Sun Yunxiao and a great start in life

"Don't let children lose out at the beginning of life" is a widely held belief about early education in China. As such, parents push the kids to take up all kinds of learning, such as foreign languages, arts and sports.

Writer and educator Sun Yunxiao's new book Don't Panic, Baby, targets this theory, saying too much pressure from parents to win all competitions will only result in childhood panic and thereby trigger serious consequences.

"I know of two 12-year-olds in Fujian province who drowned in fear of their parents who scolded them for losing keys to the house; and a kindergarten girl in Tianjin who lost her hair when told to prepare for an interview to get into a top elementary school," Sun says.

"Parents' panic when faced with their children making mistakes; losing in competitions; and transitional problems in physical growth are three major reasons that create tension in children," he says. "That's also the key issue in our education."

Pressure leads to up to 80 percent of students under 12th grade in the country lacking sleep, Sun says.

He adds this is a problem shared by Asian parents, because they tend to have high expectations of their children.

Sun, deputy director of China Youth and Children Research Center, is always perceptive and sensitive to educational problems and has been researching Chinese education for 40 years.

"He closely follows the trends and comes out with breakthrough theories and conclusions," says writer Bi Shumin.

Back in 1993, Sun shocked the country with a report based on observing the differences between Chinese and Japanese children at an international summer camp in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, worrying about the future of Chinese children brought up in doting families but focused on examinations.

That shock led to a series of educational reforms to foster young students' abilities, besides coping with exams.

In 2010, Sun came to national prominence with his book Saving the Boys. He argues that, based on the varied ways girls and boys tend to learn things, the educational system and resources of the country do not favor bringing the best out of the boys, in that they're in disadvantaged position. The book stirred nationwide discussions.

His latest book on childhood panic is rich in content and information and provides handy and easy-to-follow solutions.

Stating the importance of parental education for young children, the book is based on 600 tweets Sun posted on Sina Weibo.

Sun decided to take advantage of getting first-hand material and feedback when opening his account in 2009. He now has 2.2 million followers.

"I'm serious about every word I post, and I benefit a lot from the interactions."

By turning the tweets into a book, Sun doesn't simply gather them together, but distills eight theories based on them, and extends the theories with real life cases and guidelines in coping with the problems.

"The book is also an up-to-date report on education."

Sun says the core of education is to learn to be a responsible and healthy person with good habits. He even states that making friends is more important than scoring high marks in exams.

He shows how to deal with failure and dispense proper punishments - two things Chinese parents are not good at. And he follows up on his ideas in previous books in advising different tips for girls and boys.