Context behind this question:
So I watched some Chinese Youtubers recently (apparantly they crossed the firewall and there is a “trend” of this recently? not sure…) and watching some footage, which then triggered some old memories, again…
So when I was a kid in Guangzhou City, it was like 2008 and I had issues with home (fight with older brother) so I remember “running away” (not actually running away just impulse decision lol, I was 6 years old, what was I gonna do? no survival skills lmao) from home for a few hours… and I wandered like a very long distance away from home so when I came back several hours later, I noticed the police were only searching nearby my house, they might not have found me if I didn’t get scared and decide to come back myself.
So fast forward to now, with all these cameras everywhere…
Hypothetically, if I was a kid again and I did that same “running away” thing, how long would it take for the police to find me? Like one hour? 10 minutes?
Like I can imagine them just stopping me within 5 minutes and be like: (in Mandarin) “Hey kid where to do think you’re going? Stop being a disobedient child and go back home” 💀
Okay maybe this is a stupid question, lol (still kinda traumatized from that day, so this is sort of cartharisis for me)
China is a big place. Saturation with security cameras is an urban thing.
Also, something I’ve learned in America is that people make a lot of noise about keeping kids safe, but that’s all just smoke. I can’t speak for China, but in America children are the least valuable humans, in economic terms, and they get prioritized accordingly.
Yea that incident was in Guangzhou, I assume nowadays its probably filled with surveillance cameras.
China might not have guns and mass shootings, but domestic abuse is an issue that the law doesn’t really touch on, especially is its more covert like verbal abuse or even physical violence if it didn’t cause serious harm…
Especially if its not a spouse-on-spouse thing but its a parent against a child…
Like there are things that would trigger a CPS investigation in the US that in China they wouldn’t do much about, cuz its just treated as “discipline” and its “family matters” and legal system isn’t touching this.
I think my parents fear of CPS is why once we arrived in the US, they stopped with their um… ahem “disciplinary actions” against me.
(Also maybe cuz I got older and can sort of fight back??? Maybe 🤷♂️)
(I actually cant even remember a specific instance of my mom hitting me anymore… must been a repressed memeory by now, but I’m pretty sure it happened)
Also teachers have meter sticks to hit kida with…
Okay its not a beating, but I remember like you had to put your hands out and then the teacher slapped your hands with the ruler…
Dont remember what for… maybe “behavior problems”?
Or perhaps poor grade is also one of the things… idk, memory in 1st and 2nd grade isn’t exactly flawless…
But corporal punishment seems very acceptable in China…
Saw a movie recently about Taiwan’s education system (not the main story, but the backdrop of the plot, main movie was about Taiwanese Americans moving back to Taiwan), and in the plot, the parents encouraged the teacher to use the ruler thing as a form of discipline… wtf… that was actually the thing that jogged my memories…
(The point being, same culture, even being politically divided and with a different government, the culture is same… adults just get to do whatever as “discipline”)