Why Chinese parents are paying to send their children to ‘hardship camps’

Prof Setoh Peipei, head of psychology at NTU, told CNA that a resilient child is “not necessarily one who can endure the most hardship”. She said resilience comes from manageable challenges with appropriate support, not “suffering for the sake of suffering”. Children do need some friction, as in learning to ride a bike, but she distinguishes challenges that build “useful skills” from suffering meant to break or punish. She warned that a child who learns that voicing distress only brings more to endure may learn to endure rather than cope and that severe fear or helplessness at a camp can later surface as anxiety, fear of making mistakes or difficulty trusting others. 

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