Underage orphan fighters unwilling to go home

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The destiny of a group of underage cage fighters from the poverty-stricken Liangshan region in southwest China’s Sichuan Province has attracted great attention and stirred up hot debate among Chinese netizens.

Underage MMA fighters. /CNR.cn Photo

On July 20, China’s online video-sharing platform, Pear Video, streamed a six-minute-long documentary of two 14-year-old mixed martial artists (MMA), both orphaned, training and fighting for an MMA club named En Bo in the provincial capital city Chengdu.

At the club, children enjoyed free food and accommodation as if being taken into an orphanage, but they also attended intensive training sessions and were captured being sent to participate in commercial activities and underground fightings.

Screenshot of the Pear Video documentary featuring young boys during training.

The video went viral online, and millions of netizens showed mixed reactions: Some condemning the club for exploiting poor, orphaned children while others expressing support to the children pursuing their dream as future King of the Ring.

Offline, in reality, police in Chengdu has launched an investigation on the club, and authorities of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture have urged legal guardians of 17 boys from the prefecture to send the children back to regular school for compulsory education, China National Radio (CNR) reports.

The boys, however, are seen unwilling to return home in a series of featured videos released on Tencent Video, another popular Chinese video-sharing platform.

Screenshot of Tencent Video

In one of the videos published on Wednesday, a boy was seen forced to leave a fingerprint on a waiver acknowledging the acceptance of leaving the club, while shedding tears and bidding farewell to his coach in remorse.

To stay or not to stay: the dilemma deepens

When the initial video was first revealed, suspicions of the club illegally adopting orphans and exploiting them for commercial benefit dominated, as the fighters were shown in the clip fighting in an iron box surrounded by cheering adults at a local shopping mall.

Screenshot of Pear Video showing two underage boys cage fighting.

But as the story kept unfolding, a prevailing voice of sympathy has been heard, as Tencent’s featured videos presented the children expressing their gratitude towards the club, their love for martial arts and their dreams of becoming successful professional fighters.

“My dream is to fight for the gold belt of UFC (ultimate fighting championship).” An underage fighter, Xiaowu, talked about his goal to Pear Video.

“I practiced MMA to change my destiny. If I go back home, I can only do hard labor at farms or take on part-time jobs.”

Screenshot of Pear Video documentary.

Ajie, the boy seen unwilling to leave the club, expressed his concern. “I’m not leaving, no matter what. I’m not good at studying thus cannot find a proper job if I go back home. Here, I can fight and am making achievements.”

The club owner En Bo, a former SWAT member and also an orphan, stressed to Tencent Video that he believed young fighters can have a better life at the club rather than returning to the poverty-stricken hometown. “I see the potential of some of the children to become future MMA champions.”

But other than fighting, the boys are indeed missing out on regular education. Though the club has employed part-time teachers to teach children basic school curriculums, it does not hold teaching qualifications and cannot fulfill the country’s compulsory education requirement, Beijing News reports.

The fighting club En Bo. /depthpaper photo

Lin Shucheng, the secretary of the Liangshan Prefecture committee of the Communist Party of China, commented that the club should be brought to justice if proven violating laws related to compulsory education.

As to if the school “sought exorbitant profits by taking the juveniles for commercial competitions,” police investigation is still underway.

The problem lies deeper

Answering to the current situation, Tong Xiaojun, a child protection expert from China Youth University of Political Studies stated the problem lies deeper than the current dilemma.

“Are they in the game because they have talent or they simply have no other choice? The underlying problem is poverty,” he told CNR.

Children living in Liangshan. /Xinhua Photo

Data from Sichuan government website shows that a total of 19,072 children lived in “extreme difficulty” as of 2013 in Liangshan prefecture. According to Chinese business media outlet Caixin, existing statistics shows that in Liangshan alone, 25,000 children are living without their parents.

The region’s struggling economic situation is further overshadowed by complicated social problems of high HIV infection rate and drug addiction. Caixin quoted past data from Health and Family Planning Commission of Sichuan, which revealed a startling 50 percent of the HIV infection cases are coming from Liangshan prefecture.

Caixin commented that the situation only created more orphans.

Children in a remote area in Liangshan region. /Xinhua Photo

Last year, the provincial government invested 210 million yuan (31.5 million US dollars) to poverty alleviation projects through education improvement in the region.

A local school in Liangshan. /Xinhua Photo

Teen orphans cage fighting at Chinese MMA club return to school