Question for all of you

[outcast]

Why is domestic violence so common in China? Why doesn't anyone do anything to put an end to it?

[Quest]

Let's put an end to wars and crimes, ok? Let's do it.

[roddy]

You're assuming it is 'so common' in China - are there any statistics to show that it is more common than in any other country? In comparison with countries at similar levels of development? In comparison with other Asian cultures?

You're then assuming that nobody is doing anything about it, which is untrue - there are NGO's working in the field, public education campaigns and I think (I may be misremembering this) talk about legislative changes.

It's undoubtably a major issue - see here, here and here for some information. But claiming that it is 'so common' and that nobody is doing anything about it need backing up if you're to be taken seriously. I'd say the current situation is similar to the UK or US (and probably many other countries) a few decades back - it's agreed it's a bad thing, but the legal and social systems to do something about it aren't yet in place. Things like the UK's Zero Tolerance campaign and challenging the attitude that the police don't get involved in 'domestics' aren't yet happening.

[outcast]

You're assuming it is 'so common' in China - are there any statistics to show that it is more common than in any other country? In comparison with countries at similar levels of development? In comparison with other Asian cultures?

It does not matter how common it is in comparison with other asian countries, but even the government admits that it is common.

You're then assuming that nobody is doing anything about it, which is untrue - there are NGO's working in the field, public education campaigns and I think (I may be misremembering this) talk about legislative changes.

I have not seen any evidence of such an NGO precense in the city I live in. I have never seen any organizied attempts to stop this.

And BTW, your links are many years old. can't you provide anything more recent?

[roddy]

Can't quickly come up with anything in English - do a search on 暴力 at http://www.women.org.cn and you'll get some more recent Chinese-language stuff.

I'm not claiming that what is currently being done is anywhere near adequate, and there's a massive amount of work to be done. The seeds are out there though - I've seen public information posters about domestic violence in Beijing, changes were made to the Marriage Law a while back to make domestic violence a cause for divorce, and there are NGO's working in the field - see here. There are also a bunch of articles here which may be of interest.

I don't think it's fair to say that nothing is being done because you haven't seen any evidence of it - the situation isn't that bleak. It is, however, pretty damned bad and as always in China improvements - if any - are likely to be slow and patchy.

[Fran & Gaz]

Why is Domestic Violence common in China? Its common in Australia and New Zealand too, so why not in the most populated country in the world? Its a shameful part of the fabric of our society, regardless of the society.

In Australia, abuse upon males by females is increasing. We can try and back this up with a recent report ( published 2 days ago ) but w'ere not as gifted in the Copy and Paste department as others.

Reasons abuse is increasing ( still far higher male to female ) are: Substance abuse (including alcohol ), the abuser having been sexually, emotionally, verbally or physically abused themselves at some time. If as a child, etc this plants a seed that violence is the way to deal wth situations. An abuser has a lower impulse control than a non-abuser. This is ingrained in them. Stress, "keeping up with the Joneses" or "the Chans" in this country's case, expectations heaped on people in society, lower impulse control and past hurts all compound to have an explosive result.

Female abuse on partners in Victoria, Australia is increasing. In our society in Australia, women are heaped with as many reponsibilities as men ( career, finances, etc ) plus having children, etc and men who are draining on their expectations. Women are becoming more aggressive the more they are in a mans world. As we can see in China, so are some chinese women who turn to crime to fix their husband i.e: they kill them.

Who is to blame? The generations before us, especially our parents. Belting us, spanking us, hitting us, abusing us when we were vulnerable and so an abuser does not wish to be the vulnerable one in situations. The abuser has been controlled in any of the mentioned abusive ways in the and attempts to control situations in the present.

As in all countries, something is being done. But being a large populated country that is in some areas very third world yes as Roddy says the progress is going to be slow and patchy. Its to be expected in such a large country, but the word will get out there. If there can be ads on TV here in China teaching children to have a poo BEFORE they go swimming, I'm sure the propaganda will get its message through sometime. But this seed was planted by the generation before who had it planted by the generation before, so to change it will be quite a job, effectively changing in-grained habits.

THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR ABUSE, is a catch phrase...it shouldn't be excused, but it can be explained and slowly treated in every individual case. Counselling, Psychotherapy, medication, you name it and Intervention/Restraining orders.

You may wish to refute some of my points, but I speak from experience. I was bought up in an extremely abusive environment, physically, particularly emotionally, all of them...as was done to my mother by her mother. The result? ONE ANGRY, EMOTIONAL, LOW-IMPULSE CONTROLLED WOMAN!

[HashiriKata]

I have not seen any evidence of such an NGO precense in the city I live in. I have never seen any organizied attempts to stop this.

And how often have you personally seen scenes of domestic violence in the city you live? If I remember correctly, your very first posts on this forums, even before you came to China, were asking whether you should intervene when you see Chinese abusing their partners. Are you sure what you're saying now is not tinted by your preconception?

[outcast]

One narrowly avoided incident my first month here (thanks to my intervention it didn't spiral out of control), and also there was an incident that happened right outside of my apartment. In addition to this there a high school student aparently starting to beat his girlfriend (but someone else got there before I did), and also there was a story that one of my students told me about a university student trying to beat his girlfriend in the Nanjing University campus. Yes, I have seen it several times already. and this was all just in my first year.

What I have been saying has been "tinted" by things I have seen and heard.

Chinese men have a bad reputation pretty everywhere because of things like this, and it is well deserved.

[heifeng]

Well, there was a pretty popular soap opera on the subject that came out in 2002 called 不要和陌生人说话...I guess people opening their eyes to the fact it exists is a start, but even in other countries it's still a hush hush type of topic, women being abused or spousal abuse (since it could go either way) is hardly a new topic anywhere...

[md1101]

theres been an ad campaign on tv around australia for a few years talking about abuse on women. they're good ads... really make the abusers look like jerks.

[Quest]

Chinese men have a bad reputation pretty everywhere because of things like this, and it is well deserved.

Ouch. They do? and it is?

Consider yourself lucky, I've never personally witnessed or heard of any accounts of dv, and hmm... how many Chinese households do I know

Wasn't there a Greek story about someone finding a city very friendly and another very hostile? Due to non-evidence, bad sampling or just blatant assumptions, this can't be any truer: you find what you look for.

[Qcash3]

Chinese men have a bad reputation pretty everywhere because of things like this, and it is well deserved.

I have never heard of said reputation before, and I have known Chinese guys for a long time. I think that it is unfair to misrepresent the male population of a country with well over a billion people, as being a bunch of spousal abusers. I have stayed in several Chinese family's homes and I did not get the image that domestic violence was a common thing. That being said, domestic violence is everywhere, and to pretend that it isn't would be just foolish. Although I have not seen it, it may be more visible in China than in other countries. If that is the case, I believe it is because China has not developed the level of social awareness that is present in many other countries around the world. Things like racism and domestic violence, while they may not be more common, may be more visible. That will change with time, once China starts to develop more social service agencies, and social service policies.

[outcast]

this can't be any truer: you find what you look for.

So do you think I go trolling the city looking for things like this? Well I don't. I was just going about my normal business when these incidents occured.

[Ncao]

Chinese men have a bad reputation pretty everywhere because of things like this, and it is well deserved

That's strange where I live Latinos and Blacks have this reputation.All I can say is that bad seeds come in every races.

[roddy]

So do you think I go trolling the city looking for things like this? Well I don't. I was just going about my normal business when these incidents occured.

No, but it does sound like you spend a lot of time brooding about them - you've got one incident you intervened in, another outside your apartment, an 'apparently' and a 'story', over a span of one year.Which city do you live in, btw?

If you're actually interested in the causes and what's being done, you've been given links that'll take you in the right direction. Otherwise you just appear to be saying 'This is bad' to a bunch of people who know that already, along with a bunch of over-generalization. You're not enlightening anyone, including yourself.