Send spoiled elites back to kindergarten

• Source: Global Times
• [08:13 October 16 2009]
• Comments

The slap reminds me that the abovementioned assumption was wrong. The "three rules of discipline and eight points for attention" was made after the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927, the fi rst armed uprising by the communists.

That was a period when farmers made up a large percentage of the Red Army, and they started to fi ght for political rights through uprisings, which inevitably led to a lack of manners and discipline. Some soldiers may abuse others with fi lthy words, or even fi ght at times.

Mao thus compiled basic disciplinary rules and points into a piece of verse, to facilitate the soldiers reading and remembering.

The ill treatment of even captives was widely considered wrong and violating the regulations.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, this doctrine was spread throughout the whole population, along with the tradition of worshipping heroes and soldiers.

Today, many of these rules and points have become tacit rules in social contacts – no one even mentions "do not hit or swear at people" since it is something to teach children after they fight over a cookie or an apple. No organizations, even elementary schools, have the rule of "do not hit or swear at people" written in their manual for the newcomers.

If a new employer lectured you not to hit your colleagues, you'd be astonished; it's simply assumed. Yu's husband, after Yu's slap of the tour guide girl, told the investigating police, "Do not waste your police force. Isn't this just a scenic spot? Isn't she [the tour guide] just a little servant? We are important people. This is just a trivial incident, do not worsen the situation."

Obviously here is a presumption that it is quite normal that people with higher social status abuse and hit their "inferiors."

The couple have been removed from their posts, since "their behaviors have had an extremely bad social impact," according to the couple's employers, in a response to netizens.

This is undoubtedly an important victory of social justice. But sadly, they will not be the last examples.

Many Yu Fuqins in China still need to go back to kindergarten, and learn about basic social rules, that the adults' world won't teach them anymore.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times