DUDE WTF ASIA: Social Darwinist Chinese Dad

Yay. More WTF news from China gone viral. This time, it’s: “Tiger dad” cheers for kids’ brutal fight.

A little girl beats the crap out of a little boy and not only does the girl’s father record the whole fight and post it online, but he cheers his daughter on. Messed up, right? No worries, the little boy’s parents will certainly take care of this. Actually, the boy’s parents are in full support of what the girl’s father did, which he refers to as a “natural selection and survival of the fittest” method of educating children. They all seem to believe that what the little boy is learning in the above video is “building character.”

I was raised pampered here in the States, and so when I hear news of such parenting tactics, I am aghast. That said, I calmed myself down with the self-assurance that this represents an exception rather than the rule, and there’s crazies everywhere. Then I showed my husband, who shocked me by shrugging the news off as just another normal day in China. Wow, wait, what?? See, he was raised indoctrinated in China. And to him, it’s not that uncommon for parents to encourage a little (or a lot) of rough-housing [his words] / egregious brutality [my words].

Growing up, he and his buddies threw rocks at each other’s heads and pushed each other off ledges. For fun. This kind of “fun” has resulted in broken limbs and permanent scars that the grown-up him and grown-up Chinese buddies show off. (“See this?” ::lifts up hair to show indent at back of scalp:: “That happened when this kid threw a rock at me. I was knocked out cold. But boy did I get him back later when I smashed his nose! You shoulda seen it. Blood, everywhere. Kapooosh, squirted like a popped fountain.”)

Kids are assholes, sure, but certainly when their parents get wind of this, they’ll discipline them and explain why throwing rocks at someone’s head or pushing another kid off a ledge or smashing noses is not proper “fun,” right? Wrong. The parents see it all as an integral part of childhood. It teaches the kids to toughen up. And they fully condone it. They believe such rough-housing / egregious brutality builds character.

This type of Social Darwinian parenting is in stark contrast to the Little Emperor Syndrome, where parents shelter their children from any and all growing pains altogether and, as my husband would put it, raise “an entire generation of sissies.”

I have to admit, though, that little Chinese girl [future maneater] is adorable. The news reminds me of the time my husband and I were at the shooting range in Central Valley, California [that’s America, folks, for those not following] and we observed a 6-year-old girl wielding a rifle twice her size. Her father, a rubbery red-faced man wearing overalls and flannel kept yelling out, “Aim for the heart, honey, aim for the heart. Hell yeah! That’s right! Shoot ’em in the heart!” Dude. Forget Asia. WTF World!