Why is Life so Unbearable?

-Perspectives on the High Suicidal Rate of Chinese College Students

By Luke Zhang

How Serious?

On a beautiful day in September 8, 2003, in the elegant campus of Fudan University, Shanghai, the tranquility was broken by a thrilling shout: someone has jumped in suicide!

The one lying in her blood is a female graduate student Yang, who jumped from her residence in the 23rd floor of the foreign student's dormitory. Among the collective sighs from bystanders, a flower-like young girl was gone forever.

Two days later on September 10, China held her first "Suicide Prevention Day".

If one opens up recent reports on suicides among Chinese college students, one cannot help but be shocked. April 2002, a co-ed student of freshmen Class 2000 in a Heilongjiang college jumped to her death. The June of the same year, a graduate student in a university in Canton committed suicide. In September, a college co-ed in Tianjin was saved after she committed suicide. In 2002, among the ten colleges in the province of Guizhou, eight of them had occurrences of abnormal student deaths, for a total of 13; most of which were suicide.

March 2003, a college student in Changsha committed suicide. In April of the same year a student in a History Research Institute affiliated with a university in Beijing jumped to his death. In the spring of 2003, several colleges in Wuhan experienced a series of student suicides within a few months after school started, ten people dead, two were saved after rescue.

With a great deal of attention from the media, the education department of Hubei Province called a special meeting on "Prevention of college student suicides" It was attended by all party clerks from the 81 colleges in the province. Since the founding of the communist party, this was the first time a conference was held on the topic of college student suicide. It demonstrated how serious the issue has become!

One cannot help but ask: what has happened to these society elites? Why is it that life has become so unattractive, so unbearable?

The number 1 youth killer

According to investigations by the Chinese Health Department, every year there are 287,000 suicidal deaths. In addition, 2 million people tried suicide without dying. These numbers indicated that every two minutes one person died of suicide, and 8 others tried without success. How shocking!

Suicide has become the fifth most numerous causes of death. Among the age group 15 -34 , it has become number 1 cause of death. Collaterally, there are 1.5 million people who suffer serious long-term mental injury due to the suicidal death of their relatives or loved ones. This number include 1.35 million youths less than 17 years of age who personally experienced or witnessed the suicidal death of their parents.

According research performed by the Mental Trauma Research and Interference Center in Beijing, 37% of those who failed suicidal death did not spend more than 5 minutes before making a decision to commit suicide; 60% did not spend more than 2 hours. While the Chinese were celebrating the rapid progress of China's economy, why is it that so many in certain moments of their lives felt that other than death, there was no other way for them to choose? And it even include those highly admired college students? Where does the problem lie?

The campus is no longer "pure", college students need to graduate emotionally

In the conference on "Prevention of college student suicides", the provincial representatives requested that the college faculties put emphasis on the mental health of college students, find out the causes of suicidal intent and find ways to alleviate them. According to a person in Hubei's education department responsible for political thought, there are four reasons why students committed suicide:

1. Increased pressure from study and job placement. Because of less than ideal grades or unpopular specialties, students feared for their ability to find a job after graduation, and decided to give up their lives.

2. Thought distortion brought about by heavy economic pressure. It was pointed out that among the 500,000 college students in Hubei, nearly 20%, or about 100,000 lived under the poverty line. The high college tuition and other expenses has made students the economic burden of their families, which suffered under it. Many students have deeply felt guilt, from which they try to liberate through suicide.

3. One cannot ignore the single child factor. The dependency cultivated by single child in their families made them difficult to adjust to independent living in college campus.

4. Certain internet websites and minor journals attempted to beautify suicide. It became tempting for certain students to attempt suicide.

The conference concluded that psychological counseling and mental health education were very much lacking in many college campuses, and many teachers were unwilling to be involved in this area. Here is an extreme case: a psychological counseling teacher in a college became mentally ill due to long term exposure to the cruel realities revealed by her students, so much so that she cannot continue to work.

The oft repeated incidences of suicide also revealed the seriousness of mental health issues among college students. Prof. Tsui, who is responsible for mental health education in the University of Hailongjiang, sadly expressed his concern: the campus that was pure in the beginning is no longer a clean area, as mental health issues of college students became focused and obvious.

