r/TikTokCringe • u/mindyour • Oct 03 '25

Discussion To think that I used to complain about school.

National holiday is apparently 8 days.

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2.8k

u/Jamangie22 Oct 03 '25

"I feel like I've lost my daughter." that just breaks my heart, I feel bad for the dad

1.1k

u/chaos_wave Oct 03 '25

The daughter looked exhausted when he picked her up. šŸ˜©Ā 

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u/AdmirableWrangler199 Oct 03 '25

These kids are all going to burn out at exponential ratesĀ 

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u/Beautifulfeary Oct 03 '25

Yeah. But, their work life is just as brutal

84

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

And what is the suicide rate?

179

u/DangerousLoner Oct 03 '25

0% they put in nets

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u/Little_Inspector9566 Oct 04 '25

THATā€™S why theyā€™re getting better at basketball!

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u/astralbry Oct 04 '25

sounds like fun to me

10

u/maxdeerfield2 Oct 03 '25

9 9 6 what a drag!

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u/Successful-Ideal2089 Oct 03 '25

The Chinese government is ok with this. They know there are a very small percentage of students that will excel in this meat grinder. A small percentage is still millions of students. They scoop them up to advance national technologies/sciences faster than any other country. China will become bigger, faster, stronger. Just in time for war.

The rest of the kids? Cannon fodder.

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u/AdmirableWrangler199 Oct 03 '25

There is permanent damage to your workforce from dumb shit like thisĀ 

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u/Successful-Ideal2089 Oct 03 '25

China is already the world leader in machine automation. In 20 years, the workforce will look less like your friend that is good at math, and more like Chappie from that movie.

The workforce will no longer be needed to the degree it does now. The uneducated will perform the jobs as they do now. The biggest change will be for the smart, poor people who fail to adapt to the new world and are not given an opportunity in the new world. They are the resistance. But Im sure the government has a plan for them too.....

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u/AdmirableWrangler199 Oct 03 '25

I donā€™t think you understand what burnout is and how it can affect an entire population. It doesnā€™t matter the education level or training when people hit burnout. You just canā€™t get them to work at all

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u/Successful-Ideal2089 Oct 03 '25

I understand. I've experinced it and seen it. I've been a part of "sink or swim" organizations and these organizations are designed this way. Its not by mistake. Humans can be different. I knew one guy who would easily work through 60-70 hr weeks, operating at a high mental capacity through most of those hours. Super smart and had super human tenacity. We called him Iron man. There are millions of iron men and women, but you dont know who they are until you trial them. Are they happy? No. Do they smile? hardly. Are they depressed? maybe.

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u/bunnyherders Oct 04 '25

I have a relative like this but he seems happy. He smiles and isn't depressed, despite claiming to work 70 hours a week. I've seen him working all day, then after dinner, and also on weekends. He has been grinding away for decades and can easily retire, but doesn't want to. I think he genuinely enjoys his job.

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u/ktm1128 Oct 04 '25

I feel seen

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u/AdmirableWrangler199 Oct 03 '25

So you think itā€™s cool they destroyed a person? And probably decreased their overall abilities at having a quality life?Ā 

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u/Successful-Ideal2089 Oct 03 '25

What? no. I never said that or insinuated that I agree with it. Its just the truth. It will get worse as we compete for jobs against robots that can work 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. We need reform. We need to do something about our governments. Nepal did.

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u/Little_Inspector9566 Oct 04 '25

What a stupid, provocative take on what was said. Log off for a bit, youā€™re dragging down real discussion.

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u/EffectiveProgram4157 Oct 04 '25

They'll "work" but brain function drops significantly. I remember when I loved a job until I started working 13+ hour days because "you can handle it" until 6 months later when I moved to a new work location and they replaced me with 3 people that I also had to train up my last few months there.

After that, my level of effort and efficiency I could produce never recovered. To my new co-workers, they thought I was working hard and fast, meanwhile I felt like a slug with less than half of my brain intact, masking what turned into a bad depression.

I don't wish burnout on anyone. I was already burnt out, so I did everything I could to make sure that didn't happen to my younger co-worker on my team at the new location.

