Parents' focus turns to sports amid China's tutoring curbs

BEIJING • Chinese President Xi Jinping's campaign to reduce the burden of homework and after-school tuition for children is creating a boom for sports and arts clubs.

State broadcaster China Central Television reported that 33,000 arts and sports outlets were launched in just over a month after the government published its "Double Reduction" document in late July, which banned academic tutoring during weekends and holidays and ordered schools to reduce both the amount of and time needed for assignments.

The government clampdown has sent parents scrambling to find alternative classes that would still give their children an advantage in the nation's intensely competitive education and labour market.

"I've had phone calls from parents inquiring about kids' courses almost every day recently," said Mr He Jianwei, who owns a boxing club in east Beijing. "After all, children can't be too weak if the nation aspires to be strong."

On a windy Sunday afternoon last month, children wearing boxing gloves and shin guards were sweating at the club as they punched and kicked pads held by coaches, hissing "shee" with each strike to amplify the effect.

The school has been teaching adults martial arts such as Thai boxing, wrestling and Brazilian jiujitsu since 2013 and began providing regular classes for children as young as four a year ago.

Sitting on a couch in the reception area, Ms Jenny Liu waited for her seven-year-old son to finish his session.

"The Double Reduction policy gave us time for exercise," said the 39-year-old, who enrolled the boy in the class in September, shortly after the company that provided his mathematics tuition shut down.

Referring to her son, she added: "Guoguo comes three times a week unless he's sick."

China's so-called "tiger mums" are not enrolling their children just to give them something to do. The weighting of arts and sports in school tests is rising.

The government has pledged to "gradually increase" the score of sports in the senior high school entrance exam, and regions like the southern province of Hainan have listed swimming, football, basketball and volleyball as options for students to get additional credits.

The country's young people are increasingly suffering from obesity, myopia and depression. More than half of China's schoolchildren are short-sighted and nearly one in five between the ages of six and 17 is overweight or obese, according to data from the National Health Commission.

Mr Xi's reform of the education industry is not just about economics. He has made no secret of the fact that he views his time working on a remote farm in China's poor north-west during the Cultural Revolution as a valuable experience.

"I was perplexed and hesitant when I came to the land of yellow earth at the age of 15," he was quoted as saying in a China National Radio report in 2018. "By the time I left at 22, I was confident with a firm goal in life."

An avid football fan, Mr Xi has said he wants the next generation to "civilise the spirit and toughen the body".

Professor emeritus David Zweig of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said: "The desire for toughness fits well with the party's call for mass mobilisation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

He added, referring to Chinese leader Mao Zedong: "It's also very Maoist, like Mao's famous poem about standing in the blowing rain when he was 17 years old. A united, powerful China can overcome all obstacles."

Still, for China's parents, the changes mean finding alternatives to academic courses that would still further their children's chances of landing a good job, or, for those who can pay for it, private tutors.

Said Ms Liu: "I'm afraid the gap could get even wider as the elite families can afford one-on-one tutoring privately."

Still, she hopes boxing will help her shy boy become stronger, healthier and more outgoing.

"I'd like him to be able to protect himself from being bullied by others," she said. "I don't want him to work in a factory - that would be too back-busting."

BLOOMBERG