia. "Certain emotions cannot be triggered online just by clicking the mouse."

Once, the festival used to be a day to remember fallen heroes of the nation in many places. But nowadays, middle schools and primary schools seldom use it as a special class for young students to learn about life.

Recently, a dozen student mountaineering enthusiasts from the elite Fudan University triggered criticism with their indifference toward a hero who gave his life to rescue them from danger last year.

"It's both emotionally and morally indefensible for the student group to act indifferently," Xia said. He also said the incident reflects the youths' careless attitude toward life and lack of initiative to save themselves.

In fact, infusing the idea that attaches great importance to survival and dealing with dangerous situations are just part of death education, according to the book Death Education by Zou Yuhua.

Preparing for a stronger spirit

Burdened with heavy schoolbags full of textbooks and squeezed for time for recreation and entertainment, most of the country's students experience confusion and sometimes fear in the face of setbacks.

Everyone is afraid of death, many think. But just as the girl who wondered about death, people need knowledge about it.

"It will not have negative effects on the mental health of young children if they are only made to understand the phenomenon of death without playing up the pain of death or scary stories of ghosts," said Yuan of South China Normal University.