Han Ximin

A teenager at Shenzhen Middle School hanged himself in his apartment on February 4, two weeks before the Chinese lunar New Year, leaving no clues and his parents confused.

The tragedy happened at noon when Xiaojun’s parents went out to prepare for the lunar New Year. When they came back home at 1 p.m., they knocked on Xiaojun’s door, but got no response. When they broke into the room, they found the teenager had killed himself, with a book “Dream of the Red Mansion” by his side, Xiaojun’s mother Ms. Deng recalled.

Before his death, Xiaojun often chatted online. Xiaojun’s parents wanted to know who Xiaojun was chatting to, but Xiaojun wouldn’t give them his password.

“Xiaojun seldom talked to us when he came back from school, and we considered asking him to attend a school consultation class, but he refused.”

In November last year, a 16-year-old student at a junior high school in Luohu District hanged himself in Donghu Park. His father said the boy was depressed and seldom spoke to people.

A recent survey of students’ mental health showed 38.3 percent students felt depressed and 15.4 percent had thought of killing themselves.

The survey studied more than 5,100 students in Jiangsu Province. The factors which affect their mood rank as follows: bad relationships with parents and family members; talking no more than three times a week with their parents; isolation at school; rows with teachers; feeling that teachers don’t like them; feeling overloaded with studies, looked down upon by peers; and pressure from parents to study.