Hong Kong education experts weigh options for addressing student suicide problem

It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on mental health — particularly for vulnerable young people. However, in Hong Kong, the situation seems particularly dire, as suicide rates among young people have spiked in the last few years, with 2.8 percent of students considering suicide in the 2022–2023 academic year — one of the highest rates in the world.

While education experts have weighed in on the issues, one life education trainer, Ricky Tse, made the following controversial comment in a press conference. 

All values essentially come down to considering others. Then, you will know what etiquette, wisdom, responsibility, and respect are. Values are essentially cultural core, which is to be considerate to others. Hence, life education for students requires them to think more about social responsibility and parental expectations. What would happen to your family and others if you were gone? With such spirit, then you won’t do anything stupid. 

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Tse is the head of the Life Education Centre of Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education. “Life education” is a teaching pedagogy that prioritizes students’ spiritual development in education. His comments that the rise in suicides was due to a value deficit among young people triggered a backlash within the community, as many said the views were insensitive and worried that such viewpoints could lead to more student deaths. 

A Facebook-based discussion group on student suicide issued a statement condemning Tse for his callous remarks and for ignoring the plight of students.

…the Samaritan Befrienders [a local suicide prevention group] has pointed out that ‘most of the pressure on students or young people comes from their parents’ high expectations’ … Now, Mr. Tse again suggested that students should think more about their parents’ expectations. His speech has trivialised the pressure students face.

Mr. Tse referred to attempting suicide as ‘doing something stupid’ … Suicidal people are often in great pain, and their act should not be simply portrayed as being stupid. Their experiences and feelings should be respected and recognized, regardless of the rights or wrongs of their behaviour. We urge all sectors to refrain from using words such as ‘stupidity’ and ‘recklessness’ when describing suicide incidents…

Student suicide has become a severe social problem in recent years. The Hong Kong government’s most updated public statistics indicate the number of student suicide deaths had almost tripled in 10 years and reached a record high of 23 cases in 2023. In this same year, 6.9 percent of students aged 6 to 17 had suicidal behaviors, and 24.4 percent suffered from mental health issues, a government-commissioned study showed.

Data drawn from public schools’ student counseling cases indicated that vast numbers of students are suffering from mental health issues (37 percent), followed by family problems (20 percent) and school-related problems (20 percent). Major mental disorders found in schools include attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); disruptive, impulse control and conduct disorder; anxiety disorder; and depressive disorder. 

Acknowledging the problem, the Education Bureau has allocated more resources for school-based social workers and educational psychologists, parent education, and school-based emergency protocols for student mental health support. 

Education experts also stepped in to comment on the issue.

Upon releasing a survey that showed 15 percent of students had suicidal thoughts and 70 percent of the students felt desperate or confused about their lives in a press conference, Tse urged for a better approach to life education in a press conference.

He sees Chinese culture as a spiritual touchstone that can help students mitigate stresses and pressures to self-harm. He argued that education should be based on traditional Chinese culture and values:

‘Life education’ should be integrated with the value education and moral education of traditional Chinese culture because the core spirit of Chinese culture is to care for others with love and empathy, and it has always emphasized diversity, interaction, and tolerance.

Originating from Australia in 1979, the concept of “life education” was initially introduced by a Christian pastor who addressed youth delinquency, such as drug abuse, with a spiritual approach. The pedagogy has been increasingly considered an effective intervention to reduce unnatural deaths, in particular, suicides, among Chinese societies across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan alike, though each has taken a different pedagogical approach.

In Hong Kong, the public school life education curriculum was initiated by some 20 Christian schools in 1999 to address issues related to school violence and youth gang problems. A decade later, in 2010, the Education Bureau started allocating budgets for schools to adopt the curriculum.

Since 2021, life education has been embedded in the city’s elementary schools’ Values Education Curriculum, along with national education, moral education, etc. The objectives of the Curriculum are to deepen students’ understanding of correct values and Chinese virtues, to promote their recognition of these values and to cultivate empathy, a positive attitude towards life and affection for the country and Hong Kong, and finally, to help them practise correct and good behaviors. There are 12 traits listed as correct values and Chinese virtues, including perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national identity, commitment, integrity, benevolence, law-abidingness, empathy, diligence, unity and filial piety.

The initial Christian approach to life education, which stresses the individual pursuit of the meaning of life, has slowly given way to the Chinese cultural and nationalistic approach, which stresses establishing one’s sense of self through familial/communal and national values — in recent years, some schools would ask students to demonstrate filial piety to their parents by kneeling to offer a cup of tea (see top image), and some would ask students to make speeches during the national flag raising ritual about their duty to society and their nation.

Tse’s approach to life education is in alignment with the Value Education Curriculum guidelines, but his remarks resulted in a massive backlash on social media, and he had to apologize for his choice of words two days later. 

The issue at stake is not just about stigmatizing suicide as a stupid act but the suggestion that Chinese culture and values can solve the student suicide  problem, as pointed out by prominent writer Fung Hei-kin, who argued that the mainstream Confucian culture, which advocates “self-sacrifice” (usually to the country), often worsens mental health and leads to suicide:

Chinese culture encompasses many schools of thoughts. I can only think of Zhuang Zi, who loved to talk about maintaining one’s health and preserving one’s nature, as a value that can be associated with the prevention of suicide. As for the mainstream traditional Chinese culture, it rarely rejects suicide but often praises those who commit suicide. For example, Qu Yuan, his suicide has been honored with a public holiday [Dragon Boat Festival], is precisely a great man upheld by those who embraced traditional Chinese values. Should Prof. Tse condemn him for disregarding his social responsibility and not thinking of others?

What really pisses people off is the ideological approach, which suppresses individual needs in favor of cultural and national collectivism in addressing life and death matters.