Classroom canings in Vietnam - 8 video clips

Clip 1 of 8

In this 15-second clip from 2007, a secondary boy comes to the blackboard for two strokes of the cane. The modus operandi is very similar to that commonly used in Thailand and Malaysia and sometimes in South Korea -- standing up straight, facing the wall.

Vietnam turns out to be yet another south-east Asian country never occupied by the British (Thailand and Korea are others) but where canings are clearly delivered very specifically to the offender's seat, giving the lie once again to the popular myth that this procedure is peculiar to English culture or to places where the British have historically had influence.

HERE IS THE CLIP (Click the triangle at bottom left to start the video):

Clip 2 of 8

Same schoolmaster, same classroom. In this clip (1 min 30 secs) the atmosphere is highly jocular as six boys come forward in turn for one stroke each with what looks in this case more like a ruler or a paddle than a cane. Some of them put on a comedy act for their classmates, sticking their bottoms out beforehand and over-reacting afterwards. Clearly these are not supposed to be very significant punishments.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

Clip 3 of 8

Another clip (30 seconds) of a jocular caning in the same classroom. Here the boy being punished is getting big laughs from his comrades by acting the clown. The schoolmaster maintains a deadpan face.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

Clip 4 of 8

More from the same classroom. This is a much longer clip (3 minutes 50 seconds). This time the schoolmaster tries out a new modus operandi for some of the punishments, involving having the student lie face down along a desk. Most receive two strokes with what looks like a metre ruler or thick rigid stick, not a proper cane in the British sense. Another departure is that one or two of those being disciplined are girls, though they get it standing up. The teacher is consulting a record book as he goes along, so perhaps these are penalties for poor exam results. At all events, the atmosphere seems fairly jocular and the class is rather rowdy, though I'm not sure the students being punished find it so amusing. Still, the strokes are not very hard.

UPDATE: According to another source, this is a homeroom teacher punishing his students because of complaints from other teachers.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

Clip 5 of 8

This 2½-minute clip is faulty: the sound is only intermittent. It is taken in a different classroom from the previous scenes, with a different, younger schoolmaster. Several girls, and a couple of boys, receive two whacks each on their bottoms while standing upright facing their classmates. This looks to be a serious rather than a jocular proceeding, although the ruler or stick being wielded is probably not big or heavy enough to cause severe pain.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

Clip 6 of 8

This clip (55 seconds) shows another secondary classroom, with a very stern lady teacher who gives a sound spanking to a boy, and then I think to a girl, while they lie face down on a desk. She is then seen rulering the hands of a girl and then a boy. This evidently causes quite some pain.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

Clip 7 of 8

Here is a slightly jerky 4-minute video of a mass caning in a remarkably noisy Vietnamese secondary classroom. The recipients come to the front one by one to stand facing the blackboard. 13 students are punished in total, starting with eight boys, who receive between one and five strokes each. Three girls then get just one stroke each. I am not sure of the sex of the last culprit but one, who receives five strokes, and finally a boy gets three. The teacher is reading from a list of offenders and, I infer, announcing how many strokes each is to get -- or are they being punished merely for poor exam results? The strokes, brisk but fairly accurately targeted at the seat of the trousers with what looks like a proper cane, are only moderate in force, but several students clutch their buttocks immediately afterwards. A couple of the girls can be heard to give a little yelp. Some of the boys are grinning ruefully. One boy who is wearing a jacket spontaneously pulls it up to present his backside for the cane. The general atmosphere is completely matter-of-fact, and this looks like quite a routine occasion, not at all jocular but not very solemn either.

HERE IS THE CLIP:

Clip 8 of 8

A 45-second amalgam of brief scenes of a lady teacher who is seen enthusiastically paddling the posteriors of some nine secondary students at the blackboard, a mixture of boys and girls. Each receives five speedy whacks.

HERE IS THE CLIP: