Student Suicide Rate In China Rising

HONG KONG—China's university and high school students, faced with growing pressures amid rapid social change and a tough job hunt for fresh graduates, are increasingly seeking a way out of their problems through suicide, experts say.

Technical college instructor
A recent survey of student mental health showed more than a quarter of those interviewed said they had had suicidal thoughts.

The May student psychology poll conducted by the Society Survey Institute of China questioned 1,000 university students in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, and other major cities.

"All the problems are on the rise. Suicide among university students has become normal now," according to one instructor at a technical college who declined to be identified.

Student suicides on the rise
"There are many reasons for this, which need to be analyzed in a concrete way," he said, adding that problems finding work was probably the single biggest factor.

The poll also showed more than 16 percent of university students reported having experienced anxiety or panic attacks, depression, and symptoms of paranoia.

And a recent study conducted by the provincial education department in the central province of Hubei showed that at least one student in every university in the province committed suicide in any given year, and that this figure appeared to be on the rise.

The study also showed that every completed suicide was linked to psychological problems.

A doctor surnamed Kang at the Taiyuan Psychiatric Hospital in the northern province of Shanxi said growing social pressures were certainly a major factor in the sharp increase in student suicides as China's economy continues to grow at breakneck speed.

"Part of the reason is growing social pressure. That's a major factor," Kang told RFA's Mandarin service. "Another aspect is the higher incidence of psychological problems in society as a whole. Some people seek help, but others suffer from these problems without ever getting professional help. Those are the two main reasons."

Growth of hotlines
Overall, an estimated 1.6 million people are believed to suffer from psychological problems in China, but the vast majority of problems such as anxiety and depression are neither recognized nor treated.

But gradually, mental health awareness is beginning to grow, following a string of well-publicized suicides at university campuses across the country.

At the beginning of December 2005, a female post-graduate student at the north campus of Zhongshan University in the southern city of Guangzhou committed suicide by leaping from a tall building.

On March 1 this year, another female post-graduate from the Huanan Agricultural College killed herself by jumping off a building, the fourth suicide at this college in less than a month. She was preceded by two other female post-graduates and a male undergraduate on Feb. 20, Feb. 22, and Feb 27.

Other suicides were also reported: on April 28, a doctoral student in Chengdu, and on May 16, a doctoral student at Beijing's People's University who was about to graduate.

The growing issue of mental distress in China is manifest in the proliferation of counselling hotlines, which extend much-needed support in a country where psychological counselling is still in its infancy.

Stigma of mental distress
A counsellor at the Kangleyuan hotline in the southern city of Shenzhen attributed the growing number of suicides among young people to undiagnosed and untreated depression.

"Here in Shenzhen the problems are usually to do with people's love life, or with problems with their studies," said the counsellor, identified only by her surname, You.

"Meanwhile, there are lots of teenager-related problems, such as the head of household who has [financial] problems with their children's education...or online gaming."

Psychological problems have only begun to get the full attention of the medical profession and the general public in China in recent years.

Studies show that around 90 percent of completed suicides have never received help of any kind. And most people still cannot distinguish easily between acute psychological problems (mood disorders) and acute mental illnesses (psychosis) when they occur in people they know.

Sometimes, patients and their families are aware that something is wrong but don't seek treatment for fear of the potential social stigma attached to mental distress.

Numbers seeking help rise
One doctor who treats both psychological problems and acute mental illness at Beijing's Ankang Hospital told RFA that there was a very big difference between the two and that they were treated in very different ways.

"Put in plain Chinese, if someone is out of control, then we send them to the psychiatric ward...In the more serious cases it's very easy to tell that there is something wrong with the person. They can't fit into work or into society. But when people have psychological difficulties they receive counselling, and they will see a psychologist."

Examples of mental health problems on the rise in China in recent years include depression and depressive disorder, anxiety, paranoia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Ms. You, a counsellor from the Kangleyuan hotline in the southern city of Shenzhen, said she worked with clients both face-to-face and over the telephone.

"Over here in Shenzhen, our helpline has 10 phone lines for incoming calls. There are as many again at our Guangzhou branch," You said.

"The majority of those who call us are seeking counselling by telephone, for which we charge a fee. If the person can't get in to see someone then we offer telephone counselling, but if they are in Shenzhen or nearby then they can see someone face-to-face, because the results are much better than with telephone counselling."

Young people at risk
A doctor at the Shanghai Municipal Mental Health Counselling Center told RFA the center was extremely busy, and the numbers were rising year-on-year.

"We see 200-300 patients a day here," she told RFA reporter Bai Fan.

"The numbers rise every year. Some present with psychological problems. Others have mental illness. We see them all. We are a psychiatric hospital, so we see patients with acute mental illness, and those in need of psychological counselling."

