Monster Parents in Hong Kong (2) - "Primary School Chicken", "Kong Kids" and "Princess Syndrome"

Following from the last blog, I wish to talk about new terms that evolved in Hong Kong from Monster parents.  Let's first look at a short video on an example of "primary school chicken":

In the video, you may see a kid, 7 years of age shouting loud in a shopping centre in Hong Kong at his parents because he felt that he was forced by his parents to go out for shopping against his own will.  If you have paid attentions to the video, the boy was extremely emotional and yelled to call police on his parents, totally out of control.  On the other hand, his parents failed to react, and control the situation, allowing the boy to create a scene.  This video was largely spread on internet and the boy was labelled as a typical "primary school chicken" or "Kong Kid".

So what exactly do the terms mean?  Please take a look at this diagram:

"Primary School Chicken" or "Kong Kid" refer to kids in Hong Kong, mostly born after 1990, who are not able to take care of themselves (even for very simple tasks such as taking care of personal hygiene, tying up shoelace, crossing roads, etc.), overly rely on external such as maids, grandparents/parents, as a result of over-protection from Monster Parents.

To many parents in Hong Kong, their kids are not only "dragons" but are also Prince and Princess.  Some believe that the duty of the kids is mainly to absorb resources and they tightly scheduled their kids' timetable with school work, cram schools, extracurricular activities, language and/or music instrument classes, so to make their kids "talented" and "outstanding", and it is parents' responsibilities to take care of the rest.  As an outcome, the over-protected kids lose chance to organize their own lives, failing to interact with the actual social world, and eventually cannot live a minute without their parents.

The idea of "cannot live without assistance of others" have created yet another term in Hong Kong, so-called "the Princess Syndrome", where teenagers (mostly girls) often complain, become judgmental, self-centred and arrogant, and automatically expect people around to take care of everything in their lives.  Below is a good video describing the characteristics of "Princess Syndrome":

So how does it all happen?  Let's go back to Monster Parents in Hong Kong, as they are the roots to these new terms.  There is a trend in Hong Kong that Monster Parents tend to blame the teachers for literally everything - shall the kids misbehalf at school, at home, even in the public, it is the teachers' responsibilities as they have failed to teach them politeness and discipline.

In their mind, their parents are always right, even if it was their kids who started fights, or bullied others, their kids must have done so for a "good" reason.  Eventually, the kids feel that they are always right - shall they dislike anything in school, they will complain to their parents and their parents will stand up for them, fight for them, confront the teachers - making them real "prince" and "princess" at home, at school or even in public.

Have you seen any "Primary School Chicken", "Kong Kids" or "Princess Syndrome" around you?  Let me know.

For those of you who wish to know more about monster parents in Hong Kong, please take you time and watch the below videos:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Enjoy!