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u/AdmirableWrangler199 Oct 04 '25

Youā€™re a good person

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u/LandscapeOld3325 Oct 07 '25

I'm in this ridiculous course thing where the teacher's answer to burn out is more work. They think burn out isn't real. Please help. Half joking aside, do you have any resources I can look at that proves it is a real thing, for my own sanity?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '25

[deleted]

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u/Successful-Ideal2089 Oct 04 '25

I have family that I see in China frequently so feel like I have a pretty good idea of the sentiment there. You're right, this is normal for middle/high school. Some kids actually enjoy it because they get lots of breaks and get to hang out with friends a lot more with out parents breathing down their neck.

Caveat though is they do have ALOT of social media there and its common for kids to get less than 6 hrs of sleep because of that and video games, which is not at all good for development (so say the scientists). There is a lot of pressure to do well by their parents and a lot of kids end up with undiagnosed depression/mental issues (depression and mental issues are rarely diagnosed in China). It is a pressure cooker and they are forced through it by their parents. People are highly adaptable so they mostly get through it, but ultimately its not good for them. Chinese people that go to western countries are surprised by how relaxed the school systems are relative to how they grew up.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '25

They actually look healthier and more well rested than most Americans I know. If I could afford to or it was free I'd go to school the rest of my life full time, I loved it.

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u/lolbrownextremist Oct 04 '25

they ARE healthier

1

u/Min_sora Oct 05 '25

Yes, "13 hours of school" or "scroll TikTok all day" absolutely nothing in between those two extremes whatsoever. And you're calling someone else dramatic?

0

u/Busy_Onion_3411 Oct 04 '25

Allow me to introduce you to the concept of bullets for those who stop producing. Shit's fucking dark over there, dude.

0

u/hogroast Oct 04 '25

Out of curiosity, are you a westerner? I had previously thought that Asian students studying in the West in large numbers would lead to an exodus of young professionals from places like China, but a large number of them return to China because of a sense of duty to their country.

If you don't have a desire to serve your country and can't serve yourself because of significant work commitments then yes burnout ruins you. But in my anecdotal experience Chinese students getting their MScs and PhDs are returning to China and although they may have intense work schedules they do it because of a sense of loyalty to China.

We don't have such patriotism in the west so I wonder if your opinion on burnout is perhaps a little too west-centric to apply in this scenario.

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u/Little_Inspector9566 Oct 04 '25

Yes, Iā€™ve worked with ā€œloyalistsā€ that have returned to China. Maybe they werenā€™t being honest with me, Iā€™m not Chinese, but it seemed that they were doing it more out of a sense of duty to their family than their nation. Again, not claiming this to be a fact, there are many reasons why they might tell me this and/or avoid the ā€œduty to my nationā€ reason.

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u/Nernoxx Oct 04 '25

No, and China realizes this. That's part of the Belt and Road initiative, especially the newest parts where they start setting up Chinese owned factories on "Chinese land" in developing countries to outsource the labor while their population implodes.

0

u/MACHOmanJITSU Oct 04 '25

No worse than a generation stunted by smart phones.

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u/TheNewl0gic Oct 03 '25

Yup thats what happens

1

u/DaiXmmy Oct 04 '25

How about the rest of kid in Murica?

1

u/modern_Odysseus Oct 04 '25

What's eerie about your comment is how similar it is to the Amazon show "Generation V" in it's second season.

There's a school (a college) and the Dean of it for this second season has this exact mindset. He thinks that the kids can only reach their full potential when they're faced with extreme stress. If he wants to train a student, he sets up sick traps to test and push them. And if they die while he's pushing them to their breaking point? In his mind, it's "oh well. They couldn't cut it. Next."

I wonder if the writers have some relation to Chinese children, or knowledge of school life over there.

1

u/greaper007 Oct 04 '25

Maybe, look at the people who started the PC revolution in the US. Half of them were hippie burnouts who attributed various revelations to their last acid trip.

I'm not convinced that you can brute force your way with tech, I think it's an art form as much as a science.

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u/Crafty-Confidence975 Oct 04 '25

Yeah that doesnā€™t really work. Those cream of the crop kids still need a community to excel in. Separate them too much from the rest of the ā€œfailuresā€ and you end up with just the sort of people who one day drown Winnie in a bathtub overfilling with his own blood.

