学校给孩子们上自卫防身课

Chinese children attend a self-defence class at a Kungfu school. According to Chinese state media, admission to these classes in Beijing has risen by at least 20% since April. It's a growing response to many deadly attacks that have taken place in Chinese schools in recent months, the first of these in March, when an unemployed doctor killed eight children and injured five others at a primary school.

Kungfu instructor, Chen Xiaohang, now teaches about 10 classes per week, a total of more than 60 kids.

"There have been many changes recently. Before, only one or two students would come to class. But since last week, we have received about 30 inquiries. A lot of parents registered their children for the self-defence class without much hesitation. This trend did not exist before. Parents are putting more emphasis on children safety."

Some children get more out of the classes than just self-defence. "I am a little bit fat. So I want to lose some weight. Second of all, there have been many school attacks recently. And I want to know how to prevent such attacks. So it's the best if I learn these skills." 10-year-old Ge Xizhou is a 2-year veteran of the class. He said that if attacked, he would first try to escape. "First of all, I use defence skills my teacher has taught me. If not, I will use my bag to hit the potential attacker."

There have been six attacks on Chinese schools in the last two months, leaving 18 people dead and more than 80 wounded.

Tara Cleary, Reuters.