【Epoch Times September 6, 2024 Report】DJ Wang’s son has been facing an increasingly heavy load of homework since the second grade, with the pressure growing day by day.
According to the Associated Press, eight-year-old William attends a top elementary school in Wuhan. While life in kindergarten and first grade was relatively relaxed, by the second grade, the amount of homework began to significantly increase.
By the time he reached the third grade, William often found himself completing his daily assignments around midnight.
“You start off lightly and then suddenly you’re carrying a very heavy burden,” Wang said. “This sudden transition is extremely hard to bear.”
Due to work commitments, Wang frequently visited Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, ultimately deciding to relocate his family to this city nestled at the foot of the mountains.
However, they are just one of many Chinese families making the move to Thailand, as the country offers not only quality international schools but also a more relaxed way of life. With the end of nearly three years of extreme pandemic control measures by the Chinese government and the continued challenges in economic recovery, more and more Chinese individuals and businesses are finding reasons to “move out” of China to seek a better quality of life, educational models, and business environments in other countries.
According to a survey conducted by the private education company New Oriental in 2023, an increasing number of Chinese families are also considering sending their children to study in Japan and Southeast Asia. However, the tuition and living expenses there are much higher than in Thailand.
Jenson Zhang, who runs an education consulting business, said that many middle-class Chinese families opt for Thailand because school fees there are cheaper than private schools in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
“Southeast Asia is within reach, the visa process is convenient, the overall environment, and people’s attitudes towards Chinese nationals provide Chinese parents with a sense of security,” Zhang said.
In Thailand, the slow-paced city of Chiang Mai is usually the top choice. Other options include Pattaya and Phuket (both popular beach resorts), as well as the capital city Bangkok where the cost of living is higher.
This trend has been ongoing for about a decade now, but the growth has accelerated in recent years.
One of the popular schools in Chiang Mai is Lanna International School. During the 2022-2023 academic year, the number of inquiries from parents interested in sending their children to this school doubled compared to the previous year.
Grace Hu, in charge of admissions at Lanna International School, said that her position was specifically created for Chinese parents in 2022. Due to the extreme pandemic control measures implemented by the Chinese government, “parents were really anxious and eager to move to a new school environment.”
Du Xuan, who works at Vision Education, stated that parents moving to Chiang Mai can be divided into two categories: those planning their children’s education in advance and those who have faced obstacles in the highly competitive Chinese education system. She noted that the majority belong to the second category.
In China, many parents place great emphasis on their children’s education, with some even resigning from their jobs to rent accommodations near their children’s schools for “supervised study,” cooking, and taking care of daily needs so that their children can achieve good academic results and stand out.
This pressure-distorted competitive environment has also given rise to various social phenomena in China such as “involution” and “lying flat.” Success in China is often equated with admission to prestigious universities. To achieve this “success,” students stay up late studying, and parents spend money on tutoring services, among others.
Du mentioned, “There’s a saying about the college entrance exam – ‘a single point can determine one’s fate,’ and the competition is fierce.” Her daughter also attends school in Chiang Mai.
Wang shared that his son William was praised by his second-grade teacher in Wuhan for being talented. However, standing out among 50 classmates and continuing to receive special attention from the teacher meant giving money and gifts, a practice he was unaware of until others had already begun doing so.
Last summer, Jiang Wenhui moved from Shanghai to Chiang Mai. She explained that in China, due to her son Rodney’s mild Attention Deficit Disorder, his performance was average. Although she accepted this reality, the intensity of competition within China made her consider relocating overseas.
“In that kind of environment, you just feel anxious,” she said. In China, all her energy was focused on helping her son keep up with school progress, taking him to cram schools, ensuring he grasped the curriculum, and guiding him through every step.
In Thailand, her soon-to-be eighth-grade son has learned to play the ukulele and piano, carrying English vocabulary notebooks with him, all choices he has made on his own. Jiang said, “He asked me for an extra hour of English tutoring. I felt his schedule was already full, but he said, ‘I want to give it a try.'”
She noted that her son not only has time to pursue his interests but also no longer needs to visit the doctor for issues related to attention deficits.
DJ Wang also mentioned that in Wuhan, parents needed to understand the content of extracurricular materials and what was being taught at school, ensuring their children mastered all content, often requiring parents to give up their jobs to do so.
In Chiang Mai, students are freed from the rote memorization and overwhelming afterschool assignments emphasized by the Chinese education system, allowing them time to develop their own hobbies and interests.
Wang stated that his son William, now 14 years old and about to enter high school, completes his homework before midnight each day and has developed his own hobbies. Wang has also changed his views on education.
“Here, if he doesn’t perform well on a test, I don’t stress about it. Just work hard and it’s fine,” he said. “Does a lackluster performance in school mean he won’t succeed in the future?”
“I don’t think so anymore.”