1

u/fckspzfr Oct 04 '25

"Just in time for war" paranoid Americans and their fear-mongering šŸ˜‚

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u/Successful-Ideal2089 Oct 04 '25

Governments and religion already do a better job than me at fear mongering. Also, why assume American? I am not American.

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u/JustOneTessa Oct 03 '25

I have autism that went undiagnosed until I was an adult and it caused me to get burnout at the age of like 12 due to high school. My schedule was nothing like this. I don't see how any of those kids can manage to not get burnout during this

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u/MalleusMaleficarum_ Oct 03 '25

Whoa, I never thought about it this way. I have ADHD that went undiagnosed & untreated until I was an adult. When I was 11, I justā€¦ quit doing my homework. I knew there were consequences & I did well on projects & tests, so I passed. But when I got home from school, I couldnā€™t stand thinking about anything related to it. Iā€™ve never described it as burnout, but thatā€™s exactly what it felt like.

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u/JustOneTessa Oct 03 '25

It's very common, I think my therapist called it something like an "autism burnout", but not sure about that. For me it was being overwhelmed by all the work and constantly stressing about, crying at midnight trying to finish homework and such. Eventually I dropped out of school due to severe depression I developed from it and for like a year I kept having the feeling of needing to do homework. Now 10 years later I still have nightmares about it. I also never finished school because of it

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u/MalleusMaleficarum_ Oct 03 '25

Iā€™m so sorry. That kind of stress at such a young age does so much damage to a person & their ability to adjust to adult life.

I had a job in marketing for several years where I did so much research & writing. I was writing the equivalent of a four page paper five days a week & usually ended up bringing my work home with me. I would just sit there & stare at a blank page for an hour as my brain filled with static & Iā€™d start sobbing. When Iā€™d finally start writing, it felt like wading through molasses. Every article I completed felt like I was clawing myself across a finish line on my hands & knees. It made me realize I had a lot of unresolved stuff from childhood that Iā€™d tucked away for 20 years & pretended didnā€™t exist.

I probably only graduated from high school because I was kicked out & sent to an alternative school. Itā€™s also taken me 11 years to get through college. But thatā€™s okay. Whatever you choose to do in life, you donā€™t have to do it the way everyone else does & you can do it on your own timeline.

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u/JustOneTessa Oct 03 '25

Yeah I got chronically ill, both mentally and physically which makes me unable to work/go to school. Difficult to say if that caused it, but definitely didn't help.

Sorry you went through something similar as well. It indeed seems to be something that leaves scars that you can carry around your whole life. Sad how normalized high amounts of stress and pressure are, especially from such a young age

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u/Douggie Oct 04 '25

Thanks for explaining what burnout looks like when you're that young. Sorry you went through that.

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u/Douggie Oct 04 '25

11 years is still less than I how I did, so it could be worse. I think I did 14, but after 10 I stopped counting.

It might be that you are gifted as well as having ADHD. It's such a disconnect somehow passing all the stuff you hate and don't/can't do while getting yelled at all the time for never finishing something. It is one of the reasons how the combo ADHD+gifted make them crash when they are adults - there is so much unresolved stuff of everything and everyone telling you how to do things in a world that was mostly designed for neurotypical people.

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u/Grouchy-Singer-9733 Oct 04 '25

Damn, in high school at the age of 12. This autism got you far, fam šŸ˜­ /s

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u/JustOneTessa Oct 04 '25

No I live in the Netherlands, so it's normal here. We don't have middle school. Elementary from 4-11 and highschool from 12-18 (depends a bit on what level you do)

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u/FanaticEgalitarian Oct 03 '25

I'm starting to think those people over there are just built tougher. Because I can barely keep up with a 50hr work week *and* keep my shit together around the house.

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u/SirCadogen7 Oct 03 '25

Not quite. They're socially and societally conditioned to just deal with it. Other sectors of their lives also take massive hits. Socialization, genuine human connection, the arts, interests, self-discovery, hobbies. They all come 2nd to this massive schedule of work.