A recent study on suicide carried out by the World Bank-backed Disease Control Priorities Project found that young people aged between 15 and 24 were at particularly high risk of suicide, both in China and in other developing countries.

"Studies from Sri Lanka, India, and China have shown that poverty, bankruptcy, and unemployment are significant risk factors for suicide," the report said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also identified poverty as a major factor in suicide, followed by stress, mental illness, and substance abuse.

Higher suicide rates, especially among the young, have been associated with higher rates of unemployment.

Societies with booming and cutthroat economies, as is the case in China, with a large pool of unemployed youth, are at higher risk.



This is bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indeed, I think its time to import physcologists asap.

Such things have not been uncommon in Hong Kong, I can tell you. I haven't heard much of these things in Mainland though..... And while people like to say that primary education is very good in China, college have been noted as a different thing.... No surprise from Hong Kong, but mainland? News.

The times are changing. College education used to be a hot commodity in China, now there are more graduates than employers can absorb, so opportunities are fewer. In Guangzhou the employment fairs at the college campuses are insanely packed with grads looking for jobs. Unless you're an engineer or trained in a technical field, or from a top-rated school, starting salaries are pretty low, something like 1400-2000 rmb a month. You'd probably make more as a professional hostess ("drink companions") if you had the looks.
Situation with graduates from the best colleges are better. But getting into those is extremely difficult.

I heard part of the reason is the old mentality towards a college education: in the old days any diploma was worth a lot, so when students get into college, they think they're all set for an easy life, so they don't work hard in college. I've heard it described that high school is all hard work, college is relaxing, music, parties, romance. As long as you get by, pass your classes with whatever grade, and get your diploma you're ok. The result of this is that lots of graduates come out of college having learned little. More and more graduates leave college feeling they've wasted their time; they might have been better off entering the workforce after high school and getting 4 years of work experience. The value of work experience cannot be stressed enough, if you look at the average office job requring a college education, it will say several years of work experience required. Only a very few say they will take fresh graduates (some even emphatically stress that fresh graduates not clutter them with resumes).. Practical education isn't as stressed since college is meant for theoretics, as opposed to "da zhuan" --3 year vocational school--which stresses practical skills--ironically geared for those who don't make it into college. Some vocational school graduates (I heard network technician is hot) are doing even better than college graduates. Even post graduate education is suffering from this. Recently there was an article online about some grad with a phD getting 1500 rmb/month starting salary and how he regretted going to grad school.

With the tight job market it's no wonder that graduates are feeling more pressure. Then again, colleges and high schools have been suicide-ridden for a long time, it's nothing new. High schoolers are faced with the tremendous pressure of the national college exams. There was a news story this summer about a girl who wasn't allowed into the exam room because she didn't follow the dress code, and after she fixed her clothes or whatever, she was too late--the exam room was already locked. She jumped off a bridge. The pressure of parents on kids to do well in school is probably unimaginable by westerners. Everything parents do is geared towards academics and excellence. The result is often students who are not well-rounded and well-adjusted. All they know how to do is study. In fact, some of the excellent students who make it to grad schools in the US are such people. Total bookworms with psychological problems that end up in campus murders. For some reason, my alma mater had a few such wackos.

Upon entering college, some students can't adjust. Some complain of feeling hollow: after the incredible strain of the last year of high school, college is dissapointing, they feel disenchanted and suicidal. There are school psychologists in Chinese universities and it is a growing field; my mother is such a counselor and my gf interned as one too. She was in a program to lecture all incoming freshmen about psychological counseling services at the university and common causes of anxiety. They also did a risk accessment survey on all the freshmen and asked the high-risk ones to come talk with a counselor. Still, every year around crunch time you see the stories in the papers about suicides. Most of them are jumpers, since high buildings are plentiful (most dorms will be tall enough) and other ways are harder to succeed (you can't buy sleeping pills on my gf's campus, you need a prescription from the school doc). Just before she graduated, my gf said there was a jumper at her school. A kid in the music department was practicing in a practice room late at night and lost it, broke the instrument, and dove out the window. Classes continued as usual, but there was a news lockdown. The papers didn't specify which school, but from the details it was obvious. They did an ok job of cleaning up though, no blood on the brand new multi-million dollar campus park. Ironically, that incredibly expensive college park in Guangzhou (the amount of infrastructure there is astonishing by any standard) will be wasted. The job situation is such that the government is cutting back on funding--rationale being the overabundance of graduates already. Example, from this year forward, there will be no more government funding for grad school.

Unless you're an engineer or trained in a technical field, or from a top-rated school, starting salaries are pretty low, something like 1400-2000 rmb a month.

