Five teenagers there tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills with the excuse that they had been "maltreated" by their parents late last month, reported Beijing Youth Daily.

The 13-year-old Wang Lan (not his real name), is still in hospital, dizzy and pale.

"I do not regret taking the poison. I just want to die because my parents are mean to me," she said when regaining temporary consciousness.

Wang believes her parents are mean to her because on June 5, her birthday, her father did not give her any presents but bought her sister a new dress instead.

Wang's father, quite confused at his daughter's sick bed, said with a monthly salary of 1,000 yuan (US$121), the couple with three children were trying their best to satisfy the sick girl's desires.

He had to ask for leave from a cigarette-making factory as a temporary worker to attend to his daughter.

The other four children come from the same primary school as Wang. On July 22, they went to Wang's house and took the sleeping pills Wang had bought with her savings after talking about how they had been "scolded and beaten" by their parents.

The accident shocked local parents and they began to examine the way they have been treating their children, asking themselves what kind of relationship is best between parents and children.

Here I want to remind those parents who have been thinking that children are their personal belongings that children are independent individuals.

The Gua Sha Treatment - a film released last year has aroused a culture clash, especially in regards to the treatment of children, between China and the West.

Chinese parents are proud of controlling children. Especially when their children are obedient in front of others, even if this control requires force.

It is an attitude deeply ingrained in the nation's thousands of years of feudal history. Parents want to feel powerful in the family.

Owing to the economic boom and freedom of thinking, the situation has greatly changed, though not so satisfactorily, as the parents consciously respect their children.

However, sometimes parents misunderstand the meaning of being good to their kids - they are doting and tolerant, considering it a duty to give whatever the children want.

They arrange everything for the children. They work hard to feed the kids but never teach them bread requires money.

Thus children develop a habit of taking but not giving. They don't understand the bitterness of life and they seldom feel grateful.

Parents are to blame here because they are their children's first teachers and should point the children in the right direction.

In this way, the parents in Zunyi are the same as many Chinese parents, who fail to be qualified teachers, due to educational or economic background.

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