A violent bullying incident at Dacheng Bilingual School in Datong Shanxi Province shocked China overall in 2023. Beginning in second grade, two 9-year-old children routinely mistreated their 10-year-old classmate, Sun, for several years. Apart from causing great outrage on Chinese social media with over 720 million views on Sina Weibo, the episode remained a sobering reminder of the severe and prolonged effects of school bullying.
Given such events' profound influence, it is imperative to understand bullying. Defined as deliberate, repeated abuse of power, bullying causes severe psychological and bodily distress. It is a widespread social concern affecting pupils all around that influences their behavior and increases their chances of criminal activity among offenders. At the same time, victims may suffer from mental disorders, including depression, aversion to learning, and even suicidal impulses. This problem is notably severe and pervasive in China, with 75.3% of children having experienced bullying during their entire primary and secondary education. [1] This alarming statistical report underlines the entrenched impact of Chinese customs and social expectations on the frequency of bullying. Norms such as meritocracy, collectivism, and concessionism encourage bullying.
The impact of China's historical Imperial Examination System continues to resonate through the present Gaokao system, where academic achievements determine a student's social standing. For example, success in these examinations can benefit the examinees and their families through fame, wealth, and improved social position. In contrast, failing in the examinations may lead to sheer poverty and social disgrace. [2] Retaking Gaokao after an initial failure is common in China for students wanting to improve their grades and admission to better universities. Still, this can be socially alienating, resulting in self-doubt and isolation. Hubei region student Chen Tao, a pseudonym for privacy, chose to retake Gaokao after a poor performance on his first attempt. His parents pushed him to enroll in a specialist Gaokao retake class at a nearby high school, confident he would be attending a higher-ranking institution. Chen felt growing isolation in his second year. Already on to college, his former friends started making derogatory remarks about him online and at events, calling him a "failure" for not making it on his first try. Observing his circumstances in the classroom, some teachers spoke behind his back and called him names like "loser" and "failure." Chen added, "This is the darkest moment of my life." Lower-scoring pupils in China are more susceptible to be bullied; 80.1% of those with poor academic performance have personally encountered bullying. [1]
It is widely recognized that Chinese parents and teachers fiercely emphasize academic performance. Mr. Chen said that a highly competitive environment results from teachers in Hubei openly announcing pupils' grades and ranks at different schools. His parents ignored his mental health in favor of his academic performance. "My parents still do not know that I have bipolar disorder, severe depression, and anxiety," Chen stated. Chen's psychiatrist, Ms. Wang, said that "nowadays in China, parents and teachers implicitly influence students, delivering a statement: 'Academic performance is the key to success, the prerequisite of wealth, and the foundation of social prestige.'" Consequently, students will think that those with extraordinary academic performance are prosperous.
Many pupils grow to feel superior to others and exclude those with lower marks unjustly. Mr. Chen informed us that Robin Huang (a pseudonym for privacy) routinely places the highest in his class and deliberately excludes lower-ranking students, refusing to collaborate and thinking they will drag down her performance. Chen said he frequently gets dismissive answers like, "Why do they only bully you instead of other students?" or "I do not believe such a good student would bully you" when asking his parents or teachers for help. This points to a broader problem: Teachers and parents could unintentionally send messages suggesting that students like Chen lack the right to defend themselves. Under these circumstances, students experience intense academic pressure from classes as well as peer bullying. For these individuals, the combination of social marginalization and high academic expectations harms not just their mental health but sustains a negative loop whereby academic success is attained at the expense of others' welfare, therefore supporting a toxic culture of superiority and bullying.
Deeply rooted in Chinese classrooms, collectivism has been supported historically by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Group cohesion and conformity are emphasized in collectivism, therefore suppressing uniqueness. Confucius also said in his Analects that educated people should deliberately follow social conventions to control their behavior, qualifying themselves as members of society. Students who deviate from these expectations or show distinctive personal qualities could be bullied or marginalized to enforce uniformity. Michele Gelfand's thesis of cultural tightness holds that "tight" societies—that is, the collectivist culture in schools—have strong social norms and a limited tolerance for deviant behavior or uniqueness, which results in severe social sanctions. Mr. Chen said he chose to wear casual attire instead of following the dress code on his first day of attendance at the Gaokao retaking session. His behavior shocked his peers, who called him a rule-breaker. His friends started isolating him later, not working on group projects, and even avoiding lunchtime sitting with him. "They arbitrarily indulged in insulting and isolating me in the name of safeguarding the so-called collective honor and peace," he said. After the initial breach, he stayed shunned despite following the guidelines. "Once the label 'rule-breaker' was applied, it was nearly impossible to shed," he said. His background points to a broader problem: Chinese people often saw everything as a black-and-white matter—right or wrong. Under this prevalent perspective, such strict application of conformity at schools prolongs a cycle of exclusion and bullying and exacerbates the impact on individuals. Students who deviate from the rules experience ongoing isolation and bullying due to the cultural focus on suppressing personal differences, so ingrained in the maintenance of "conformity harmony." The incessant quest for collective homogeneity comes at the expense of personal advantages; bullying results from this mechanism used to impose conformity. The so-called "rule-breakers" are defects in the pattern and stains that must be wiped out.
