著者

楊 静

出版者

奈良女子大学大学院人間文化研究科

雑誌

人間文化研究科年報 (ISSN:09132201)

巻号頁・発行日

no.28, pp.145-155, 2012

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In China,"being parents of an egg" is regarded as a practical activity to help children understand how hard parents work and to help them love their parents. The activity is letting each child hold a raw egg. Children have to treat the eggs as their own babies and take care of them. The author observed this activity in Tianjin,China,and it has been praised not only in Tianjin but-the whole of China. However, a similar activity has never been seen in Japan. In Tianjin,the author recorded a video of this activity and-conducted an investigation. Twenty college students from Japan and China watched the video, answered a questionnaire prepared in advance, and then were interviewed. Surprisingly,the results differed between the Chinese and Japanese students. The Chinese students believed that children can learn to understand how hard parents work and to love their parents through this activity.They also thought,that the activity can help children to develop a sense of responsibility. On the other hand,Japanese students believed that the eggs should not be regarded as babies. If they were , it meant that the babies died when the eggs fell and broken From their perspective,that would be a very cruel thing for a child. But why did the students'viewpoints differ? One reason is that the Chinese students did not think of the activity as"real life." Once the eggs fell and broke, they were just eggs, not babies. However, the Japanese students always regarded the eggs as babies. Another reason is that parents and teachers have absolute power in China.: Children must respect their parents and obey the teacher.