Modern products and ideas from the West flowed into China, changing people's lives and way of thinking. Intellectuals of the era questioned traditional feudal ideas, including those concerning the roles of family members and women's social status.

They challenged the famous 24 stories about filial piety, calling them "disgusting" and affected.

Some young parents were willing to experiment with new ways of raising their children, but at times this meant going from one extreme to another.

Instead of requiring absolute obedience from their children, as regulated by ancient feudal doctrines, young parents tried their best to satisfy all their children's needs and encouraged their children to challenge patriarchal authority.

The modern literary master, Lu Xun, wrote about the difference in children's education between China and Japan, encountered through his experience in photographic studios.

His son looked naughty in the camera lens of a Japanese photographer but obedient and formal in a picture by a Chinese photographer.

Lu went on to criticize the high Chinese valuation of obedience in children, saying if it went further, obedience could turn from a virtue, making people into useless good-for-nothings.

Lu recorded his son's dissatisfaction with his father: "I could make a better father than you... What kind of father are you?" Lu welcomed his rebel son and described him as "healthy, active and naughty."

But even today, the contradiction between traditional family roles and modern ideas of family democracy exists widely in Chinese households.

There is a Chinese proverb that says: "Filial sons come from beating." Most people sneer at old ideas like this, but they also believe that physical punishment can prove quickly effective.

Traditional morality gave parents absolute authority over their children. Even in the 1980s, when parents felt extremely troubled by their children who kept on acting against the law and damaging the family reputation, they would say: "I'd rather beat him into a handicapped man and take care of him all through the rest of his life, than let him end up receiving the death penalty."

A recent news story in Beijing told of a pregnant young woman who went to consult a lawyer about whether she would be breaking any law if she killed her baby as soon as it was born. She claimed to have conceived the baby from a rape, and wanted to vent her hatred of the man by killing the baby.

The idea behind this mentality is that parents who gave life to children have full power to dispose of the life as they see fit.

Real cases of parents intentionally hurting or killing their children were rare but beating children has been a common and widely justified practice. As parents - especially fathers - are held responsible for the education and moral integrity of their sons, the father disciplining his son by beating him has been seen as a matter for the family alone.

For the same reason, teachers were entitled to physically punish their pupils in the old days. The traditional teaching style is also deprived of anything heuristic or entertaining.

The students were required to memorize everything the teacher taught from classical texts.

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