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Yating Yang

The term chicken parenting, or jiwa in Chinese, refers to a group of middle-class parents in China who have high aspirations for their children’s academic success and push them excessively in their studies.
It originates from the old Chinese slang da ji xue, which literally means “injecting chicken blood”.
This is based on an unscientific, historical belief that such an injection can invigorate and energise people.
Here, the Post delves deeper into the idea.
What does it involve?
A typical example of chicken parenting is seen in the “Haidian Mum”.
Located in Beijing, Haidian district is renowned for its superior educational resources, fostering an environment of intense academic competition and very high parental expectations.

Mothers aim for their children to be admitted to prestigious universities such as Tsinghua and Peking University in China or Ivy League schools in the United States.
From a very early age, the children are enrolled in intensive tutoring classes and engage in rigorous academic preparation for tests.
An anecdote that perfectly illustrates the extreme nature of chicken parenting was of a mother in Haidian who asked a study tutor if 1,500 English words were enough for her four-year-old to know.
The approach has also spawned various terms to describe children’s capabilities.
Based on the pronunciation similarity in Chinese, frog refers to average children, while bullfrog denotes those excelling in one or more academic areas.
Students who are strong in mathematics might be called Olympiad bulls, while those who are proficient in English are called English bulls, and those who excel in both areas are known as hybrid bulls.
Chicken parenting sometimes extends beyond academic excellence to incorporate a broad range of extracurricular activities, such as learning to play the piano, chess, horse riding, or figure-skating. A practice known as “plain chickening”.

Why practise it?
The root of chicken parenting lies in the traditional Chinese desire for children to be extremely successful – encapsulated in the phrase, “Hoping sons will become dragons and daughters will become phoenixes”.
Parents are motivated to ensure their children have every possible advantage from an early age.
Competition has intensified and social mobility has become more challenging in recent years, so parental anxiety and insecurity have also escalated.
Repercussions
Under the “study above all” mindset, children’s psychological development often takes a back seat. This can lead to stress and trigger mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
Also, children raised in this way may come to view their world purely through the lens of academic performance.
This concept was proposed by Xu Kaiwen, an associate professor at Peking University, one of China’s most prestigious universities.
He observed that in 2016, 40 per cent of first-year students at Peking University felt that life was meaningless.


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People & Culture

Rooted in traditional Chinese values chicken-blood parents display a deep desire for their children to succeed
High parental expectations have downside, can make children suffer anxiety and depression


The roots of China’s so-called “chicken-blood parents” lie in a traditional desire for children to be extremely successful and to stand out from the crowd. The Post delves deeper into the phenomenon.


Parenting: teens

China education

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Explainer

Explainer | China’s ‘chicken-blood parents’: who are they and how do they treat their children

Rooted in traditional Chinese values chicken-blood parents display a deep desire for their children to succeed High parental expectations have downside, can make children suffer anxiety and depression

What does it involve?

Rooted in traditional Chinese values chicken-blood parents display a deep desire for their children to succeed

High parental expectations have downside, can make children suffer anxiety and depression