Week Four
The weeks are flying by here in Beijing! This past week, my parents and I visited the Beijing Zoo, we welcomed a few more interns at the office, and began a new project.
Seeing my mom and dad for the first time in Beijing definitely helped ease my homesickness a little bit. They flew from St. Louis, my hometown, to San Francisco to Taipei, and into Beijing. When you land in China, the customs process includes a collection of all ten of your fingerprints. However, my father is missing one finger due to a carpentry accident several decades ago, so the reader struggled quite a bit with allowing him through. Finally, after a long taxi ride, we all met at their hotel. After catching up a little bit, we decided to explore the area around their hotel while I tried to teach them some of the (limited) Chinese words I know. We ended up stopping at a few street vendors, one for some Guo Kui (a Chinese flatbread stuffed with meat) and another for Baozi. Although we ordered the kind stuffed with meat, they gave us a chive and egg mix, which was still delicious. After exploring a little bit more, my mother was just mostly trying to find Diet Coke to no avail, we returned to their hotel. Obviously bogged down with jetlag, I left fairly early after we decided to go to the Beijing Zoo the next day!
The Beijing Zoo is massive, filled with food shops every 250 feet, exhibits (in the shade, blessedly!), and bursting with people. The main reason I wanted to go to the zoo was, of course, the Giant Pandas. Pandas have been my favorite animal since I was a child, so I was excited to see a few in person, as was everyone else there. The Panda Pavilion is separate from the rest of the zoo, you must buy a combined entry ticket or an individual entry ticket once there. In the main pavilion, there were only two pandas to be seen. At first, both were back in their corners, however, after some time we heard the voices of excitement and amazement as one of the pandas moved from his back corner to come sit with his big tummy out. This drew much attention and photographs. We stopped for lunch before returning to the rest of the zoo. Eventually, we also made our way to the Beijing Aquarium, located inside the zoo and available upon purchase of a separate ticket. The Beijing Aquarium is one of the largest in the world, boasting displays of man-eating fish, a beluga whale, and 18,000 tons of saltwater throughout the entire aquarium. While there, we decided to watch the sea lion and dolphin show. Despite not being able to understand a single word the hostess was saying, we were still able to “ooh” and “aah” with the rest of the crowd as the animals performed their tricks. Sunday evening, I introduced Lily and my parents over dinner at a hot pot restaurant near Lily and my apartment.
Throughout the week, my days are taken up by work, of course, but I am fortunate enough to spend the evenings with my parents, trying new restaurants all around Beijing, and seeing new parts of the city with them. On one memorable evening, Wednesday night we duck in for an easy dinner and then explore around the hotel they’d be staying in until Saturday closer to the middle of the city. Of course, we stopped in the Lego store and the mall nearby where I replaced my overworked tote for a nicer, newer leather bag I negotiated down in price (who said this gal can’t barter?). Experiencing these new places with them makes it seem more magical, so I’m more than content to spend my evenings with my family in a completely new place.
At work, the hot weather I had been dreading finally comes in full force Monday. The dry air stuck to me as we started the short walk to the nearby metro station. At the office, our trend of collecting new interns weekly continued. This week, it was another American student, Cynthia, and a Chinese junior at university named Peter. Our group keeps getting bigger and bigger so finding places to accommodate us for lunch has been a little difficult. We also received a new assignment from Director Tong to decide on a new research topic and complete a legal analysis memo similar to what we had previously done for internet use’s effect on juvenile delinquency.
Eventually, after a discussion between Cameron, Lily, Jiang, and I selected a topic on the issue of the age of criminal responsibility. We decided to continue with a comparative analysis lens focusing on China and America. At the center of this discussion, we wanted to answer a question of how juveniles interact with the justice system and how the discussion regarding age and criminal liability affects those interactions. Director Tong’s goal for this topic is to culminate in a roundtable discussion with the general public next Saturday. Jiang had mentioned, and Director Tong reiterated, that this was a particularly contentious topic as there was recently a media scandal regarding a 13-year-old boy killed by three of his teenage classmates in Hanban, China. Because of China’s current policy on the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR), these boys cannot automatically be held criminally liable for this killing as they are under 14 and the decision on whether or not to prosecute is up to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the country’s highest-ranking prosecutor. Because the boys are between 12 and 14, the Procuratorate will determine whether or not to pursue criminal action against the boys.
Many in China look at countries like the United States with questions on whether or not to emulate our system considering in some states we will allow prosecution against children as young as 6 or 7. So, it is our assignment to make the entire country’s criminal juvenile justice system digestible and contribute meaningfully to this debate happening in most countries worldwide. Easy-peasy. This topic contributes to a larger conversation, of course, about the culpability of children as well as the limits or what should be limits on their rights. This research topic will steer us into questions of federalism, juvenile courts, a child’s ability to morally comprehend the legality of their actions, racism, and a larger question of international policy. So, needless to say, we spent the week collecting sources and putting together our sections of the project to combine and begin marketing for next week.
Through this topic, another group of interns was inspired to discuss another fraught-with-complications topic of the minimum age of sexual consent. Through this conversation, we discovered China and America had very different ideas about consent and at what age that can manifest. It appears that, in China, the question is whether a child under 13 should legally be able to consent to sexual acts with an older partner if she is voluntarily engaging in these acts. At this, Lily and I turned to each other and vehemently shook our heads. We explained the mindset in the United States is that a child under 13 is never able to consent. However, of course, this brings up questions on our topic as well. If it is well-accepted a child cannot manifest the necessary mindset to consent to sexual acts under 13, how can we, as a society, hold them criminally liable?
Through my research, I found a quote from an article written by Tim Bateman, Keeping up (tough) appearances: the age of criminal responsibility:
“Acquiring a moral understanding is not like learning to walk, a once-and-for-all achievement. It is rather a skill that improves incrementally over an extended period: just as we would not expect a toddler who has grasped the rudiments of arithmetic to solve quadratic equations, so too a primary school child who understands that damaging property is ‘wrong’ is not manifesting an ethical stance that would properly qualify him or her for jury service.”
As of June 21, 2024, the United States still has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, the only member of the United Nations to not have done so. This Convention sets out to establish the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The debate over children’s rights and our obligations to them as a society continues on, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to continue to work in a field that takes those questions seriously.
Friday evening was my last night with my parents before they embark on the rest of their tour of China. We went to a particularly famous restaurant near their hotel where we indulged in Peking Duck for the first time. The duck was delicious, the skin was flavorful and moist. It was especially delicious with the pancakes and fillings they provided – cucumber, green onion, and various sauces. We continued back through the large shopping street, stopping to marvel when prompted. It was absolutely wonderful having them here and saying goodbye after I had gotten used to the familiar faces was difficult.
This upcoming week is loaded with exciting activities and adventures so stay tuned!