December 5, 2008
A truly sad story is on the front page of today’s Chongqing Evening News: A mother accused her six-year-old daughter of stealing a 0.5-yuan coin from the house.
The girl, whom the newspaper calls “Lele,” denied it. Her mother then said something she would later regret: “Fine. If you didn’t steal it, then chop off your hand.” Then she left.
So Lele cut off her little finger while her mother was away.
At the hospital, the doctor found that the girl had hacked at her little finger six times, cutting it into six pieces. When was asked if it hurt, or if she regret doing it, her only answer was “no.” Doctors say that the little girl never cried, but it could not be denied that she was in pain: she couldn’t get to sleep all night.
The girl’s father, Zhang Tai, said that the surgery had taken all of the 6,000 yuan he had managed to borrow, but he still owed the hospital money. He said that since his wife was expecting another child, the six-year-old girl had taken on household responsibilities including cooking meals and feeding their pigs. “She holds firmly to her position when she thinks she is right,” Zhang said.
The article concludes by quoting a psychologist who says that the child may have been trying to get her parents’ attention through her actions.
A few days ago, the media reported that a nine-year-old boy hanged himself with his red Young Pioneer scarf after he fell ill and his parents refused to give him ten yuan for medicine. The boy was rescued and sent to the hospital, where he lay in a coma.
An editorial in the Guangzhou Daily attributed the boy’s suicide attempt to a lack of proper “psychological education” which could have taught him how to face life’s difficulties.
- Chongqing Evening News via netease (Chinese): Six years old girl chopped off her finger, trying to prove her innocence.
- Guangzhou Daily via qq.com (Chinese): Nine years old bog hanged himself with his red scarf after parents refused him ten yuan for fever medicine.