A documentary

I watched an interesting program on television yesterday. It was a documentary that discussed the problem of children who have resulted from China’s one-child policy. China is undergoing rapid economic development and many wealthy classes have appeared. They take good care of their only child and expect him or her to be their successor. In such an environment, a lot of spoiled children come into being, and they are called ‘ little emperors’. This documentary was the story of how to rehabilitate them in a school for rehabilitation. 
At first, I thought it was simply about hopeless children who are a real annoyance to their parents, though it was uninteresting. As I watched it, I began to feel angry with their parents. The children were the victims of their parents. And furthermore, they were the victims of Chinese policy. 
Before the children came to the school, they hadn’t gone to school for years and became delinquent. Their parents gave them up as hopeless, yes, they didn’t think at all that they had a problem themselves,. 
At the school, they disciplined the children to get up early, to make their bed, to wash their faces and brush their teeth with a washbowl of water, to take a bath, to make friends, to do things with friends and so on. All of them were home disciplined! At first, they opposed the rules and hated their parents. But at their interviews, they tried to understand their parents and wanted their parents to believe them, and they really wanted their parents’ affection. A child who was just before graduation said that he would be able to talk about his thoughts with his parents at this moment. I was deeply impressed by what he said. The child steadily developed as a person, while his parents didn’t… I hope his parents will change for him. 

I watched the documentary for a long time and was very stimulated. NHK and others broadcast many good documentaries, so I will try to watch them much more.