Reading On Children (Taipei: Locus Publishing) could easily make a parent break into a cold sweat. As the subtitle of the book – The story of families kidnapped by exams: The testimony of a tutor – indicates, the author, Wu Xiaole, became a freelance tutor after graduating from the prestigious College of Law at the National Taiwan University.
She did not pursue a career in law, a major her mother had chosen for her, but instead broke the conventions and awakened her passion for language. Her own struggle, combined with the distorted parent-child relationship she experienced and witnessed as a result of the unrelenting pressure of exams and college admissions in Taiwan, urged her to write the realistic and powerful ‘strange fruit’ – On Children.
Wu Xiaole compiled what she saw while working as a tutor into nine stories: Man’s child and cat’s child; A cub hibernating below the surface; You have to have ADHD; The myth of private schools; Against the heritage; Talent; Baoyu’s theatre of unease; All the monsters are here; and Monologues of a top student.
The stories of different families demonstrate the bizarre ‘monster parents’ in Taiwan and address the problems that exist in the educational system. At the forefront of the ‘great game’ between parents and children, Wu observed the complex emotional entanglements within a family with keen insights and deep empathy. She saw young souls being pressured or even crashed, and parental love toward their children turned into a terrible spell.
Although Taiwan is different from Macau in various ways, I still highly recommend parents in Macau, where pressure and competition are on the rise, to read this book of alarming tragedies.
It is also worth mentioning that the book has been adapted into a five-episode TV show by the Taiwan Public Television Service. After being aired in July this year, it generated heated discussion among the public. The TV version abandons the traditional approach and introduces elements of sci-fi and fantasy, with a distinctive visual style and smooth narrative flow. It brings great entertainment and also keeps the depth of reflection and questioning, making it a rare quality show in recent years.
One thing I particularly like in the book is a quote from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet: ‘Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.’
