R.P. BenDedek
Mental Illness: Violence: Bad Bosses in China
By R.P. BenDedek
May 8, 2010 - 11:35:44 PM

Today in my (back home) local paper, I read an article about how mental illness and violence is on the rise in China, and I thought it quite interesting, in view of comments I made in my reply to two emails I received from former students who had written about my current situation in China.

You may have read my recent articles about my ongoing battle with E.E.T. Baotou and E.E.T. Shanghai, the people who tricked me into coming to work for them last year. I walked off the job 3 months and 1 day after I started with them. These people have the power to stop me ever again from working as a teacher in China.

In one of the articles I wrote how a recently employed foreigner had her Work Visa replaced with a Tourist Visa, and how this was concealed from her by withholding her passport. Of course the managers would not say that they withheld the passport, but when the passport was finally returned [not before some form of waiver was signed], it became obvious to the teacher that all the 'excuses' for not returning the passport were lies. Hence it can be said that the passport was 'withheld'. That teacher walked off the job when she discovered that she had been tricked, and like me, her fate as a teacher is determined by these same employers. Additionally, she now faces the fact that as she holds a tourist visa, she cannot apply for a job whilst still living in China. One must enter China on a work visa.

Now what has this to do with the article that I read about mental illness and violence in China? Well let me first provide you with some details about that article.

The article entitled: Man stabs eight people to death in China (May 9, 2010), tells how a man stabbed eight people to death, including three family members. It then goes on to list a variety of instances in which people have killed or injured large numbers of children and others in separate incidents. The reporter writes:

• The attacks underscore how China - which has enjoyed lower violent crime rates than the West - faces a growing public safety threat from disgruntled individuals amid rising mental illness rates and looser social controls. Studies have cited a rise in mental disorders, some linked to stress as society becomes more fast-paced and old communist-era supports are scrapped. A study last year estimated that 173 million adults in China have some type of mental disorder - 91 per cent of whom had never received professional help.

First let me say that China is certainly a far more harmonious society than Australia, and one has no real fear when walking alone at night. China is a peaceful country. But the article was not really about peace and 'violence' per se, it was about violence that results from mental illness.

I would have to state that I disagree with one section of the quote from that article listed above. I would not say that there is stress caused by the loss of old communist-era supports. In fact, I would say the opposite.

China today is a modern place and its government has increased the financial prosperity of its people, and provided them with many advances. Additionally it has educated millions of people in the last 20 years in the English language whilst at the same time, providing them [via the internet] with the wherewithal to learn about the world; about human rights, honesty and transparency in government, and democratic freedoms.

I would say, that one of the great causes of mental illness in China, results from the knowledge that despite what people have learned, and what they have been told by the government, that in their daily lives, there is cognitive dissonance between concepts such as "Mao Zedong set us free from the slavery of feudalism", and the reality that in daily life, one's life is totally controlled by the system.

Now in saying that, what I mean is, that the system of social control that exists in China, is able to be abused by corrupt people, but in saying that, it must be said that only those 'with power or money' have ability to abuse the system.

Each person's life is literally passed from one employer to another, and the history of that life is on file for the employer to read. Furthermore, without the permission of the employer, that worker may not legally change jobs. This applies more to government related jobs than 'ordinary' jobs, but where it does exist, one person's life is held at the emotional and mental will of the employer, and it is not uncommon for bosses to refuse to let a worker go, unless a large sum of money is paid. I am aware of several instances of such a thing, even of one here in Baotou.

Perhaps I can explain my meaning better by quoting the reply I gave to a student today, about my situation in China.

• Actually the TV station was contacted but they said it just involves a foreigner so they are not interested. E.E.T. does not frighten me, but they do have people inside the police department and education department. As [the government official] told me 9 months ago, no one here will stand up to them. I have, and will continue to do so.
  
  SO many foreigners have written to me asking me if my situation with the school has been fixed, and I have told them no, so these foreigners would not go to work there.
  
