Students participate in an anti-bullying session at a primary school in Hefei, Anhui province. (Photo by HAN SUYUAN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE)
Legal limbo
Although a number of laws and regulations protect adolescents in China, none of them specifically targets bullying, which researchers define as unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-age children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance and behavior that is, or has the potential to be, repeated over time.
Too little attention has been paid to bullying in schools, according to Sun Hongyan, a senior researcher at the China Youth and Children Research Center.
Before May, when the State Council, China's Cabinet, released a document ordering a nationwide campaign to target the problem, there was no large-scale survey of the situation, Sun said, adding that only low-level research has been conducted into the topic. "Some sampled 200 students, others covered just one school," she said.
The lack of research doesn't mean the situation isn't serious.
On Oct 16, the Ministry of Education reported that 68 confirmed cases of school bullying had been reported between May and August, and in recent years, video clips uploaded to the internet showing teenagers bullying classmates have attracted national headlines.
Sun believes that many cases go unreported. "What has been seen on the internet and in news reports is just the tip of the iceberg," she said. Having conducted her own surveys, she said many children refuse to report bullying: "Some teachers tend to assume that it takes two to make a quarrel, so the victim also gets criticized. The worst teachers tell the victim: 'You are not good, either'."
Gao Xia, a middle school teacher from Jiangsu province, believes that many cases are covered up because bullying is not a topic that school principals like to talk about outside of campus.
"Even if the school management hears about on-campus bullying, they tend to remain silent and not discuss it outside of school, because the revelations would be extremely damaging to the schools and the principals' reputations," she said.
