Children of the Chinese Circus on BBC4

dimsumer · Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 6

Children of the Chinese Circus
BBC4
Mon 4 Aug, 21:00-22:20 &
Tue 5 Aug, 01:20-02:40

An behind-the -scenes look at the rigorous regime undergone by students at the Shanghai Circus school where children as young as eight are trained to become acrobats and looking at what impact the training has on their developing bodies and also the demands made of teachers and parents. Contains some strong language.

Did anyone see this documentary on Mon night?
I think most people if not all would never want to go and see a Chinese circus if they saw this programme. The treatment of the children by the teachers and their parents were appalling, at times inhumane. It's a highly disturbing programme.

Of course with the Olympics coming up, you have to wonder about the "training" (abuse and mistreatment) the Chinese athletes' would have had to gone through.

Some comments:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/yoursay/chinese-circus.shtml

It's on the BBC iplayer for the next 5 days:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m47h

Also available here 261MB

joybetluck · Joined: 25 Aug 2007 Posts: 147

[quote="dimsumer"][i]Children of the Chinese Circus

I think most people if not all would never want to go and see a Chinese circus if they saw this programme. The treatment of the children by the teachers and their parents were appalling, at times inhumane. It's a highly disturbing programme.

Of course with the Olympics coming up, you have to wonder about the "training" (abuse and mistreatment) the Chinese athletes' would have had to gone through.

]

Where have you been all these years dimsumer?
The harshness of physical training and punishment at Chinese school is well documented by Jacky Chan biography.
Did any Chinese stop sending their children to school because of it? Sad

No I would not be thinking about abuse and mistreatment but I will be submerged in Addidas; Puma and Nike adverts. Wink

Edwina Lee · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 632 Location: High Wycombe, UK

I mentored an english boy nearly obese and with very high IQ. He flung his 1st term Psychology at university due to lack of motivation, so I persuaded him to use his idle time to become fit.
On a few mornings, I took him out on gentle 5 minute jocks. The boy was really trying hard.
One morning we returned, and he felt so sick from the gentle 5 minute jock/walk, he laid flat on the carpet sweating, but he refused my advice to stand up and breath properly.
The mother accused me of working him so hard Very Happy

She regarded this as close to abuse, as she herself is obese but she denies it, and she had never been pushed either by others or by herself to find her limits.

Giving and accepting honest criticism is normal in Chinese culture, and chinese children are usually used to it.

dimsumer · Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 6

Edwina Lee · Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Posts: 632 Location: High Wycombe, UK

Dimsumer,

Is the training filmed typical of chinese Olympic teams?
I doubt it.

I do not accept that the children were mistreated either. Many teachers in this country today think that UK children are too lightly handled to such an extent that they cannot handle failure or constructive criticism. As a result, we in the UK tend to regard discipline as abuse.

For example, some people replying here consider that tellng the children they are too fat as abuse. This isn't, especially for children training for the Olympics. Telling them they are too fat is constructive criticism because it states what is undeniable and that they need to do something about it.

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