December 16, 2011

Why is NPR celebrating a man who practices and promotes child-beating?

"I have more than a thousand rules: specific detailed rules about how how to sleep, how to cover yourself with a quilt... If you don't follow the rules, then I must beat you."

So says a man who is celebrated on NPR. 
For each violation of the rules, such as sleeping in the wrong position, the penalty is to be hit with a feather duster on the legs or the palm of the hand. If it doesn't leave a mark, then it won't make an impact, Xiao [Baiyou] says....

Xiao's method involved all of the children watching each punishment. Any transgression of the rules by a younger sibling would also earn a beating for the older siblings, for failing to be a good model. Despite the sometimes daily beatings, Xiao sees himself as the best dad in the world and repeatedly claims his unorthodox methods "have no shortcomings."...

"In China, beating kids is part of their upbringing. It's not violence. It's not against the law," he says. "If this kind of beating is legal, scientific and in the interests of the kids, then fine. I'm all for beating, since it's effective."
Why does NPR present this man in a positive light? I'm not quite sure. Maybe because he's Chinese. Cultural relativism... a cloak of "diversity" makes everything look charming (on NPR).  Maybe because his technique got 4 kids into his country's most prestigious university. NPR listeners cream over that "top school" business. Maybe because "Tiger Mom" was a popular cultural figure last spring, so the male version — called "Wolf Dad" — seemed like another audience pleaser. Maybe because, deep down, NPR listeners really do love corporal punishment, and all these stories about rescuing kids (American kids) from even mild forms of "bullying"  — which NPR runs all the time — have begun to cloy.

11 comments:

edutcher said...

First the Tiger Mom in the Gray Lady and now this.

I remember back during the Cultural Revolution how all the hippie types thought Red China was such a beautiful place. Looks like they want the same thing here.

PS and OT: Looks like incandescent bulbs get a reprieve.

chuck said...

"Nonetheless, the working assumption is that we should have no moral compass" -- Hitchens

Ah, it is great fun to take things out of context ;)

purplepenquin said...

Appears to be a wrong link in the post, 'cause the story that is currently linked doesn't "celebrate" this guy nor put him in a positive light.

ricpic said...

The Chinese have a saying:

The stake that sticks out gets hammered down.

Explains the child beating and also goes a long way to explaining why China, despite its huge intelligent population, will never threaten America's lead in the creativity department.

Freeman Hunt said...

The children's playgroup that kicked me out for having a conservative blog had another mother in the group who was a Muslim convert and had stated on the group's message board that she wanted to move to Iran to live under sharia. Write about pro-life issues and fiscal conservatism, you're a poisonous reactionary who must be shunned. Desire to live under sharia, you're a particularly prized exotic specimen in the You Know I Have a ______ Friend Collection.

Anonymous said...

Did you hear the same broadcast I did? The one I did certainly was not celebrating the man.

SGT Ted said...

Duh, Althouse. They are praising a Communist. They always do that.

Levi Starks said...

There was a time when Not beating you kids would have been considered a disgrace.
Interestingly it was a time long before OWS kids were born.

MarkD said...

NPR listeners are masochists, QED.

Ken Pidcock said...

"Why is NPR celebrating a man who practices and promotes child-beating?"

Classic Althouse.

Wince said...

"Why is NPR celebrating a man who practices and promotes child-beating?"

"Daddy issues" is my wild guess.