  Corrupt people believe that they have a RIGHT to control people. They care only about control. They don't use honest ways to get good results - they are just too corrupt to think straight.
  
  So I know that if the foreigners who have written to me are just 10 % of the number of foreigners this company contacted then they must have contacted more than 100 - maybe even as high as 500. They could change all of this [failure to find foreign teachers] by just doing the right thing. But they can't. They are corrupt.
  
  This is life in China and you know it.
  
  There are many good people, but they have no power to change anything. But by the time your children are your age, most of these corrupt people of today will be dead. If China is still corrupt, then it is because your generation and your children's generation permit it.
  
  Many people say, Mao Zedong set the people free from the slavery of feudalism - but what does that mean, when so many people today in China are treated like slaves and controlled by 'masters'. Many of my former students are now working for really good honest bosses. Many are not. We can never know how our bosses will treat us or what they will do to punish us for refusing to be slaves.
  
  I hope you have a great boss.

Imagine how you would feel if some unqualified fellow worker got a promotion ahead of you, based solely on a financial, sexual or other personal relationship with the boss. Now imagine that you face that situation every day of your life. Imagine that you have absolutely no way to achieve what you see as 'possible', because there are people 'out there', whose sole desire is to manipulate and control you.

That is how so many Chinese people feel every day, and it is not correct to say that this type of situation only arises because 'Party Members' have power. This situation arises whenever you fall into the lap of anyone with money or power. Now add to that 'Chinese Culture', and you find yourself sitting in drying cement. By Chinese Culture, I mean 'Guangxi'. This is a relationship that two people have, and which demands that the one aid and abet the other, or face 'losing face'. Nothing is worse than losing face. Death itself is preferable to losing face.

When you as an individual are caught in a situation in which bribery or guangxi determine your future, you can safely say that you are nothing more than some person's chattel. You are in fact a slave.

If there is one thing that will cause the downfall of the Communist Party in China, it will be these two cultural traditions continuing to run amok in Chinese Society. (And no! - democracy is not the answer for China right now.)

I have written so many times of my faith in the integrity of the Central Government and its fight against corruption. No week goes by when some 'party member' or other person is not arrested and charged with corruption of some type. But to date, while the government's aim has been to scare the lower echelons into honesty, they have failed to realize that those lower echelons consider that the government is a 'far away place', and not something to worry about. After all, they only go after the 'top' guys.

The Chinese Government knows that revolution will come if they don't control this corrupting influence in China, but it is a big task to undertake. Hong Kong managed to do it, but even copying the Hong Kong blueprint for honesty and transparency is doomed to failure, because the common people no longer trust any government officer.

Only when the Central Government can restore the people's faith in local government, can this problem be overcome.

And so it is that I say, if there is one major cause of mental illness today [90% of mental illness is not a physical malfunction], it can be found in the daily pressure, stress and depression suffered by people who know that what they are constantly being told about 'salvation from slavery and feudalism', is just a lie.

As China gets richer and richer, and more individuals rise to some measure of power, it becomes more and more obvious to the common man, that there are more feudal lords in China today, than ever before.

It is said that those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat that history, and if there is one thing known to the Chinese people, it is that their 5000 years of glorious history, is one of rebellion and warfare.

If old communism has failed the Chinese people, it is in this one thing that it has failed them: 'That the people never learned the value of equality and respect for others'. In China today, the more money and power one has, the more superior one becomes and the more obvious that one need not respect those down the ladder of social or financial success.

I love China and its people and yet I am a foreigner. Would to God that so many of those who proudly quote communist party slogans loved China and it's people as much as I (and many other foreigners) do.

R.P. BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

Slavery in Action: American Woman 'set up': Chinese woman bashed.

Legal Outcome Feb 2011 of the May 15 2010 Bashing of Chinese Woman

Now being Published at Magic City: 'Finding Myself in China

See Also: Behind the Shanghai Expo.

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www kingscalendar com), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he is currently living in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.

BenDedek Social Commentaries at Magic City

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.