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Wanting to raise “star” children is nothing new, but a significant number of parents in China have taken their offspring to a new level. “Jiwa” parenthood, as it is called, increases parents’ anxiety, and it can be expensive, too.
The name is derived from a decades-old untested medical treatment of injecting humans with chicken blood to boost energy. “The literal translation of ‘jiwa’ pumps chicken blood to children (to motivate them to learn),” says Dr. Xuan Li, assistant professor of psychology at New York University in Shanghai. “By translating it less literally, we can understand it as pushing children to be successful – to be the best.”
Dr Li and Dr Lixin Ren, associate professors of early childhood education at East China Normal University, point out that jiwa parenting shares similarities with tiger mother or helicopter parenting, but also exists differences. What is particularly salient about jiwa parenthood is the strong sense of moral responsibility of parents to help their children succeed and the emphasis on the academic aspect of child development, which is enough. different from tiger parenting which emphasizes parenting power and authority over children. Dr Li says, “The term jiwa parenting is imbued with a strong sense of stress and anxiety in parents who feel the need to motivate their children even without accepting, loving or appreciating it themselves. .
A national study published in the “Children’s Blue Book of China” reports that 60.4% of Chinese children aged 3 to 15 participated in after-school education programs, with tutoring taking the most of time. According to World times, the trend has led many parents to enroll their children in expensive private lessons because they feel pressured to do so because other parents are doing the same. The state-run newspaper and national public radio say parents fear their children will fall behind if they don’t register.
The investment of Jiwa parents in the tutoring of their children is important. The bipartisan report, a weekly news digest suggests that parents spend 25 to 50 percent of their income on further education, most of it on after-school tutoring, which has become a multibillion-dollar business in China.
Chinese government cracked down on private lessons
Within the framework of the draconian regulations in many sectors described in the Washington post, the Chinese government has banned for-profit tutoring companies. The State Council and the Communist Party have claimed that they believe that by significantly limiting the number of programs, they can not only stem educational inequalities, but also increase China’s low birth rate.
Relaxing the country’s infamous one-child policy, which has become a two-child policy and is now a three-child policy, has had little effect. The idea behind the new rulings is that if parents don’t spend exorbitant sums on expensive guardians, they will have more disposable income and more children to boost China’s birth rate. The cost of raising children, especially in China’s urban cities, is high and out of reach for many parents.
President Xi Jinping’s crackdown is unlikely to affect those who can afford private lessons, either. “Jiwa parents will no doubt find ways to get around the new regulations,” notes Dr Ren, “especially parents who are deeply concerned about the future economic security of their children.”
Fear of falling behind
Dr Ren, who has studied the effect of extracurricular activities on preschoolers, told NPR: “Whenever I hear the word ‘jiwa’, I get a very strong sense of anxiety, stress, fear and exhaustion. [There is a sense among parents] I feel that if I don’t move forward, I’m going to fall behind.
In Dr. Ren and Dr. Li’s studies of preschool children, it was found that increasing the level of participation in extracurricular activities could benefit children’s cognitive and language development to some extent, but that children’s excessive hours could diminish the benefits of extracurricular participation or even generate negative effects on child development. They point out that parents’ expectations for performance tend to increase as children grow older. Jiwa’s parents use up almost all of the free time of school-aged children by scheduling hours of after-school programs, mostly one-to-one lessons. Parents who take this approach are relentless in terms of the time, money and energy they invest in seeing their offspring succeed.
Will “Chicken Blood” Parenthood Come to the United States?
So, will this parenting trend take hold here?
“There are specific aspects of culture and social realities in China that may have taken this push to the extreme. Chinese parents tend to believe in effort rather than talent and see education as a path to higher education and social mobility, ”Dr Li told me.
Essential readings for parenting
“While helicopter parenting describes intensive involvement in all aspects of children’s lives, jiwa parenting is primarily about deep involvement in a child’s learning, driven by parents’ high expectations for their success,” she adds.
Dr Li and Dr Ren remind us that the intensive parenting approach is not new or uniquely Chinese. Parents around the world, and in the United States, have often taken this approach without even realizing it. Think: middle-class American parents who send their kids to Japanese Kumon programs, Chinese classes or Russian-style math camps, or Korean parents who send their kids to endless schools.
But that doesn’t mean it’s good for kids or parents when so much emphasis is on academics. This is only one aspect of a child’s development and their chances of success.
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