MY READING LIFE / STUDENTS' WORKS
A reflection on book Fang Si-chi’s First Love Paradise
Editor's Note:
"Read ten thousand books, and your pen will be guided as if by the gods" is an ancient Chinese idiom that can be seen in students' textbooks. China's Ministry of Education has published an action plan to further promote reading among students across the nation. With new and diverse book recommendations, the reading scene is expected to be revived not only at schools, but also across society. To contribute to this endeavor, the Global Times launched "My Reading Life" essay contest for middle school students.
Please pick up a pen and share your stories with us at reading@globaltimes.com.cn
Participants will be rewarded once the article has been selected.
After reading Lin Yi-han's novel Fang Si-chi's First Love Paradise based on her own story, I couldn't calm down for a long time. Lin was a writer born on China's Taiwan island. The novel of her story was rooted in the local context. It depicts the story of a naive, imaginative 13-year-old girl who, after being sexually assaulted by her tutor Li Guo-hua, has no one to talk to, no one to understand her, and no one to seek help from. She lives in a nightmare every day.
Tearful story
Some friends say that this novel is too tragic to bear. My feelings are mainly sad and deep thought. This is not only the writer's tragic story, or rather, not only the story of the author's personal humiliation and harm, but also a microcosm of many minors who have been hurt.
The novel describes how the teacher and his colleagues gather together to share their experiences exploiting young girls. Li and his fellow teacher have a drink on the mountain. The math teacher speaks up: "I've already slept with three young girls, and one more would be a grand slam." The math teacher asks Li: "Is it still that high school girl from Taipei? Or is she a senior now?"
He didn't answer verbally, but sighed through his nostrils: "I'm a bit tired, but you know, the new school year hasn't started yet, and there are no new students, so I have to continue."
There are many such scoundrels. They will figure out the psychology and personality of their targeted girls, patiently set a series of traps, and innocent young people will fall for them unknowingly.
Fang falls into such a trap. The teacher creates opportunities to meet her under the pretext of tutoring her in writing; he meets with Fang alone in the name of allowing the girl to study without distractions.
The naive and trusting young girl has nowhere to escape.
Li discovered that defiling a young girl who worships him is the fastest way to make her unable to leave him... He likes to practice sweet words for the next girl in front of one girl.
There are many cases like Fang's. Cases of minors being sexually harassed and assaulted are frequently heard. This kind of harm often affects minors for their entire lives.
After being sexually assaulted by the teacher, Fang thinks she has accepted the teacher's love. In order to accept this reality, she deceives herself into falling in love with the teacher and hopes that the person who assaulted her will value her.
In fact, the predatory teacher just treats her as one of his playthings. For five years, Fang lives in severe depression, eventually becoming mentally ill and is then sent to a mental institution.
Fang's nightmare is the same as the author Lin Yi-han's nightmare in reality.
On my family's bookshelf, there is a 1980 edition of The Sorrows of Young Werther, translated by a Hong Kong scholar. The preface says: Goethe was heartbroken, but he didn't despair. He wrote a novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and let the protagonist Werther despair and commit suicide for him. He not only lived well but also lived a noble life and became a great writer. However, the author Lin Yi-han couldn't do it! She was not only heartbroken but constantly feeling humiliated. The psychological scars never healed, and they bled every day.
So, on April 27, 2017, two months after the publication of her novel, she committed suicide.
It is clear that the harm caused by the predatory teacher's behavior is far from comparable to heartbreak. In her last video interview before committing suicide, Lin said: The largest-scale massacre in human history is the rape of Fang Si-chi.
A solution
We must keep minors away from fear.
Family is the first harbor. Many children are victimized due to their parents' indifference, and the children keep their troubles to themselves. Parents also do not understand. It's as if she is struggling in a flood, surrounded by people who watch but turn a blind eye.
When Fang tries several times to hint at her ordeal to her parents, her mother clearly doesn't take it seriously. When Fang is lonely and desperate, her mother not only fails to lend a helping hand but becomes the last straw that breaks her.
Not only children but also parents and the general public need to receive correct sex education.
Teach children how to protect themselves from an early age and know how to seek help when encountering problems; teach parents how to help their children; let the whole society work together to build a protective wall for minors so that they can stay away from the shadow of fear and grow up healthily and happily.