Affected by the long-term consequences of China's ancient autocratic centralization system, Chinese people often exhibit restrained emotional expression to prevent confrontation. Parents and teachers will avoid confronting the conflicts immediately after bullying. Chen remarked, "They would rather solve the issue by mediation than impose severe penalties." When Chen mentioned his bullying at school to his parents, for example, they minimized the circumstances. They advised that he ignore the bullies and focus on his schoolwork instead of bringing the matter to further attention. The bullies thus get relatively light punishment but usually bear resentment against the victim. "Later, they began to bully me much more harshly. They pushed me deliberately into the corridor and left a dead bird in my school bag. On one occasion, they kept me in the lavatory and only let me out after the bell rang," Chen stated.
Consequently, victims like Chen, realizing the ineffectiveness of parental and school authority, typically continue to endure bullying. This knowledge prompts kids to refrain from reporting occurrences to adults, creating a cycle of constant suffering and relentless bullying. This culture of concession restricts children's opportunities to seek safety from bullying. Ultimately, this entrenched cultural emphasis on harmony not only minimizes the misery of bullying but also creates a breeding ground for more severe types of abuse.
However, several features of Chinese culture, such as Social Darwinism, meritocracy, collectivism, and concessionism, favor bullying practices. These cultural impacts are typically created by a culture of involution, propelled by the Gaokao system, which functions as a monopolistic system regulated by the Chinese government. Therefore, everyone has to follow the selection system defined by the government, resulting in a linear pathway. "Standing at the crossroads of my life, I find only one pathway ahead, while all others are veiled in impenetrable darkness," Chen remarked.
We must eradicate the long-standing culture of involution if we are to lessen and finally resolve the problem of school bullying. "So, if my parents see that Gaokao is not the sole means to enter college, they will place less importance on my academic performance," Chen remarked. Other nations, like Finland, which has effectively applied a comprehensive approach to education, can teach us valuable lessons. Finland's educational system, for instance, gives pupils other paths to success outside of conventional academic ones, including vocational and technical courses. Additionally, Finland adopts continuous evaluation methods and tailored learning plans instead of standardized tests.
Though we have to accept that China and Finland have distinct national conditions, the Chinese government may offer higher education institutions to reduce student pressure and implement more evaluation mechanisms than Gaokao. Instead of depending on Gaokao, the Chinese government can create technical and vocational schools and an alternate evaluation system based on extracurricular activities, social benefits, and personal initiatives. The Chinese government can also bring more teachers into classrooms to offer small-class instruction meant to help reduce collectivism.
Bullying will not stop, even with changes in the educational system. Parents and teachers must take school bullying and students' mental health seriously. Some parents and teachers nowadays purposefully overlook the mental health of their pupils and even create surroundings fit for school bullying. As Chen said: "They have consistently ignored my psychological needs." Bullying behavior will continue if one ignores the seriousness of the issue and the need for mental wellness.
Furthermore, some media sources minimize school bullying as a primary societal concern, which helps it to vanish from public notice. For Phoebe Prince, a fifteen-year-old female student who killed herself in 2010 following ongoing bullying, for example, the media, including The New York Times, concentrated more on the legal prosecution procedure than on the bullying itself. Thus, the Chinese government should lead the movement to focus on school bullying so that society notices bullying actions.
Reevaluating the cultural and pedagogical systems that support bullying in Chinese schools is essential to solving the firmly entrenched problems of this phenomenon. By appreciating the negative consequences of strict meritocracy, collectivism, and concessionism, we can help to create a more welcoming and encouraging student environment. Although structural changes—such as broadening paths to success and using various assessment techniques—are vital, it is impossible to ignore the part parents, teachers, and society play. Breaking the cycle of bullying requires everyone to work together to give mental health a top priority and question the conformity mentality. By squarely challenging these cultural standards, we can build a safer and more fair future for every student.
References
1. 唐丽娜, 王卫东. ‘青青校园，为何欺凌一再上演’, 中国教育信息化网，Nov. 2019, https://www.ict.edu.cn/news/jrgz/jydt/n20191119_63682.shtml
2. O'Sullivan, B., & Cheng, L. (2022). Lessons from the Chinese imperial examination system. Language Testing in Asia, 12, 52, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-022-00201-5