‘Boxing orphans’ of Enbo Fight Club return home for schooling

The photo shows the daily training scene of the "boxing orphans". [Photo:VCG]

Chinese experts called for regular monitoring on the "boxing orphans" after they were sent back to their hometown of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, which stirred an intense discussion on the Internet.

All the children from Yuexi county in Liangshan, who were taken by the Enbo Fight Club, have been sent back home on Wednesday, according to a post by Wang Zhian, a journalist who has been investigating the case, on his Sina Weibo account.

The Enbo Fight Club in Chengdu, Sichuan stirred controversy in July because it reportedly trained orphans and left-behind children to become boxers for the mixed martial arts in the name of charity.

The club was founded in 1995 by En Bo, a retired special police officer, according to the official website of the club. In 2000, the Enbo Charity was formed to support orphans and poor children. In July, the club was still sheltering 150 orphans.

The screenshot of the video. [Photo: China Plus]

A 5-minute video titled "Boxing orphans" about the Enbo Club went viral on the Chinese Internet since July 21, presenting the life of two boxing orphans from Liangshan in the Enbo Club. It has generated discussions on whether the club was using orphans to make money or helping them find a way to make a living. 

Afterwards, Chengdu police and the local government in Liangshan launched investigations into the case. 

"The law gives the 'boxing orphans' a right to be educated. If they come back to their hometown for school, the local schools would accept them unconditionally," Song Gang, an official from the education bureau of Liangshan said in July, chinanews.com reported.

Wang said that some children refused to leave on Wednesday, but were forced to put the fingerprint on a document and taken away. "The children, the coaches and En Bo all cried," Wang said.

Wang's post on Weibo has garnered more than 20,000 reposts and 17,000 comments by press time, with most saying the children should not be sent back.

It is illegal to abet and use children doing violent performances especially if there is a risk to their body and mind," Zhao Hui, a lawyer of the Beijing Bar Association Committee on Child Protection, told the Global Times in a previous interview.

"But just sending the children back to hometown schools might be a too simple and crude method to deal with the case," said Hou Yuangao, a professor specializing in the development of western China at the Minzu University of China.

"Many of them had dropped out of school at a very young age, and could hardly adapt to the life in school at the age of 14 or 15," Hou said, "and learning boxing could have provided a way to live in the future."

Hou noted that the government should investigate the case thoroughly, cater to the children's needs and complete the monitoring system.

Hou said that the local government should learn from this case, not only in terms of why these children had dropped out of school and lived a poor life, but also how to react to a crisis like this and deal with it properly.