`I Want to See Your Parents` Faces`

Watching the play "I Want to See Your Parents` Faces" makes me feel uncomfortable. Produced by Seensee Company, the work candidly depicts the behavior of the parents of five students at a girls` middle school in Seoul whose bullying of a classmate causes the latter to commit suicide. When the parents gather at the school`s consulting room, they try to destroy evidence by burning and swallowing the suicide note left by the victim. The bullies, who do not appear on stage, whine about being hungry and what to wear at their classmate`s funeral rather than feeling guilty. The play conveys the chilling message that "monster parents" created "monster children."

The original writer of the play is Seigo Hitazawa, a Japanese playwright who used to be a high school teacher. His work is based on a true event in which a bullied middle school student committed suicide in Fukuoka in 2006. When the play was put on stage in Japan in 2008, it attracted many audiences. Japan is the birthplace of "ijime (bullying)," which originated from the country`s unique culture of thoroughly excluding someone different to maintain social homogeneity. Hitazawa said, "I wanted to accuse the reality in which the perpetrators feel no responsibility to the victims." A play can be catalyst for curing conflict between perpetrators and victims.

In Korea, the family of a disabled student who was bullied at a middle school in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, released a video showing him suffering from a seizure. In the video, a small and thin boy jumps in pain from paralysis in the mouth before collapsing onto his bed. His family said they released the video because his tormentors and their parents did not feel sorry for him. The boy`s father expressed his feelings, saying, "When we released the video of my son`s suffering, my family was holding the last straw of this world."

After a bullied middle school student in Daegu committed suicide last year, the government announced anti-bullying measures in February, including putting school violence on the scholastic records of bullies. The middle school in question took disciplinary action against the bullies in compliance with the guidelines. Yet certain parents insist that they reject the blemishes on their children`s school records out of fear that they might affect their children`s chances of college admission. One parent even said, "Such records could become a problem for my child`s hope of becoming a diplomat in the future." Whether a bully sincerely feels sorry for his or her act is shown by the parents` attitude. We can realize that "your parents` faces" that unveils the ugliness of human nature are, after all, my own face.

Editorial Writer Chung Sung-hee (shchung@donga.com)