The author is a student at Beijing No. 2 Middle School
"Read ten thousand books, and your pen will be guided as if by the gods" is an ancient Chinese idiom that can be seen in students' textbooks. China's Ministry of Education has published an action plan to further promote reading among students across the nation. With new and diverse book recommendations, the reading scene is expected to be revived not only at schools, but also across society. To contribute to this endeavor, the Global Times launched "My Reading Life" essay contest for middle school students.
Please pick up a pen and share your stories with us at reading@globaltimes.com.cn
Participants will be rewarded once the article has been selected.
Photo:VCG
After reading Lin Yi-han's novel Fang Si-chi's First Love Paradise based on her own story, I couldn't calm down for a long time. Lin was a writer born on China's Taiwan island. The novel of her story was rooted in the local context. It depicts the story of a naive, imaginative 13-year-old girl who, after being sexually assaulted by her tutor Li Guo-hua, has no one to talk to, no one to understand her, and no one to seek help from. She lives in a nightmare every day.
Tearful story
Some friends say that this novel is too tragic to bear. My feelings are mainly sad and deep thought. This is not only the writer's tragic story, or rather, not only the story of the author's personal humiliation and harm, but also a microcosm of many minors who have been hurt.
The novel describes how the teacher and his colleagues gather together to share their experiences exploiting young girls. Li and his fellow teacher have a drink on the mountain. The math teacher speaks up: "I've already slept with three young girls, and one more would be a grand slam." The math teacher asks Li: "Is it still that high school girl from Taipei? Or is she a senior now?"
He didn't answer verbally, but sighed through his nostrils: "I'm a bit tired, but you know, the new school year hasn't started yet, and there are no new students, so I have to continue."
There are many such scoundrels. They will figure out the psychology and personality of their targeted girls, patiently set a series of traps, and innocent young people will fall for them unknowingly.
Fang falls into such a trap. The teacher creates opportunities to meet her under the pretext of tutoring her in writing; he meets with Fang alone in the name of allowing the girl to study without distractions.
The naive and trusting young girl has nowhere to escape.
Li discovered that defiling a young girl who worships him is the fastest way to make her unable to leave him... He likes to practice sweet words for the next girl in front of one girl.
There are many cases like Fang's. Cases of minors being sexually harassed and assaulted are frequently heard. This kind of harm often affects minors for their entire lives.
After being sexually assaulted by the teacher, Fang thinks she has accepted the teacher's love. In order to accept this reality, she deceives herself into falling in love with the teacher and hopes that the person who assaulted her will value her.
In fact, the predatory teacher just treats her as one of his playthings. For five years, Fang lives in severe depression, eventually becoming mentally ill and is then sent to a mental institution.
Fang's nightmare is the same as the author Lin Yi-han's nightmare in reality.
On my family's bookshelf, there is a 1980 edition of The Sorrows of Young Werther, translated by a Hong Kong scholar. The preface says: Goethe was heartbroken, but he didn't despair. He wrote a novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and let the protagonist Werther despair and commit suicide for him. He not only lived well but also lived a noble life and became a great writer. However, the author Lin Yi-han couldn't do it! She was not only heartbroken but constantly feeling humiliated. The psychological scars never healed, and they bled every day.
So, on April 27, 2017, two months after the publication of her novel, she committed suicide.
It is clear that the harm caused by the predatory teacher's behavior is far from comparable to heartbreak. In her last video interview before committing suicide, Lin said: The largest-scale massacre in human history is the rape of Fang Si-chi.
A solution
We must keep minors away from fear.
Family is the first harbor. Many children are victimized due to their parents' indifference, and the children keep their troubles to themselves. Parents also do not understand. It's as if she is struggling in a flood, surrounded by people who watch but turn a blind eye.
When Fang tries several times to hint at her ordeal to her parents, her mother clearly doesn't take it seriously. When Fang is lonely and desperate, her mother not only fails to lend a helping hand but becomes the last straw that breaks her.
Not only children but also parents and the general public need to receive correct sex education.
Teach children how to protect themselves from an early age and know how to seek help when encountering problems; teach parents how to help their children; let the whole society work together to build a protective wall for minors so that they can stay away from the shadow of fear and grow up healthily and happily.
The author is a student at Beijing No. 2 Middle School
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