As China transitions, beware suicide risk
- Source: Global Times
- [04:41 September 10 2009]
- Comments
It is unusual for a bridge to be nicknamed the "suicide bridge," but Haizhu Bridge, a steel bridge crossing the Pearl River in South China, became a "tourist attraction" after it drew more than 10 suicidal people between April and May this year. The bridge's structure was eventually coated with a layer of grease to make it harder for suicidal people to climb it before jumping off.
But grease alone won't do the job in China, where there has been a tragic increase in the number of suicides.
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, but there is sad news regarding suicide from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health: Suicide has become the top killer of young people aged 15 to 34 in China, and the fifth-largest cause of death for all Chinese people. With one of the highest suicide rates in the world, China accounts for about a quarter of the total suicides around the globe each year.
Even one suicide is too many. While suicide is often regarded as an act of mental illness and a cultural taboo in China, it would be great pity if the alarming statistics failed to push us to dig up its social roots.
Just as in Japan during the economic downturn in the late 1990s and in post-1989 Eastern Europe, the growing number of suicides is one of many testimonies indicating how painful things can be as a society transitions.
China's transition has created not only amazing speed in economic growth and social development, but also tremendous pressure and disorientation that Chinese have never experienced before.
Numerous suicide cases can be cited: a young man competing for admission at a top university, a low-skilled worker laid off from a State-owned enterprise, a middle-aged woman abandoned by her newly-rich husband, a local official under great pressure from work and life in China's disaster-struck Sichuan earthquake zone.
To find one cure to relieve all the stress and disorientation problems is impossible, but the Chinese society does have a crucial role to play in minimizing suicide risk and showing humane care in many aspects of life.
In an increasingly stressful society where success and wealth are much desired, strong efforts need to be made to educate young people about the fragility of life and the importance of cherishing it.
An effective suicide prevention system should be established, and above all, public awareness must be raised about the alarming trend.
In the long run, extra social care must be given to vulnerable groups, including teenagers, laid-off workers and women in rural areas, to relieve their stress and sense of insecurity.
As Leo Tolstoy famously said, "Happy families are all alike, and yet every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
While every suicide is committed for its own reason and in its own way, stopping suicide and making citizens happy is the mission of a mature society.
In its transition to be stronger and more prosperous, our nation should be a happy one.
