appalling – Children of the Chinese Circus

In 2007 the BBC aired a documentary called Children of the Chinese Circus.

On the BBC website, the viewers were “horrified”. Read the comments.

This grim and fascinating documentary looked at the Shanghai Circus school. …

Behind the scenes, we witness gruelling training regimes with kids as young as eight having their limbs stretched to the point of agony and tested to breaking point. Seeing these children being pushed around while a trainer shouts “REMEMBER YOUR COLLECTIVE DUTY!” and “YOU SIMPLY DON’T WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL!!!” is heartbreaking.

…

The documentary/film is without narration… leaving the tale to be told by the people being filmed. This leaves the whole thing feeling incredibly stark, cruel and cold… which in itself is a masterstroke as it shows the incredible hardships suffered by the children as they learn horrific looking postures like ‘The Sweat Push’. The pressure and the seething anger of the trainers is almost palpable, which is all the more hard-hitting without being softened by an overdub from an overly concerned saccharine thespian.

To watch these children being mentally abused, pushed to the point of injury and pressure by everyone they meet is amazingly woeful. Robbed of their childhood and forced to met unfair demands, you cannot help but wonder what becomes of them in later years. Briefly, we see a man in hospital who used to perform with a circus, and his list of injuries is frankly appalling. Children of the Chinese Circus is one of the most terrifying and depressing things I’ve ever seen. Tragic and grotesquely fascinating.

TV Scoop: TV Review – Children of the Chinese Circus, BBC4, Tuesday, 10pm

A similar documentary is up on YouTube. (I think it’s not the BBC special. Leave a comment below if you have seen Children of the Chinese Circus online.)

Here’s a sample of the kind of unbelievable acrobatics children do at Chinese Circus Schools.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Before we get too judgmental about severe coaching of children in China, consider the alternatives for those kids. Would you rather have them working in a factory?

I want to hear what they and their parents think about the coaching.