Wang Pu, a reporter for this magazine

A female college student in Jinan, Shandong, jumped to her death late at night because she could no longer bear the “school bullying.” According to news reports, she “jumped naked”—meaning she was completely naked when she jumped! This shocked me immensely. Have young women today become that liberal? Even jumping to their deaths is done in such a “provocative” way!

I reviewed the reports regarding this girl’s jump from a building. First, the police released the results of their investigation: According to preliminary analysis, there were no signs of a struggle inside the female student’s dorm room. A forensic external examination of the body revealed that the deceased’s primary injuries were consistent with those caused by a fall; no scratches, bruises, or signs of restraint were found on her neck or other parts of her body; however, there was a mark on the inner side of her left thigh20 cm×9 cmSuch abrasions and contusions can result from a top-to-bottom fall, such as when straddling or climbing over a balcony window. Second, school officials denied the rumors, stating that the girl had not been a victim of “school bullying,” but rather suffered from mental health issues and took her own life due to despair. So why was she completely naked at the time of her “suicide“? School officials responded that the girl was accustomed to “sleeping naked.”

As a mere commoner, I dare not “speculate recklessly” about the investigation results released by the police; however, I am somewhat puzzled by the term “sleeping naked” used in the school’s response. To put it plainly, the phrase “sleeping naked” has shocked me! Shandong is, after all, the birthplace of Confucius and a land of cultural tradition—it’s quite conservative compared to other provinces. A young woman living in a dorm with a group of other young women actually “sleeps naked”? And what season is it in the north right now? It’s just been the “Winter Solstice.” I checked the weather forecast for Jinan, and it’s below zero6Degrees. Just imagine, at minus6A girl “sleeping naked” in a shared college dorm—this is… As a lifelong resident of Shandong, I really can’t wrap my head around it, no matter how hard I try. And what era are we living in, anyway? Apparently, it’s not uncommon for a female student’s boyfriend to spend the night in a college dorm! I wonder under what circumstances this girl, who was born in Linyi—a historic revolutionary base area—developed this habit.

The greatest benefit of the internet age is the rapid and timely dissemination of information. Even though China has the world’s most advanced “Great Firewall,” it cannot stop people from “circumventing” it—not to mention that we don’t need to do so within the country. News quickly spread online: First, the girl’s family responded, stating that she had never had the habit of “sleeping naked.” Second, the *Qilu Evening News* reported that before her death, the girl had called her mother for help, saying she had encountered bad people who were trying to force her to take her own life; the call then suddenly disconnected. Third, the girl’s mother said she heard a commotion on the phone that sounded like an argument. Fourth, after the incident, a netizen claiming to be the girl’s classmate posted online, stating that one of her roommates was the “child of a wealthy family” who, jealous that her own boyfriend had fallen for the girl, frequently teamed up with other roommates to bully her—even forcing her to “kneel naked” on the dorm floor…

So, who is in the right—the school or the parents? Are the online rumors true? That remains to be confirmed. In this age of widespread information, “you can’t keep a secret forever.” There are still many unresolved questions surrounding this incident. For example, why was the video of the reporter’s interview quickly deleted? Why didn’t the school allow the parents to see their daughter’s body immediately? Why did the girl have old injuries on her body? Does the school have a doctor’s certificate to back up its claim that she had mental health issues? And so on. I’m sure netizens will dig into these details; I won’t dwell on them here. Since “school bullying” has been mentioned, I’d like to share a “bullying incident” I experienced many years ago. As a man, when I was slapped in the face, I didn’t choose to jump off a building—let alone “jump naked”—but I nearly became the next “Ma Jiajue”……

Come to think of it, that was...30This happened many years ago. At the time, I was attending First High School in my hometown in Shandong. Since I wasn’t an outstanding student, I chose to study art—to apply for an art program, where as long as I passed the specialized art exams, the general academic courses300A little more should be enough.

Back then, our art classroom was in a very remote location. The school had built a student dormitory in the southeast corner of the playground and set aside a room in it for us to use. There weren’t many students taking art classes with me—only seven or eight in total—and they came from different classes, so usually only three to five of us would attend each class.

The problem back then was that the classrooms were connected to the dorms. At that time, things at the school had already started to get rough—troublemakers from the school often teamed up with street thugs to bully classmates and extort protection money. Perhaps because this dormitory was located far from the main campus, street thugs took advantage of the fact that students were in class to break in and wreak havoc inside.

I remember that while our teacher was lecturing us, a sarcastic voice came from the dorm next door—I don’t remember exactly what was said, but the gist of it was that they were mocking us—and a scowling face peered through a gap in the ceiling beam. Our art teacher flew into a rage as soon as he heard it, stood up, and scolded the student. Back then, these kids didn’t dare to openly defy a teacher, so the student fell silent.

