Dear MEL Topic Readers,
China: Public shaming returns amid Covid fears
Public shaming or public humiliation is a form of punishment that dishonors an offender or criminal in public. A criminal or accused could be placed or paraded in a central, public, or open place where he or she could be openly seen by citizens. For example, French women, who were accused of having collaborated with Nazis, were shaved their heads and were paraded through the streets barefoot in Paris in 1944. Also, victims of a struggle session during the Cultural Revolution time in China were forced to admit their crimes before a crowd of people who verbally and sometimes physically abused them. Nowadays, public shaming is sometimes seen online, exposing private information to get public humiliation. On December 28 last year, four men in hazardous materials suits (hazmat suits) were paraded through the streets of Jingxi city in Guangxi province, China. They were accused of smuggling people across China’s borders. The parade was meant to deter illegal activities around and across the border when it is under strict control to prevent the novel virus from coming into China.
Read the article and think about if public shaming is just a form of humiliation or a suitable deterrence method to contain the pandemic.
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