xiao-filial-piety.jpg (Photo : Wisegeek)
Shanghai students recently knelt down before their parents to show filial piety. The students also plucked one hair from their parents during the ceremony as a symbol of their love and respect.
A school located in the eastern city of Shanghai conducted a traditional Chinese cultural ceremony wherein students have to kneel down in front of their parents and pluck a hair from them to demonstrate their appreciation for their parents.
Before the ceremony, students were asked to recount how their parents took care of them and love them. Parents listen as children share stories of how their parents provide for them.
Some children expressed their gratitude directly to their parents, saying they never had the chance before. Some students stated that they owe a lot to their parents.
Once the stories were shared, children stood in front of their parents and said thank you. Then they plucked a hair each from their father and mother and put these two strands in a box. After this, students gathered in a hall in front of their parents and then knelt down before them.
Even though the cultural ceremony was praised, some experts also questioned its possible implications. The headmaster of Binxin School, Fu Jianqing, claimed that he personally cannot see why the practice of children kneeling down before their parents should be lauded. For him, children's rights as human beings are somehow violated here.
"The students can show their respect and appreciation for their parents by other means. Besides Confucianism, the students have a lot to learn from Chinese culture and traditions," he said.
