Mixed-sex school canings in Vietnam -- Ten video clips.
Clip 1 of 10
Duration: 3¾ minutes
Date: 2008
This is a classroom we have seen before, in some of the schoolboy caning clips on another Vietnam page. 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, some of the strokes are not all that hard, especially for the girls.
UPDATE: According to another source, this is a homeroom teacher punishing his students because of complaints from other teachers.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 2 of 10
Duration: 2½ minutes
Date: 2009
This clip is faulty: the sound is only intermittent. It is taken in a different classroom from the previous scene, 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 3 of 10
Duration: 55 seconds
Date: 2009
This clip 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 4 of 10
Duration: 4 minutes
Date: 2008
Here is a slightly jerky video of a mass caning in a very 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 rattan 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 5 of 10
Duration: 45 seconds
Date: 2010
An amalgam of brief scenes of a lady teacher 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:
Clip 6 of 10
Duration: 10 minutes
Date: 2011
This mass spanking is another example of the "lying flat face down along the top of the desk" method, which seems to be quite a Vietnamese thing. The young teacher is applying a light ruler to the seat of the dark blue uniform trousers of girls as well as boys, with no apparent difference in treatment between the sexes. The students, wearing Young Pioneers neckerchiefs, look to be a couple of years younger (perhaps about 12 to 14) than in most of the other Vietnamese clips we have seen. The teacher appears to be handing back test papers or essays, the number of strokes in each case (varying from 2 to 5) presumably depending on how bad the result is. The matter-of-fact atmosphere perhaps suggests that it is a regular event. The class is intermittently noisy and there are moments of jocularity, but the teacher maintains a resolutely deadpan countenance.
Altogether we see 16 students punished -- 11 boys and 5 girls. In a few cases, such as that of the first boy, the student jumps up and rubs his bottom, the teacher patiently waiting meanwhile, before climbing back on to the table for further strokes. Nevertheless, these are clearly not very serious punishments: I get the impression that the whacks sound more painful than they really are, and they are taken in reasonably good humour. (Whether giving CP for poor test results is a helpful or wise practice is quite another question.)
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 7 of 10
Duration: 6 minutes
Date: 2012
In this clip we again see the "lying flat along a desk" position in use, but this time we are outdoors, and the punishment session is taking place under a canopy. A long cane is applied across the seat of the trousers. The students to be disciplined, aged perhaps 14-15, are sitting on the ground. The Principal, Mr Quang Nguyen, calls each student forward in turn. Each student, after being dealt with, joins the others who have already been caned at the back of the "stage".
Altogether we see eight students being disciplined, two girls and six boys. All are in uniform with dark long trousers and "pioneer" neckerchief. The girls get one stroke each. The boys get three strokes each, except for one boy, who receives 9 strokes altogether, having apparently angered the Principal by repeatedly putting his hand in the way. The strokes look to be moderately hard: each impact can be heard, even though the camera is at some distance. One or two students are seen holding their buttocks after receiving the punishment (and, in the case of the first girl right at the beginning of the clip, also before it, in anticipation). The Principal is seen to be working from a list.
A cleaning lady nonchalantly wanders around sweeping the yard, taking no notice of what is going on, perhaps suggesting that this is a fairly routine happening.
According to this news website 
(in Vietnamese), the event took place on 4 June 2012 at Lac Hong Junior High School in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The punishments were for neglecting work and consequently failing to pass the exam for promotion from grade 9 to grade 10.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 8 of 10
Duration: 1 minute 40 seconds
Date: 2009
We are back in a secondary school classroom for this clip showing two female and one male students receiving about 10 brisk strokes of the cane each from their lady teacher, again apparently for poor work. The students have to stand facing the blackboard to be disciplined across the buttocks. The first girl takes her punishment badly and keeps interrupting it, jumping around and holding her seat. Then comes a boy, who is steadfast under punishment, though he rubs his bottom afterwards as he returns to his place. Finally, another girl is caned, to similar effect. In each case, the teacher hands back the unsatisfactory test paper after the caning.
The picture quality of this video is not good, and the view is somewhat distant, but it is clear enough to see what is happening.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 9 of 10
Duration: 4½ minutes
Date: 2013
In this clip, no fewer than 14 girls and 11 boys aged perhaps 16 come in turn to stand facing the blackboard and receive punishment from a smiling lady teacher with a metre rule across the seat. She is working from a list, and the number of strokes varies from 1 to 9. The boys tend to get more strokes (average 4.64) than the girls (average 3.36). It's clear that these figures are not random, and that the teacher has decided on a specific number of strokes appropriate to each student. The strokes are moderate in force, perhaps a little harder for the boys but evidently not hard enough to cause distress. The girls all wear a distinctive flowing white dress (I am told this is a traditional Vietnamese female garment called áo dài). The boys are in standard white shirt and dark trousers. The atmosphere seems matter-of-fact, a bit light-hearted, but not really jocular. One gets the impression that this could be a routine event, possibly a weekly punishment for unsatisfactory test results.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
Clip 10 of 10
Duration: 2½ minutes
Date: 2012
This discontinuous video clip, filmed with a very unsteady hand, looks as if it could be set in a crammer of some sort rather than a mainstream school. The pupils are in casual wear and the set-up appears somewhat ramshackle. A succession of boys and girls, adopting the typical Vietnamese "lying flat on the table" posture, receive two strokes each on the seat with what I think may be a length of rubber hose.
HERE IS THE CLIP:
See also:
