Sounds ridiculous, right? But don’t laugh! Among Haidian’s Tiger Moms, conversations like this actually happen, and they happen often…
I recently browsed a parent’s forum in Beijing and found that it was full of “chicken babies”, “cow babies”, “elementary-secondary”, and terms like “school district houses”, which confused people. Then I learned that there are such a group of parents called Haidian parents who are educating their children to be outstanding competitors among their peers. And what really hit me was another fact: while I was still stressing out about whether I could pass the C++ and Python courses in high school, the Haidian children in preschool were already programming with an iPad! What!? 
We are Haidian mothers!
Tiger Mom, Wolf Dad, and Haidian Parents
When I was little, the most eye-catching place of the bookstore was often held by books written by tiger moms and wolf dads, usually with a title like “Tiger Mom’s Battle Hymn,” or something along those lines. But the children of tiger moms have grown up and now have children of their own. Thus, came the Haidian parents – a group struggling to develop their children into the fiercest academic competitors.
But why Haidian? Because Haidian is where the best public middle schools in Beijing are located, and it is the education center that parents yearn for. Many parents believe that sending their children to high school in Haidian is a victory, which means that even if they fail to enter the Ivy League, Tsinghua, or Peking University, they will still have a successful life.
Of course, as the competition in education becomes increasingly fierce, the term “Haidian parents” has long been referring to more than just physically being in Haidian. From the education forums in major cities, we can see that Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and other places with excellent educational resources have a large group of parents who are anxious about their children’s education.
Learn Your Lingo
- Chicken blood: If someone is described as “being injected with chicken blood”, then he/she must be in a highly excited emotional state or super motivated to do something.
- Self chicken: Kids learn on their own/parents learn what kids learn
Chicken baby, known in Chinese as “鸡娃”
A very interesting phenomenon is that these parents regard the process of parenting as injecting chicken blood, which originates from Chinese lingo. There are no actual blood injections involved here. In this context, the children seem to be fertilizer plants in the greenhouse, pushed by the parents to learn English, mathematics, and instruments, then participate in various exams and competitions, like a tireless perpetual motion machine. Sounds stressful, right? Yeah. In addition, a successful parent must not forget to feed the child chicken soup for the soul as well, so that through encouraging words and giving rewards, the child can always maintain their confidence in learning.
Some parents also set an example for children and inject chicken blood in themselves, in order to learn what their children learn first. For example, some parents take IELTS and TOEFL exams in order to better tutor their children in English. In parent groups, this behavior is called “self-chicken”.
What type of kid is yours?
But after being “injected”, will the child become smarter? Facts have proven that competition is always cruel, and children are inevitably classified according to their grades. Therefore Haidian parents have different names for children:
- Chicken baby: Those kids who’ve been injected with chicken blood for a long time, that is, they have many after-school classes and training.
- Vegetarian chicken baby: Parents pay more attention to cultivating their child’s artistic expertise, such as piano, dancing, and speaking skills.
- Carnivorous chicken baby: Parents pay more attention to exam-oriented education, such as English, math, and programming.
- Frog baby: Normal kids without any remarkable talent, or kids who maintain average grades even after a period of “injection”.
- Tadpole baby: Normal kids that haven’t taken any after-school class or extra training.
- Cow baby: Kids with good grades and perfect performance in competitions, usually strong candidates to elite schools.
Obviously, the final goal of every parent is to train their children into “cow babies”, and there are different classifications:
- Natural cow baby: Kids who are born gifted and show some specific talents such as calculating and drawing after entering school.
- Artificial cow baby: Good in certain fields after training and attending classes.
- Australian cow baby: Kids that are good at math, especially the Olympic Mathematical Contest. Nothing to do with actually being Australian.
- British cow baby: Kids that are good at English. Again, nothing to do with being from the UK.
The parents’ group was established for the common goal of cultivating cow babies. Among them, Haidian parents are the “center of the universe”. Parents in Beijing gather together and share how to inject new chicken blood for their children every day.
Involution Effect in Parent Groups
Recently, a reporter lurked into several chicken baby groups created by Beijing parents, and discovered that the main topics discussed by the parents every day are:
- Cheering each other on for their hard work in raising their chicken babies;
- Complaining that their children are dumb;
- Complaining that their husbands don’t care about their children’s education.
It is worth noting that the majority of parents are often mothers, and the role of the father seems to have disappeared from the field of educating children in Beijing. But in any case, due to the echo chamber effect, the parents’ anxiety has been further amplified in the closed WeChat group, and the competition between parents has become increasingly fierce. If today a mom says that her child has two extra classes, then tomorrow another mom will take her child to three classes. If a parent posts a 24-hour schedule for the child in the morning, then in the afternoon others will show the child’s resume in both Chinese and English… it’s seriously competitive. In this kind of environment, every parent is afraid that their child will be overtaken by others, so everyone is in a whirlpool of anxiety and pressure. The most shocking thing I saw was a parent who said that her two-year-old child had to read picture books, listen to English, and do calculations, two hours on each subject every day. Unbelievable! When I was two, I loved sitting on the ground and playing with mud.
A junior high school student posted online: “As a person, I can’t even maintain basic physical and mental health. What’s the point of these high scores? What is the purpose of studying hard and going to a university? That’s what you guys experienced, but were you happy?” Similarly, there are also many adults who recall their childhood filled with homework, extra classes, and their parents’ criticism. They can’t help but regret that they didn’t experience a light-hearted childhood.
From tiger moms and wolf dads to Haidian parents and chicken babies, maybe it’s time to treat kids as kids.
KEEP READING: Friday Favorites: Cherry Blossoms & Tiger Moms
Images: Baidu Image, Tencent News, NetEase, ThePaper.cn
