Late on Dec 20 afternoon, less than 24 hours from the "Mayan Apocalypse" according to Beijing time, I sat at my computer in the office feeling increasingly restless and apprehensive.

There were e-mails from close friends who half-jokingly thanked me for being part of their lives, and wished me a happy "next life" if the "prophecy" came true. And the sullen, yellowish sky outside seemed to be foreboding much more than just another spell of snow.

But what disturbed me more at that moment was the surveillance video footage of a knife-wielding man that went viral on the Web. Allegedly under the influence of doomsday rumors, Min Yongjun, 36, chased a group of children through a primary school's gate in Henan province and slashed a little girl with a knife, causing her to fall to the ground. Before he was overpowered, Min had stabbed 23 students at the school and an elderly woman who lived nearby.

It was not the first time a crazy man wielding a knife or another weapon had attacked schoolchildren and terrorized the nation.

Three months ago, Wu Yechang, 25, a jobless man, killed three children and injured 13 with a machete in a private nursery in Southwest China. From March through May 2010, five men attacked schoolchildren, after the first and bloodiest rampage claimed the lives of eight students and left five injured.

Some pundits have said the lack of proper healthcare for mental and neurological illnesses led to the tragedies, while others attributed them to social injustice and the widening gap between the rich and poor. A few have even said poor security in schools and sensational journalism could have triggered copycat attacks.

But despite the triad of factors that could have pushed the men off the cliff, they had all pursued one goal single-mindedly: They wanted to get as much attention as possible by targeting children.

Min, who had been suffering from epilepsy for 20 years, reportedly confessed to police that he wanted to be remembered as a "real man" through the TV coverage he would get by attacking children.

With no prior history of mental illness, Wu had planned to "pull off something big" to make everybody miserable after his death.

Dangerous as such men are, they may continue to roam freely and threaten the lives of children, because the government is yet to address the cause of their behavior, a difficult task comparable to the United States' efforts to end mass shootings like the one at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Parents shudder to think that almost all the attackers had looked normal before they turned violent. Perhaps confusion and desperation associated with doomsday fears could send many a sick and abhorrent mind into a violent tizzy.

On that fateful day last week, I hurried after work to attend the annual Christmas party at my son's kindergarten. By the time I reached the packed theater, the performance had already started with young boys and girls horse dancing Gangnam-style to the cheers of proud parents and grandparents, who held up a forest of cameras and iphones to capture what obviously were the children's silly moves.

It comforted me to see that the school staff stood guard at the end of all the aisles in the auditorium, turning back anybody who tried to approach the stage.

My son stepped on the stage, and while singing and dancing with his classmates, he kept looking for me. He smiled when I waved at him and our eyes met.

I've not made any New Year's wishes for a long time, thinking they are only for the simple and naive minds. But watching the children perform, I prayed that their lives always be as safe and full of joy and without worries about food scares, bad air and campus security.

The writer is editor-at-large of China Daily. E-mail: dr.baiping@gmail.com.

(China Daily 12/29/2012 page5)