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Just how much is that in US Dollars???

This problem is also rampant in Japan. Do Chinese high schools & colleges have sports programs like those in the US? What do the kids in school do for recreation? The way you put it many seem to be "nerds" by western standards. I am not here to judge.

bd popeye said:

Just how much is that in US Dollars???

This problem is also rampant in Japan. Do Chinese high schools & colleges have sports programs like those in the US? What do the kids in school do for recreation? The way you put it many seem to be "nerds" by western standards. I am not here to judge.

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175-250 USD permonth
cost of living in china is less than in the US, most people don't need a car and you can find some nice food places that are pretty cheap

there's the sports for the normal kids at school and there are those specially designed sport schools for like rising international olympian stars

Thanks RedMercury!

I will contribute what I can:

I remember when I was in elementary school in China, I would get off school at anytime between 5-7PM, and then do 2-3 hours of homework. Also, my parents (as did every Chinese parent) expected me to get no less than 90%. So definately, the academic pressure is a big factor.

Here's a little monthly breakdown for living cheap in Guangzhou right now, estimated by my gf:

(the conversion rate is 1 usd : ~8 rmb, but really these numbers themselves can be directly translated to dollar figures for the amount of stuff you can expect to buy. THe discrepencies tell you what things are expensive (housing, energy, transport) versus cheap (food, clothing))

housing: ~300 if you're okay with living away from city center in a "handshake building" --meaning the apartment buildings are built so closeto each other people can shake hands from adjacent windows. These are apartments put up by former farmers as the city expanded into the surrounding rural areas. Notorious fire hazards. A decent apartment in a safe complex near city center will set you back 1000-2000 rmb a month. Or you could buy one for 10 times that a square meter--neighborhood of 500,000 to 900,000 rmb.

electricity/water: ~40 if you can really scrimp. For peripheral Guangzhou electricity is 1 rmb per kilowatt-hour, with lots of annoying blackouts this summer. Water is 2.5 rmb per ton (non drinkable, of course). Prices are a bit better downtown. If you have A/C on all the time like my parents, expect 200-300 a month.

transportation: ~120 assuming you ride to work and back each day. 2 trips at 2 rmb. If you are willing to wait for the non-air conditioned buses (which are slowly being phased out), you can cut that in half. A new car will start around 100,000. Gas is more expensive than US but gov subsidized so less than Europe, but it's rising. On a side note: the cost of fueling and maintaining a car is comparable to that of riding taxis all the time. In GZ it starts from 7 rmb (but now plus a fuel tax of 1 rmb). "private" motorbike "taxis" are very common for shorter trips. Those you pre-negotiate with the driver, usually 3-5 rmb.

cellphone: ~50 a month if you don't talk too much. Everyone has a cellphone in Guangzhou, a good number of people have a few (haha, one for your family, one for your work, one for your mistress). I saw a elementary-school age girl with a cellphone (it interrupted her meal at Pizza Hut, her mom must regret spoiling that brat). All cellphones are pay-as-you-go, there are no monthly plans and unlimited nights/weekend But rates are cheap, generally less than 0.5 rmb a minute. Cellphone is expensive here in comparison!

internet: ~25 a month if you share a DSL line with your neighbors. Otherwise your own DSL line is like 500~700 rmb a year. Most subscribers are DSL, don't see much cable. Dialup is still around, of course. I was helping my gf look for housing and I was surprised how desolate and backwards-looking neighborhoods far from the city center are wired. It's really rather cheap in comparison to the US. NAT-boxes (routers) are very common. Many people share their internet with their neighbors. The alternative is web cafes. In Guangzhou the going rate is around 2-3 rmb an hour, plus there are specials and membership discounts. But you do get a lot for that, besides an internet connection, you're getting a good desktop (they are fast, good vid cards, webcam etc), loaded with every software/game you can want. Plus most cafes have bootleg movies/soaps you can watch while there. Poor man's theater.

food: Eating on the cheap: 450. The cheapest places I wouldn't advise you eating long term, unless you've had your hepatitus-a series. You can get a filling meal for 5 rmb at a "fast food" resturant. Fast as in they stir fry it immediately. If you want western-style cuisine, a moderate dinner for 2 (dating is usually the time when it's sought) is 50-100, more if you'd like to impress her. Meal for one at McDonalds and KFC is 25-50. A large pizza at Pizza Hut is ~150-200. Getting your friends together (a dozen), renting a private room would go anywhere from 300-1500+ depending on the place. You can eat your fill at a sushi bar for 50 if you go during discount times.