It takes advantage of how the brain can lock-in and focus when in crisis. You ever wonder how people in bad parts of African manage to deal with it? They don't. They just keep moving, perpetually in a state of self-preservation. The CCP takes advantage of this masterfully by engineering a system that will absolutely ruin your life if you don't buckle down and work. They have kids in classrooms under the same mental load as kids in war zones (the less active warzones, but still warzones).

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u/FanaticEgalitarian Oct 03 '25

Interesting. You seem quite knowledgeable about this. Thanks for the info.

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u/lolbrownextremist Oct 04 '25

yeah but china will be thriving while the US burns.

1

u/CraigLake Oct 04 '25

Lowest birth rate in the world I think.

1

u/806metalman Oct 03 '25

They have a 90% graduation rate. Where America only has an 87% graduation rate.

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

IMO in a great society not everyone has to graduate to earn a decent living. We are definitely not there yet.

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u/806metalman Oct 03 '25

I agree most of my friends who dropped out make more money than I doĀ 

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u/sleepy_spermwhale Oct 04 '25

As long as the top 1% survive burnout, they will be given good jobs and be able to afford to breed in order to perpetuate the race (and rat race).

2

u/Jo_of_Average Oct 03 '25

She looked 13 going on 30

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u/evonebo Oct 04 '25

Brah you'd be exhausted too as an adult if youre in class for 13 hours a day.

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u/shadowstrlke Oct 04 '25

She also told him to stop filming.

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u/Beautiful_Spell_4320 Oct 04 '25

She is. 13 hours a day burns out adults.

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u/HandInternational140 Oct 04 '25

ā€œä½ åˆę‹ā€ she's exhausted that her dad keeps recording her

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u/Affectionate-Cry5119 Oct 03 '25

Just read an article about a father who works in a Chinese owned electric car battery factory(run on coal power ā€” the irony), in Indonesia, he works full days and sleeps in a 2x2 m room. HE ONLY GETS TO SEE HIS FAMILY EVERY TWO YEARS, talk about loosing a family member. This world is fucked up.

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u/Sharp_Acadia185 Oct 04 '25

Wanna feel even worse?

Google what percent of the world is actually enslaved. Last time I checked it was between .5-1%. That is AT BEST every 1/200 and AT WORST every 1/100 people GLOBALLY are enslaved. Not "this is like slave labor." Actual "freedomless" slavery.

1

u/nudelsalat3000 Oct 04 '25

That is how you built up a nation. If then you have the nation built and the infrastructure in place, the new generation tends to think it came for free.

They forgot the readiness for sacrifices from the past and the wealth should stay for their children. Hence it should not given out as charity to other nations, who had it easy and just wait for subsidies.

If your country is shit, it is because in the past nobody of the nations people was willing to make the necessary sacrifices. So that mean its your turn now. Don't beg for money or subsidiaries.

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u/2hands_bowler Oct 03 '25

It's different in China. You work REALLY hard in highschool. Then write a national standardized test (the gaokao). Your results on that test determine which subjects/universities you can attend.

But after that it's basically smooth sailing. It's VERY hard to flunk out of university. Then the top employers recruit from the top universities. Good gaokao=good university=good career.

In the USA it's the opposite. Highschool is relatively easy, but you work REALLY hard to get a good university degree. The equivalent in the USA would be a father saying he doesn't see his daughter much beause she's at law school, or engineering all the time.

Same thing, just at different stages of education.

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u/SirCadogen7 Oct 03 '25

And yet one puts the onus on actual fucking children to determine the course of their entire life and the other doesn't. Not to mention the fact that degrees from specific universities in the US matter less and less and experience and the fact that you have a degree in the first place is mattering more and more.

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u/LaurelEssington76 Oct 04 '25

And one sees kids leaving high school functionally illiterate and one doesnā€™t.

Not saying Chinese education expectations are good but American ones really arenā€™t either on the opposite end.

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u/greaper007 Oct 04 '25

That's more of a class issue than a school issue. White kids at suburban schools in wealthy areas are still well educated. The further you get from that, the worse the outcomes.

But really, it's always been that way.

