An 11-year-old boy in China was reportedly left in need of medical attention after being forced to study for 14 hours straight under the supervision of his parents.

According to reports, the boy was recently hospitalised after relentlessly doing homework from 8 am to 10 pm without breaks. It’s understood that by 11 pm, the child began showing signs of agitation and developed rapid breathing, dizziness, headaches, and numbness in his limbs, forcing the panicked parents to immediately seek medical treatment. It’s understood that following examination, the young boy was diagnosed with respiratory problems due to hyperventilation.

The respiratory condition, which happens due to breathing too fast and too deeply, was reportedly triggered by the emotional stress the boy suffered from being pressured by his parents to do homework continuously for 14 hours.

It remains unclear what, if any, legal repercussions the parents faced following the incident, with a noted general sense of pursuit of academic excellence part of the cultural norms.