Before long, the teacher stepped out to use the restroom, and that jerk showed up again, starting to hit on the girls in our class. I couldn’t help but yell at him. That caused quite a commotion. The jerk disappeared, but a moment later, our classroom door was kicked open, and a group of young thugs stormed in, looking menacing. The leader was holding a military belt in his hand… Fortunately, the teacher arrived just in time to shout them away, so no physical altercation took place. A few days later, while the teacher was out of the classroom, that same group barged in again. They charged straight at me. The leader was wearing a padded coat; I later found out he was a thug named Xu who had just been released from a labor camp. He said to me, “I hear you’re pretty tough.”x. I stared at him coldly, my eyes glancing at the stone Buddha head lying on the ground—a classmate had picked it up in the wild, and it was about the size of a soccer ball. I thought to myself, if he dared to lay a hand on me, I’d smash him with the Buddha head.

Maybe because this thug saw that I was staying calm, even though he was spouting filth, he didn’t dare to get too cocky. I just stared at him coldly, without saying a word. Seeing my reaction, he flung his arm, and his sleeve slapped me across the face. I was furious and was about to strike back when I suddenly noticed that the boy following behind him was fiddling with a handgun. So I hesitated and held back, remaining silent the whole time. The thug flicked his sleeve against my face again. Just then, one of his accomplices shouted, “The teacher’s coming!” The whole group hurriedly scattered.

As a man from Shandong, being slapped in the face in public is a tremendous insult. The teacher, knowing what had happened, immediately took me to the principal to report the situation. The principal looked helpless and said he’d called the police from the local station several times, and he’d even personally led the security guards in chasing and beating those scoundrels—but to no avail. The campus would be quiet for a few days, only for them to pop up again from who knows where.

The teachers can't handle it, the principal is powerless—so I'll do it my way! This is a17The thoughts of a teenager.17At that age, my blood was boiling, and I was filled with a murderous intent. I asked a classmate to ride his bike to the market to buy a knife—and not just any knife, but specifically a butcher’s knife for chopping bones, with a wide blade and a curved edge. With the knife in hand, I had this classmate ride his bike and take me on a frantic search for that scoundrel—I even skipped school to do it.

I remember we didn’t find that scoundrel, but we did track down one of his accomplices. When we pressed him for Xu’s whereabouts, the kid was evasive. I pulled a knife from my coat and swung it at his head—luckily, a classmate who was with me grabbed my arm just in time, so the knife struck the wall instead, chipping off a piece of plaster. When that kid realized I was serious about killing him, his face went deathly pale in an instant. He immediately begged for mercy, saying Xu might be at some school. We rushed over right away, but we didn’t find him, and we haven’t seen him since.

I don’t know what would have happened if I’d found him; just thinking about it now sends a chill down my spine. Because in my mind, I’ve played out the scenario countless times: how I’d hack him to pieces, how I’d cut him and his accomplices into little bits, and how I’d dispose of the bodies to cover my tracks! Perhaps it was divine protection that kept me from running into him, or maybe he got wind of what was going on and fled—in any case, this “bullying” incident came to an end right there. Otherwise, my fate might have taken a different turn: I could have been shot, or I might be sitting in a prison cell right now. In any case, I certainly wouldn’t have become the editor-in-chief of a magazine.

Why did I start by talking about the college student who jumped to his death in Jinan, only to suddenly switch the subject to myself? That doesn’t follow the logical flow of the text. It’s not that I want to portray myself as “brave”; what I’m trying to say is that “school bullying” is actually a very serious issue. These are all young people in the prime of their lives, and they’re prone to taking extreme actions—just like Ma Jiajue, who, once provoked, was capable of brutally murdering several innocent classmates. Therefore, neither schools nor society should ignore this phenomenon. We cannot shirk responsibility by claiming “they’re just kids” or by sweeping issues under the rug, and we certainly shouldn’t use the pretext of protecting the school’s reputation to shield the perpetrators. A slow response or an ambiguous stance will only aid and abet the perpetrators. Once a “bullying” incident has been quelled, the school may have suppressed the underlying issues to save face, but it may not be able to prevent it from happening again.
“The possibility of ”bullying.“ Ask yourself: Is this really how educators—who are supposed to ”lead by example”—should behave?

It takes two to tango. To eradicate school bullying, in addition to education, deterrent “tough measures” are essential. To some extent, we should draw on U.S. legislation and explicitly prohibit “school bullying”; students found engaging in “bullying” should either be expelled or sent to a juvenile detention center.

Especially now, with incidents of “school bullying” occurring one after another in mainland China—and with a trend toward younger perpetrators—this issue deserves even greater attention. Examples include the “incident involving a female middle school student in Yongxin, Jiangxi” that went viral online, and the “case of a Chinese high school exchange student abusing a fellow student” that shocked both China and the United States. Some cases have even drawn the attention of Premier Li Keqiang, who this year6In [month], he issued an important directive: “Campuses should be the most open and safest places. Frequent incidents of campus violence not only harm the physical and mental health of minors but also undermine the basic moral standards of society. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with relevant parties, must take a multi-pronged approach—in particular, by improving laws and regulations, strengthening legal education for students, and resolutely curbing behaviors that disregard human dignity and life.” Let us join hands to uphold order on campus and declare war on “school bullying”!

(The author is the President and Editor-in-Chief of Asia News Weekly.)