He explained that currently many colleges sent questionnaires to their freshman class, and group students into A, B and C categories. Those with serious personality issues are grouped to A, the lighter ones to B, and C is for those without any issues. Reports from many colleges showed that every year, about 15% of the freshman students belong to A and B categories. In the 2003 report "Research report on Beijing college student mental condition and developing mental quality education" showed that 16.51% of all college students have a mild or more serious mental health issue.

The "Black Trouble" in college campuses

Currently Mainland China enjoyed a unique economic advantage; many areas enjoyed an economic growth rate of over 10%. However, a good percentage of students were not impressed. Where they ought to be excited they were depressed; where they ought to strive forward they were slackening.

To seek the cause, some say that around these societal elites who have strived in their studies and experienced the hardship and examination halls, there arose a large number of successful people and business tycoons who have gotten rich by practicing opportunism or deceit. These cases have toppled the traditional mainstream thinking of "mandarin comes from scholarship" or "success comes from one's ability to survive the bitter coldness in a study". College students are unable to mentally balance what they saw. In a world where "money means success", they felt that their efforts were futile, and in their depression they gradually lost the desire to survive and finally desperation. There is another saying, that the students received a single item in their menu: their environments led them to the concept that getting rich quick is everything, yet they lacked a comprehensive education on living so that they consider getting rich as the entirety of successful life. Once they decided that they are incapable in this aspect, then life lost its meaning and they felt shameful facing their expectant parents. They decide that their only outlet is death.

In fact, the get rich quick atmosphere that prevailed in many places in Mainland China has certain and undeniable influences on students, and it spread to even young students in middle and high school. Last December The WenHui Journal made a study of "vocal slang" on 1951 high school students. They discovered that as much as 77.35% of the students interviewed showed negative emotions about their lives, and exhibited worries inconsistent with their age.

The so-called "Black Troubles" in college campuses are generally expressed in: troubled, frustrated, tired moods; dirty and offensive words out of the mouth; unbridled behavior; the phenomenon of "educated without up-bringing, knowledge without culture"; serious self-centeredness, and lack of skill in human relationship. To high school teachers, the acceptance percentage into colleges has almost become the only goal. Some home-room teachers used entering college as a bait for studying, and even employed the tune of "study to make money and wed beauty" to stimulate their students' interest to study. It is not difficult to imagine the student's attitude in life under such a learning environment.

What is the root of the problem?

Why is it that so many college students nowadays can suffer the heavy burden in life on the one hand, and yet so easily give up their lives on the other? Ms. Wu, Manager of the Canton Mou-ming College Mental Health Counseling Center, has spoken about the root of the problem. She felt that this group of students has a common attitude: if life has no meaning, then why do we still live on this world? She is surprised that the young people today are so alarmingly disrespectful of life, that they would not treasure it and can easily give it up.

According to the Browser Sowu-net, which held interviews with 1066 people on the Internet in September 2003, 47.09% of all interviewees had contemplated suicide; 12.01% were thinking about suicide; 16.89% currently not clear, but may contemplate suicide later; only a quarter of the interviewees had never contemplated suicide.

As for the reason for suicidal attempts, 63.57% said "broken dream, too much living pressure"; 21.29% said "Failed love affair, unfortunate family"; 15.14% said "unbearable pain from illness". Obviously, most of those who committed suicide were unclear about the goal and meaning of life. Among those committing suicide in college campuses, this tendency is even more outstanding.

Youth without regret, life has a way

Our countryman should learn from the painful practical lessons that "material abundance can not determine everything". Economic progress cannot pave the correct way to one's life meaning. How can our confused students live their youthful lives and walk their way of life?

Through the ages there are four major questions about life: "Where do you come from?"; "How do you live?"; "Why are you living?"; and "Where are you going?". Humankind have sought the answers to these questions for thousands of years, yet they are still mysteries. But the Bible has given a clear answer with one verse: "For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever" (Romans 11:36)

This verse told us that man's origin is "of God", God's creation; we should live "through Him", and cannot indulge in "through me, through material, through money, through my ability" to self-aggrandize; the meaning of life is to manifest God's glory; and the termination of human life and all things is "unto Him", as God is the final judge of all things.

Life can find its place and continuation in eternity, so that it is no longer pale and fleeting. I wish these young students can get to know God and live their youth without regret.

The author came from Shanghai; he is currently Chinese Ministry Director of Sowers International.

Editor's note: please remember the issues raised in this article in your prayer.