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BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese teenager who defaced an ancient temple in Egypt with graffiti has come under fire at home where his vandalism prompted public fretting about how to cultivate a good image overseas as more newly affluent Chinese travel abroad.
The teen scratched "Ding Jinhao visited here" in Chinese on a temple wall in the ancient city Luxor, and the incident came to light when another Chinese tourist posted a photo of it on a popular microblog with the comment: "My saddest moment in Egypt. Ashamed and unable to show my face."
The photo quickly caught the attention of the Chinese public, attracting thousands of comments, and someone was able to identify the person responsible for the graffiti as 15-year-old Ding Jinhao from the eastern city of Nanjing. Many criticized Ding's act as an embarrassment to the country.
"Why there are so many citizens who go abroad and humiliate us? How many generations will it take to change this kind of behavior?" Xuan Kejiong, a prominent journalist with Shanghai Television, wrote on his microblog.
The sentiment was echoed by the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, the People's Daily newspaper.

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ORIGINAL: Powergamz1

Restitution would be fine, but it wouldn't be the teen paying it, it would be the same people who are shielding him from blame now... the parents.

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ORIGINAL: UllrsIshtar

Restitution, absolutely, but I'm mainly impressed with his father, who has come out and publicly stated: "the child has committed a mistake and the main responsibility falls on the adults. It was because we did not supervise him well, and have not taught him well."

That acknowledgment of his personal accountability in the raising of his son is more than I've come to expect from most parents these days.

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ORIGINAL: fucktoyprincess

i've traveled all over the world and seen all sorts of defacement of all kinds of culturally significant sites (in Asia, in Europe, in South America, in the U.S.). In every place I have seen graffiti in every major language. Usually the inane 'I was here' or 'A heart B'. It seems to me that teenagers (and quite frankly, some adults) worldwide lack respect - I don't think this Chinese teen is out of the ordinary for a teen (sadly). What I do find extraordinary is the reaction of the Chinese - I've never seen a country's people react like this to this type of defacement. I've never seen anyone from any country take a photo of graffiti on a culturally significant site and blast it around their country. I wish more adults the world over would take responsibility for how they raise their children. Certainly American teens are not angels.......

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

I'm recalling the case a while back of an American teenager who decided to commit a bit of vandalism in Singapore. I think he learned his lesson.

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ORIGINAL: LafayetteLady

Powergamz1

There are definitely ways that his parents would not bear the responsibility of restitution. Granted, a teenager may not have a job, but community service will directly be a form of restitution. Criminal charges against the child would also affect him directly. I don't think this was a situation where the parents were coddling their child. That is definitely not the culture in China at all. Or any of the Asian countries that I'm aware of.

Ken,

I wholeheartedly agree.

Ishtar,

Not all teen misbehavior is the result of wrong doing on the parents. I know of many situations where the parents were not at fault at all. However, far too many people like to blame the parents for everything, and frankly, this is just another way of absolving the children of what they did wrong. Perhaps you are familiar with how often someone goes into therapy and the results are that their parents failed them, causing their need of psychological help? It certainly does not address the issue.

YN,

The shame he is already facing as this makes the rounds on the internet may only prevent him from getting caught the next time.

fyp,

See my comment to Ishtar regarding it being the fault of the parents. While I don't deny that many parents in this day and age coddle their children far too much, that doesn't always make them responsible for the child's failures or misconduct.

DS,

The only thing I found on the internet about him AFTER that incident is this. That link indicates an arrest for marijuana possession in 1998 which I wouldn't consider as "being worthless ever since." If you have additional information, I would be interested in hearing about it, however, it really is off topic to this thread, so feel free to PM me with the info if you have it.

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This is the Little Emperor generation where the child is the center of attention from (usually) 6 individuals who do not say the word 'No' in any imperative sense. Scolding, tssking, dithering, yes, but actually overriding the child's impulses, not so much.

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ORIGINAL: UllrsIshtar

Restitution, absolutely, but I'm mainly impressed with his father, who has come out and publicly stated: "the child has committed a mistake and the main responsibility falls on the adults. It was because we did not supervise him well, and have not taught him well."

That acknowledgment of his personal accountability in the raising of his son is more than I've come to expect from most parents these days.

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ORIGINAL: Powergamz1

Your assessment of Asian culture is at direct odds with the condition known as 'Little Emperors'. This isn't the China of 15 or even 5 years ago.
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/23/131539839/china-s-little-emperors-lucky-yet-lonely-in-life

And your belief that restitution would be demanded is at direct odds with the fact that for 3 generations, Chinese culture has been inculcated with the notion that antiquities are counter-revolutionary. Unless it can be used to generate tourist dollars, it is of no use to the PRC.
Notice that they are busy bulldozing historic cities, palaces, temples and replacing them with mega-mall prefab wonderlands... Lhasa is currently being torn down, with no regard for 1400 year old art, etc.

The parents shame came from the notion that the child drew attention to them, not from the fact that some foreign artifact was defaced.

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ORIGINAL: cordeliasub
This is brilliant. between the helipcopter parents and the "not MY angel" parents and the "let's make school programs last from dawn till 7:00 at night so I won;t have to mess with them" parents....it's a wonder that some kids make it to adulthood. And when some of them do.....it is a sad state of affairs indeed.

I wonder if the college students whose mommies and daddies call the professors to beg for a better grade are going to have mommies and daddies call when they miss work or don't get a promotion.