8-year-old boxing girl: A different version of ‘left-behind childhood’

A news report by China.org.cn on an 8-year-old boxing girl and also a Chinese rural left-behind child nicknamed Little Tangyuan:

The Children’s Day is around the corner. What’s your memory of childhood? Toy cars and dolls? Recently, an 8-year-old boxing girl nicknamed Little Tangyuan, has become a hit on the Internet. In a viral video, Little Tangyuan is boxing with her brother. Just in an open space and wearing simple gear, she is agile, and her punches look quite professional for an 8-year-old.

Little Tangyuan was born in a remote village tucked away in mountains in Guizhou Province. Besides “boxing girl,” she has another pitiful tag: a rural left-behind child. For most time of each year, her father works in the cities; and being a boxing enthusiast himself, he teaches his kids boxing when back home. Dad thinks boxing as an uplifting sport. He showed the kids in person, and with dad’s guidance, the little girl’s attitude towards boxing turned from unwillingness in the beginning, to passionate love. Her talents in this sport were also shown in practices.

Now, boxing has become a daily routine for Little Tangyuan and her brother. Without professional equipment, they would even run to school to enhance their physical strength. Their dad also video-chats with them every day for more than an hour, to communicate with them and supervise their training. Little Tangyuan and her brother said, they want to become professional athletes one day.

Dreams are important to children, and are even vital to the rural left-behind children. By September 2018, there had been over 6 million left-behind children in rural China. Most of them only see their parents taking two walks of life: as a farmer, or a migrant worker. To Little Tangyuan and her brother, boxing is an ambitious dream, but it indicates a brand new way of living. The moment they put on the scrapper, their life has been lit up.

Little Tangyuan’s father has also done a good job. His daily company and encouragement via video-chats are significant to the healthy growth of his children. Compared to a comfortable life, the left-behind children need love and accompany more.

Now, China has also been paying more and more attention to the emotional world of the left-behind children. Jintang County in Chengdu City is typical for migrant workers. Schools in the county are made responsible for supervising parent-child communications. And each left-behind child in school there is assigned to a psychological teacher. Related government departments have been cooperating with enterprises, to give touring lectures to the parents on construction sites, so that they can be better aware of their duty as parents and strengthen the bonds with their children.

With the recipe of dream plus company, more and more rural left-behind children will witness a different version of life, just like Little Tangyuan.

—
Photo Credit: Bjoern Deutschmann / Shutterstock.com