November 23, 2012
By Zhang Dian

Editors from the EO's Chinese website publish a daily collection of extracts from commentary pieces that have appeared in the mainland press over recent days. The EO's English team then translates a selection of these opinion pieces.

Five Boys Died in a Dumpster
Introduction: On Nov 16, five boys were found dead in a street dumpster in Bijie City of  Guizhou Province ( 贵州省毕节市). According to the preliminary police investigation, the boys died of carbon monoxide poisoning after they started a fire in the dumpster to keep warm.  The five boys, aged 9 to 13, were cousins from one extended family. Four of the five had dropped out from school, and often went away from home together for days at a time. Their family was said to have nine children besides them and was so poor that it didn’t have time or money to take good care of them.

Comments:
Many people had noticed these vagrant boys but nobody helped them or contacted the relevant shelter. This reflects not only people’s indifference, but also their lack of knowledge and trust in shelters. In our society, people haven’t developed the habit to send vagrant kids to shelters.
Changjiang Daily(长江日报)
Original article: [Chinese]

The scene wasn’t far away from the sub-district office, but local chengguan (城管) and police paid no attention to these homeless kids. Why didn’t they get help from the local “No Homeless Kids” campaign? Why didn’t the system work well to help homeless kids get back home?
Dongfang Daily(东方早报)
Original article: [Chinese]

Why does everybody forget the five boys’ parents? Did they fulfill their responsibility as parents? The youngest among the dead was only 9 years old, and the oldest 13. Their peers were in parents’ arms while these five boys wandered the streets. According to the Criminal Law of China, people who fail to take care of the elderly, children or others who can’t live independently will be charged with the crime of abandonment. However, in reality irresponsible parents seldom get punished.
Hubei Daily(湖北日报)
Original article: [Chinese]

                             Dumpster where the boys died

Girl Fell to Death after Dinner with Teachers
Introduction: On Oct 27, a 19-year-old freshman girl named Liu Xiao’ao (刘晓傲) at Qiushi Technical College in Qingdao (青岛求实职业技术学院) died after eating dinner with five other classmates and six teachers. She fell from a fourth floor restroom for unknown reasons. According to the girl’s father on Sina Weibo, headmasters of the school refused to give a reasonable explanation for this accident and officially blamed the tragedy on Liu for drinking too much. Rumors on the internet say that these students and teachers drank about 40 bottles of beer that night. Business Daily (中国商报) tried to contact the school and was rudely rejected by the Party Secretary, who said, “Why do you find faults with our school? You're just a reporter from a little business paper, but you're not reporting business news; why are you reporting on this? What's it got to do with you? Are you police news? Don't make something out of nothing!"

Comments:
It is anything but “finding fault” for a journalist to explore the truth. On the contrary, those who are eager to block the messages show their fear and guilt. It’s useless for people to cover their own faults.
Huashang News(华商报)
Original article: [Chinese]

Private schools are run by businessmen and are meant to be for-profit institutions. Tempted by profits, a lot of private schools have deviated from the educational path. They cheat to maximize profits, but take little responsibility for taking care of students. In addition, three people died in two years in this school.
Hualong News(华龙网)
Original article: [Chinese]

                                                        Liu Xiao'ao

Kids in Bikinis
Introduction: On Nov 16, some little girls aged 5-6 grabbed attention at the Chutian Auto Culture Festival (楚天汽车文化节) in Wuhan where they wore bikinis and acted as car models. Pictures of the girls were put on Sina Weibo, resulting in seas of criticism. According to one spectator at the show, the little girls were asked to do sexy poses like adults, which was extremely inappropriate. Parents of the children, organizers of the show, and manufacturers of the cars were criticized as being irresponsible. 

Comments:
In a profit-oriented environment, donning bikinis might not bring happiness to the kids. If we don’t set a bottom line to protect kids from improper things, we’ll end up marring their pure hearts and bringing them a pure desire for profits.
Huashang News(华商报)
Original article: [Chinese]

Do these commentators online really care about children’s self-esteem? On the one hand, people condemn the children being displayed in bikinis and express their concern. On the other hand, they repost the pictures. The comments made on the kids’ pictures make more and more people aware of their appearance, which hurts the kids even more than the show itself. Some of the parents of those girls even took them back to the countryside to avoid disturbance.
Changjiang Daily(长江日报)
Original article: [Chinese]