THE sickening crack of dad's belt; the snap of mum's wooden spoon across the back of your thigh. Being naughty, being punished - childhood memories.
Now, in most parts of the civilised world, corporal punishment is out, and non-punitive discipline is seen as the only way to make the children of the '90s see the error of their ways.
But in Hong Kong, parents are hitting as hard as ever. A young professional Chinese couple who have two children and spank as they feel it's necessary say: 'Unfortunately spanking is somewhat ingrained in Chinese culture because of a saying that implies without spanking you ruin your child's personality. Besides, we're okay as people and we were spanked as children. If they're really naughty they get spanked - it's as simple as that.' Corporal punishment was banned more than two years ago in Hong Kong schools, but parents are relatively free to discipline their children as they see fit. Psychologists say children are still coming to school with bruises and tales of how their parents layinto them behind closed doors.
'Spanking is a very degrading form of punishment which turns into child abuse if it occurs regularly. We are not talking about parents who give their children a light whack on the hand, but those who - often in response to bad school grades - slap childrenin the face, box them on the ears, use straps, slippers or other instruments to inflict pain,' says Sansan Chang, director of the Hong Kong Council of Early Childhood Education.
'We think a lot of it is related to the pressures of homework, the fact that Chinese parents desperately want their children to achieve and resort to hitting and physical punishment when their children don't perform and live up to their expectations.' So seriously is the council taking this issue that a sub-group of Child Safe Action, called Against Smacking Kids (ASK), has just been formed to look into the problem.
Against Child Abuse director Priscilla Lui confirms much of the spanking appears to be related to school grades. 'We get between 400 to 600 calls on our hotline every year, and a high number of these are related to corporal punishment and school grades. Parents cane, slap, beat with objects and bite their children - often when they don't do their homework.' In Sweden, any one of these incidents would attract criminal prosecution, as hurting a child intentionally has been deemed a crime since 1966. Smacking and other forms of physical punishment falls under minor assault and is punishable by a fine. Finland, Denmark and Norway have similar laws. Germany has vowed to outlaw physical punishment by 1994, and Scotland is examining legislation to prohibit the use of an object to hit a child, and all but the lightest of smacks.
But while child care experts in Hong Kong are unanimous in their support of non-punitive discipline theory, Chinese parents pay more than lip service to the Cantonese equivalent to 'spare the rod and spoil the child'. Child Assessment Centre clinical psychologist Joseph Lau, who sees hundreds of local children every year, says: 'There's no doubt many Chinese parents believe in spanking. They also expect blind obedience and have an attitude of 'you'll do it because I'm your parent, that's why'. They are not generally democratic parents and like to be firmly in control.' Mr Lau says parents here have a particular penchant for hitting children with a feather-duster. 'Giving hidings with a feather-duster is almost a Chinese tradition - it hurts and only leaves a little mark. Parents also use other cooking utensils, clothes hangers or the first thing they can lay their hands on. This is when spanking becomes dangerous and degrading for the child,' he says.