Disciplining China: Positive Reinforcement is Only for Officials, Not Children

Disciplining China: Positive Reinforcement is Only for Officials, Not Children
Jan 17, 2014 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s note: Satire is mostly a lost art in China where things are more often than not viewed and accepted on a literal face. And yet, Chinese bloggers continue to find a way to make their opinions resonate with their readers.

This translated Chinese blog is written by Wang Huabin and sets up a humorous juxtaposition between the USA and China. Americans us positive reinforcement when raising their children and prefer to criticize officials to make them work harder. But, when it comes to disciplining China positive reinforcement is only for officials, no children.


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Staying over at my relatives, I met a friend who had just come back from the USA; and so, we struck up a conversation. Who would have guessed that his daughter-in-law would beat and scold her own child when trying to teach and raise him/her. To speak of this child being mischievous and not performing academically well is to speak of how much this child has lapsed behind in comparison to another child. The shortcomings of this child are always contrasted against the successes of a fellow classmate – negative reinforcement is often used as a child-rearing method in our society. As this subject of negative reinforcement came up in conversation, we took the opportunity to discuss it.

It’s said that Americans are especially gentle towards their children in their temperament towards resolving problems with them because they never physically discipline their children. Instead, they always use an encouraging tone to guide their children. Things being the way they are, this is why we said that the system of values for rearing children is completely different in China from the methods used in the USA. When disciplining China’s children, we believe “chopsticks on a head will instill filial devotion” (meaning to strike the child), whereas Americans believe that children should receive patient and systematic guidance.

However, in complete opposition to the way our society uses negative reinforcement to raise our sons and daughters, positive reinforcement is only for officials. We use a magnifying glass to actively find the achievements of these officials, and then encourage these officials by singing their praises in order to persist with their duties. Because of this, the corrupt people of our society all propagate this same positive reinforcement before they are publicly denounced and punished. These are all things that foreigners don’t understand: why would all these people that have a stellar political career all of a sudden turn out to be corrupt in the end?

In contrast, Americans have never treated their officials with positive reinforcement; if there is, it is just used when asking questions directly to them. However, Americans ask many questions that criticize their officials but still allow them to continue their work..On the other hand, Chinese society tends to focus on the positives of officials who should actual be seen as deadwood and be cut loose.

Originally, this is a problem of the significance of propaganda in our society; we can forever only praise the accomplishments of our officials, but can absolutely never expose their shortcomings. Being as this is, we feel the need to disseminate and emphasize the achievements of our officials; if there are no achievements to speak of, we then need to find something worthwhile and have that enlarged and propagated. Therefore, we have never come across a person in office whose field of governance has encountered a problem; more often than not, everything is exemplary and a great achievement. Even though they may later be determined to be corrupt, their successor will only emphasize their own political achievements in regards to this situation and not speak of the problems concerning their predecessor. This is another thing that we Chinese don’t understand: why must a society so full of achievements advocate reform to solve its problems? Also something that isn’t understood is that since this society has only achievements to speak of, why are there still so many shortcomings?

How the internet has played a role

We can’t forget that in this society of positive reinforcement, we aren’t able to witness any public opinion veered towards uncovering dark secrets. However, this is all water under the bridge now as the focus of discussion becomes the officials political achievements. During the first few years of the digital age, the internet acted as a place to reveal the hidden parts of society; however, this aroused the concern of many government officials. The government then instituted an overhaul in which they implemented a policy against “false information, negative collected information, fake and low-brow advertisement etc” that fundamentally changed the landscape of the internet. Because the internet we have now is a stage where we all sing the same tune, any webpage not deemed as healthy, positive, or with a positive influence is immediately deleted upon first sight. The internet is now just a tool for further positive reinforcement.

The character of Chinese people today

Consequently, the way we have been disciplining China has molded the character of Chinese people of today. This is why Chinese children don’t have any self-confidence, since the influence of negative reinforcement has been branded upon their spirits. Reserving positive reinforcement only for officials has left them full of confidence. Being as this is, our society’s leaders are able to do as they please wherever they go with the common people still regarding lapses in policy making as being correct. However, we haven’t been aware of any harm from this bragging; on the contrary, this has led to intensifying the need for more positive reinforcement; and so, this has led to dissenting opinions on the internet being suppressed. Some netizens with influential blogs, some media Weibo account compilers, and some government affairs Weibo accounts have fallen in line with singing the old familiar tune and have conformed to China’s policy to maintain “positive reinforcement on the web, and propagate ‘the true, the good and the beautiful’ (真善美).”

Source: iFeng Blogs

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Keywords: positive reinforcement rearing Children in China Disciplining China: Positive reinforcement only for officials

9 Comments

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kaitangsou

Garbage...

Mar 13, 2015 02:39 Report Abuse

zayabingi

spare the rod and spoil the child....who actually said this quote....

Jan 22, 2014 16:33 Report Abuse

bill8899

by Samuel Butler in 1664, or King Solomon in Proverbs 13:24.

Feb 20, 2014 17:44 Report Abuse

FHJZ

There is an extreme here in raising a Child in China, its either ill treating the kids or treating them like kings and Queens. LOL...

Jan 21, 2014 11:09 Report Abuse

coineineagh

This Wang Huabin is amazingly insightful. I wish more journalists knew how to do this. Without naming any names, he has identified a destructive cycle within Chinese culture and politics, and not let his nationalism get in the way of calling for improvement. I'd add that although internet is censored in China, its not as completely locked down as the article may suggest. Most citizens in China are limited by their language for information sources, and have no intellectual curiosity (courtesy of the education system) to find things. So conformity and disinterest are even more powerful tools protecting officials from scrutiny than the Great Firewall of China.

Jan 19, 2014 10:54 Report Abuse

sorrel

students i have met vary from the over-indulged, self absorbed narcissists to those who have had their spirits broken by 'traditional' parents. The fact that many children are raised mostly by their grand-parents (and all that that implies), means that it will be a while before there is a balanced approach to parenting. at home, the 'carrot and stick' approach is used, balancing praise and discipline

Jan 17, 2014 13:43 Report Abuse

Guest1014418

True, I found like with most things in China, there doesn't seem to be a middle ground. Extremes are aplenty and I must say I can't agree with the writer's point of Chinese children having no confidence, at least the tone in the article suggests it's all of them. Many people I have met have a ridiculous amount of confidence, an arrogant and blind confidence when they have no reason to be. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is rife. Of course it's not all of them but I feel there is quite a high proportion of this kind compared to the other countries I have passed time in.

Jan 20, 2014 00:11 Report Abuse

DaqingDevil

It's encouraging to know that there are Chinese citizens out there that question the actions of the government. Unfortunately they know his name now and he might be in for a dose of that discipline in a place where "chopsticks on the head" will help him think a little more clearly. It's people like this guy that makes me hope that things will change here with respect to the way people think. On the part about the differences in raising a child I must say that I have never seen a Chinese kid get a smack on the arse when well deserved and while there might be no positive reinforcement used with the child there is one heck of a lot of mollycoddling and spoiling.

Jan 17, 2014 07:45 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Children are bribed in China. They aren't encouraged to understand that good behaviour is rewarded, and they are blamed for things beyond their control. They don't learn to cultivate dignity, initiative or understanding. They just get bribed or browbeaten into conformity.

Jan 19, 2014 11:04 Report Abuse