Frequently occurring youth suicide: who's to blame?
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Last week, a 24-year-old man jumped from the roof of a nine-story building and killed himself. It is reported that he committed suicide because his girlfriend broke up with him.
A month earlier, three post-90s young men committed suicide together in Zhejiang Province because their poor living conditions made them unbearably nervous about their future.
Last year, on Nov. 26, a 30-year-old graduate student killed herself at school because she could not afford renting an apartment for her mother, who lost her husband.
Also, on March 21, two 24-year-old men, Zhu Xiaohui and Liu Li, committed suicide together in a hotel room in Zhejiang Province. The two men agreed on killing themselves together while talking online, so Liu traveled thousands of miles from Yunnan to Zhejiang to meet Zhu. They even established an online suicide group, whose members are all post-85s and want to die.
According to the figures from a report by Xinhua News Agency, 287,000 people in China commit suicide every year and around 2 million attempt suicide but do not manage to kill themselves. Also, 40 percent of people who commit suicide do not have a mental disease. That is to say, they made the decision under clear consciousness. Internationally, only 10 percent of people who commit suicide are without mental illness.
The question remains: who should be blamed?
The youth, especially the post-80s group, are most of the time the only child in a family and are often accused of being too fragile with large responsibilities.
From childhood to adolescence, Chinese youth have to pass through several obstacles. The first is going to school. From primary school, parents make every effort and pay a large amount of "sponsorship" tuition to send their children into a decent school. For the next 12 years, being accepted by a good university is the only goal of every student, and their fate is decided by a college entrance exam held once a year.
After graduating from college, finding a good job is difficult for students without family connections. Typically, a young graduate will send hundreds of CVs but receive no replies.
The rocketing housing prices leave most young graduates in big cities paying rent at a very small apartment. The parents give all their savings to their only child to buy an apartment, but many find they still cannot afford one.
The poor living conditions force many youths to take away their own lives. Chinese reporter and scholar Yang Jisheng said the uneven distribution of wealth and strict social class distinctions leave youths with fewer choices. One solution would be for the government to increase income of ordinary workers and curb corruption.
Shi Shusi, head of the news department of the Worker's Daily, said China's current education system makes children of various personalities and capacities into one kind and begin to train the one kind to have a narrow set of skills.
Economic commenter Ye Tan also attributed the spreading youth suicide to inequality of wealth in the market economy. She advocated social reform to create more equal opportunities for ordinary people, and she also said the youths should have more experiences and make their hearts stronger.
