Community | February 10, 2012 | 10 comments

4 Year Old Forced To Run Near Naked In Bitterly Cold Snow In New York

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zwSeqDjE7I

FreeSpiritMuse
BEIJING: A home-filmed video showing a four-year-old Chinese boy being forced by his parents to run almost naked through the snow in bitterly cold New York has gone viral and sparked an online uproar.

The father was reportedly trying to train his son to be strong and healthy, and the footage has sparked debate about "Chinese"-style tough parenting -- as famously illustrated by Chinese American "Tiger Mother" author Amy Chua.

In the video, the little boy runs towards his father, who is filming him, in thick snow with only his shoes and underpants on, at times crying bitterly and pleading with his dad to take him in his arms.

On several occasions, both parents tell their son to lie down in the snow, which he does eventually when his mother presses him.

The film -- posted online by his father, who comes from the eastern city of Nanjing -- has been viewed by tens of thousands of people on various video sharing websites and has caused outrage.

"I don't agree with this... We should give children a happy childhood, those terrible parents say they do this for their child's own good, but I think their purpose is just to be able to brag in the future," one netizen said.

"I really don't support this, poor kid, does the kid's mother let the father do whatever he wants to do?" another person said on Sina's popular weibo microblogging service.

The father has been given the nickname of "Eagle Dad" in reference to Chua, who sparked controversy when she wrote a book extolling the benefits of tough parenting.

Chinese reporters who managed to interview the father found out the family was on holiday in New York during the Lunar New Year holiday last month when the video was shot, and the temperature was -13 degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit).

The father -- an entrepreneur -- was trying to train his son to be tough after he was born two months premature, suffering from various health problems.

"Occasionally teaching your child about the cold and fortitude is ok, but if this method becomes a feature of everyday life, then the child's life learning process is just cruel," one person said on Sina's weibo.

China's one-child policy has created a generation of only children widely viewed as spoiled.

At the same time, kids are increasingly being forced by their parents to study hard at the expense of leisure activities to succeed in an increasingly competitive job market.

www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1181706/1/.html
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10 comments // 4 Year Old Forced To Run Near Naked In Bitterly Cold Snow In New York // Video

  • MotherForTruth
  • BrushwithDeathToothpaste
  • Anonmaly
    • -1
      Anonmaly  

    • Boo-hoo, I got locked out of the house for an hour or so in my underwear when I was 7 just outside of Erie Pa., and there were snow banks so deep in areas I could (and actually did) find myself completely buried in snow around the same time...

      Strong and healthy to this day myself....

    • 4 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • "Chinese reporters who managed to interview the father found out the family was on holiday in New York during the Lunar New Year holiday last month when the video was shot, and the temperature was -13 degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit)."

      Did this happen last month of this year? Where in ny? Because this year the U.S had its 4th warmest winter on record and it was nowhere near that temperature in NYC, and no snow.

    • 4 months ago
  • FreeSpiritMuse
    • 0
      FreeSpiritMuse  
    • JanforGore:

      http://AccuWeather.com

      Good question and one worth asking. There was a snow storm according to the following information in January 2012 and it appears Chinese New Year was celebrated around January 23rd, 2012.

      Bloomberg
      New York Region Gets 6 Inches of Snow in Season’s 1st Storm
      January 23, 2012, 10:14 AM EST

      Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The New York City metropolitan region got as much as 6 inches of snow today as the first snowstorm of the winter tracked up the U.S. East Coast.

      The National Weather Service said as much as 4.3 inches (12 centimeters) of snow fell in Central Park. Northwest of New York City, in the town of Greenville in Orange County, 6 inches had fallen, while 6.3 inches were on the ground at Orient in Suffolk County.

      “This is sort of what you expect in January,” said Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist for AccuWeather.com Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania, in a telephone interview. “It has been a bit more cold recently and we finally got some precipitation.”

      The last time more than an inch of snow fell this late in January was on Jan. 30, 2007, when 1 inch came down in New York, Pydynowski said. Philadelphia received its first inch or more of snow from that same storm, he said.

      He said Boston was to get about 3 inches of snow today. Temperatures in New York hovered around 26 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 Celsius) this afternoon,

      http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-23/new-york-region-gets-6-inches-of-sno...

      New York City celebrates Chinese New Year with FireCracker Ceremony(Jan 23) and Lunar New Year Parade(Jan 29).

      Read more: http://ivisitnewyork.com/chinese-new-year-2012/#ixzz1m1Wl8Z45

    • 4 months ago
  • The_Wanderer_Kansas
    • +1
      The_Wanderer_Kansas  

    • This example was excessive for sure, the kid was a little too young... but we do live on a harsh and sometimes cruel planet. Some lessons are never learned by our kids nowadays, some points too "innappropriate" for our children to even hear, some things they are too young or innocent to understand... next thing we know we have 18 year old KIDS running off from mommy and daddy into a world they were not prepared to face. I grew up so far in the backwoods of our northern most state outside Alaska with winter storms that could drop multiple feet of snow in less time then most people take to bathe! There are life lessons most of todays kids are too cushioned to even consider.

      There are great parents, then there are great teachers, it is so rare to find the right balance of both in a single person.

    • 4 months ago
  • letsliveinpeace
    • +2
      letsliveinpeace  

    • WT#...New York police should force these parents to run around the corner totally in the nude in the snow, for a week let them see how it feel, and let the child see it. And then place them in jail after they're done.

    • 4 months ago
  • MSII
    • +1
      MSII  

    • And this was shot in NYC! Was there no-one around to maybe call child services? It's a disgrace to the u.s. that this happened unchallenged in a major city, right there in the street!

    • 4 months ago
  • FreeSpiritMuse
    • +1
      FreeSpiritMuse  
    • MSII:

      Cruel and humiliating treatment of this little boy. There are other ways to build his endurance and strength. MSII, I thought exactly the same, that this was NY and no one said anything, or made a phone call.

    • 4 months ago
  • letsliveinpeace
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