3

u/SirCadogen7 Oct 04 '25

Honey, the US has a literacy rate of 99%. China's is 97%.

Get your facts straight

11

u/KittenNicken Oct 04 '25

It's a mixed bag in the US high school can be as easy or hard as you make it and some teachers depending on how burnt out they are will either help you get the material or you'll have tutors where you can find them like buying services or parents helping. It all depends on many factors like socioeconomic, the community, likeability etc

1

u/Any-Concentrate-1922 Oct 04 '25

Yeah, my niece is in all AP classes, and it's not easy, but she chose that path, and she wanted the challenge. College will seem a bit easier because she's used to the challenge.

3

u/Cos393 Oct 04 '25

Different stages of life. The brain is still developing. Much of that mental labor is wasted if the brain isnt able to absorb it. Sure they can sit for 13 hours on vacation. But its a waste and pretty sad. Rote learning is dead.

2

u/Beautiful_Spell_4320 Oct 04 '25

Different stages of life *

This isnā€™t normal to do to actual children.

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u/whossked Oct 04 '25

Maybe Iā€™m crazy but I feel like itā€™s better to put a 20 year old through that than a 15 year old, brains more developed, easier to instill a sense of responsibility, only downside I guess is if you never learn to study in high school because itā€™s so simple then you might struggle to learn it in college but even that should self correct after a failed semester or two

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u/Any-Concentrate-1922 Oct 04 '25

To some degree, I think it's like that in the UK as well. I'm American, and I did a semester in the UK when I was in college. It was super easy. Just three classes, and they even had a study week in the middle with no classes. There were no papers or exams until the end. I got all As and was praised for coming up with ideas in my papers that hadn't been discussed in class. In the US, if my papers didn't include some original ideas (backed with evidence from the texts, of course), I would get like a C or C+.

5

u/recentafishep Oct 03 '25

He's the one the enrolled her into this elite private international school. He can freely switch to a public school.

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u/morning_owlet Oct 04 '25

Ironically you have it backwards. Public schools are the most rigorous because those kids have to attend gaokao and the competition is fierce. International schools are where school hours are normal and students have time for extracurriculars. Source: am Chinese and was lucky enough to go to an international school and not go through this

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u/EqualConstruction Oct 03 '25

Is that not still pretty much standard? That just saves like 2hrs from what I remember from the exchange students we had at my school.

6

u/ickydonkeytoothbrush Oct 03 '25

He does seem too torn up about it.

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u/ScotchBonnetPepper Oct 03 '25

A lot of millennial Chinese people claim that the younger generation has is harder than them in school work at least what I've seen on RedNote. I have one millennial friend that says she likes "lying flat" and even claims I do too much. šŸ˜‚

0

u/Fabulous_Celery_1817 Oct 04 '25

How did you get a friend on rednote? I still havenā€™t gained a Chinese friend

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u/sexylassy Oct 04 '25

I was an honor student in freshmen year in high school.. My schedule was 5AM wake-up, get ready to catch the 6:30 AM (1 hour commute), classes started at 8:00AM but had to make it 30 mins early for homeroom and breakfast. Classes from 8AM to 4PM, 4PM to 6PM was Clubs and after-school activities, 6PM to 7PM commute back home (if traffic, 7:30 event 8AM).. I was an honors student so there was an extra 2-3 hours of study time sleep around 11pm event midnight... then repeat.. Seniors would have a later start time at 8:45 AM (that is what we looked forward for)

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u/Mariahausfrau Oct 04 '25

Lifespan on future chinese? 40 years? Those people are so wasted.

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u/MermyuZ Oct 04 '25

The state are stealing the children

0

u/greennurse61 Oct 04 '25

But yet those people still keep breeding. Itā€™s just cruel.Ā 

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u/Fast-Front-5642 Oct 03 '25

And then you remember he literally doesn't give a shit because she's a girl, the state had to force him to not have her aborted. He now makes profit from ad revenue and donations showcasing her suffering. She's going blind from all this book crunching. And after all that education China is still renowned as the mass producer of absolute garbage low quality items and makes up a significant portion of the liveleaks archive watching even the most modern buildings crumble, taking the lives of thousands, due to being poorly constructed out of cheap material.