Trending in China: Bullying Game Wins Praise Even as It Dredges Up Bad Memories

What’s trending?

Xizi (not her real name) was bullied at school. Now, she’s created a board game featuring a bullied child, a playground bully and a bystander classmate, which won an award at the 7th iStart Children’s Art Festival. The game has been met with positive comments and painful recollections on Weibo, as a 100 million users read the story.

What’s the story?

On Aug. 7, this year’s festival themed “1001 Game School” kicked off at venues around Chengdu, capital of Southwest China’s Sichuan province. “The Transferred Student’s Choice” won the “One More Go” award and was described as “a colorful yet dark” game. In the board game, players take on the roles of bully, bullied and bystander while encountering other children at school including those with developmental conditions.

Xizi, who learned after leaving compulsory education that she has Asperger’s syndrome, is far from alone in her experience with bullying. In a high-pressure school system such as China’s, such differences can make an already difficult educational experience even more challenging.

Xizi told local media Red Star News (link in Chinese) that she hoped the game would help children learn that they can “fight for the right to speak up” and resist bullying. She hopes that by sharing her own experience through the game, she can help children resist becoming the bullied players in the narrative as well as in their own lives.

What are people saying online?

Several commentors on the story had memories to share. One wrote, “I experienced campus bullying and the pain it caused … I still hate the bullies to this day.” Another reflected that “those classmates who bullied me when I was young are now living horrible lives, so their sense of superiority only existed in elementary school.”

Several top comments addressed responsibility for the issue. “Campus bullying is mostly about school management and students’ families. Without intervention, children apply a survival of the fittest methodology pure and simple.” Another says, “School bullying is about poor parent education, lacking school oversight and the non-reporting of teachers. Teachers may accidentally increase the intensity of bullying.”

Another Weibo user remarks that the board game creator’s Asperger’s syndrome was ignored by other commentors. “There are two main points that deserve attention, campus bullying and children with psychological issues that require intervention, especially if the latter appear introverted, shy, overly active or naughty.”

How to deal with the problem? One reader suggests that “once campus bullying is discovered, the bully should have a permanent record on file, which is equivalent to criminal punishment.” Another says the Chinese mainland should look to Hong Kong as a reference. Bullies there have to do community service, with subsequent actions linked to their parents’ credit scores.

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