non-essential things:

clothing: can get as cheap as 10 for a t-shirt or top during seasonal sales. Otherwise expect to pay 30-150+ from a trendy shop on Beijing Road.
Jeans start at 70~80 or half that on sale, or 200 if it's a good brand. A basic office outfit (3 pieces) cost around 600. Branded stuff go for anywhere from 200 to 1000 a piece. Shoes: cheapest you can get is 10-40 for a pair of lady's sandals (really crappy though, don't expect it to last more than a month, but hey, fits the woman who changes shoes every month). A good pair of loafers will set you back 200.
A fake pair of Nikes can be had for 100, a real pair might set you back 800.

electronics: basically take the price in USD and muliply by 8 for computers and electronics, only a few home appliances are cheaper than this conversion rate. But there is a large second-hand market for computers. You can get a used laptop for 2000, but expect lots of little issues. A bottom-of-the-line new laptop is around 4000. A pirate CD/DVD will be around 5-6 rmb. A genuine music CD or movie dvd from a Chinese publisher starts around 20. A genuine PC game will be around 40+. A genuine copy of windows xp will be 1000 or so, but a pirate copy is 6, and there's almost no way to make sure it's not a pirate anyway (fake packaging can be very convincing). PS2, Xbox are not as common over there, prices are a little bit more than conversion rate, yuppie toys.

entertainment: at a premier club in Guangzhou, reserving a table has a minimum spending of 800 or so. A single budwiser will cost you around 80, it's better deal to buy them by the dozen. A cheap hotel room is ~50-100. A 3-star is ~200-300. A 4-star hotel is around 1000 (off peak), 3000 (!) during international fairs. A student discount movie ticket is around 20, full rate for a new film is 30-50. Off-peak karaoke is something like ~20 an hour?

You carry cash most of the time. Debit cards are just catching on and credit cards are still seldom seen. The largest bill denomniation is a 100 rmb red thing with Mao on the front (smallest is 0.1 rmb). A middle-class housewife might carry 1000 rmb in her purse. (another tangent: a woman died in a robbery-gone-wrong a few weeks ago, she had 39 rmb on her. A rather recent trend is motorcycle robberies. The assailant rides up from behind and snatches a lady's purse. This woman wouldn't let go of her 39 rmb and was dragged to death for her trouble. The latest trend is homegrown stun-gas. I'm not kidding. Keeping your cash in a bank card isn't that safe either, there've been a string of van kidnappings where the criminals abduct a person off the street and drive off somewhere in their van. One assailant goes to an atm with the bank card. The rest torture/rape the victim until the PIN is surrendered.)

If you're curious I might post more.

Thanks for all that info on the PRC....RedMercury thanks for the cost of living index on Guangzhou. Based on the rate of exchange I could do well there on my monthly income...

Jeez school there sound so tough. Are those teachers tough?:nono: And why so much homework for the students? they get out of school at 7pm? What time do they start?

That does not leave much time for a kid to be a kid...90% grades expected?? Susposed the child is not so bright? Do they have speical education?

I don't know much personally about teachers. The impression I get from people I talk to is that teachers aren't tough or mean. The larger problem is some are incompetent or poorly trained. The pressure for academia is not from the teachers mainly, though they do nudge students. It is an entire atmosphere. Academic competition between students is pretty intense. It is accepted practice to post exam grades with names. Being number 1 is glorious and being ranked low is shameful. The school culture is just different. The "popular kids" are those who score well, get positions of responsibility in student organizations/youth cadre, etc. Sure jocks are still thought attractive, but the highest scoring boy is also attractive. The highest scoring boy and girl would be considered a well-matched couple, almost with an air similar to that of prom king and queen.

School starts around 8 usually, it isn't terribly early. There are a lot of compulsory "extra-carricular activities"-- study/review sessions etc. Especially when preparing for entrance exams to highschool and college. Yes the amount of homework is probably higher than in the US. Part of it is emphasis on rote memorization and the belief that students should not only know something, but be practiced and fluent in it, which requires the practice of a lot of homework. Take math for example; students are expected not only to know how to do a problem, but to do it quickly, be familiar with that class of problems, so they can solve novel problems more easily.

Yeah, less time for a kid to be a kid. Hence perhaps fewer well-rounded, well-adjusted kids. Some new initiatives are addressing this with extra-carricular activities that hope to make kids more well-rounded and social. The pendulum swings.

Hehe, suppose a child is not so bright. The kid is forced to work harder. Lower standards are not an option, though he or she might not compare well to the class brainiacs. I don't know much about the current state of special education, but I'd guess there's no ADHD diagnosis for a pass to lower standards. The parents might hire private tutors for their kids. Paid tutoring is quite common, lots of cash-strapped college students do it, and the cost of hiring a tutor is definately low enough to be accessible for middle-class parents.