The Chiayi District Court has ordered a mother to pay NT$5,000 in damages after she threw out her son’s collection of 32 Attack on Titan (進擊的巨人) comic books.
The fine can be commuted to labor and the ruling can be appealed, the court said.
The woman, surnamed Chien (簡), lives with her 20-year-old son, but the two have a strained relationship due primarily to the son’s habit of collecting manga and magazines, and refusal to dispose of them, the ruling said.
Photo: Lin Yi-chang, Taipei Times
Chien said they do not have space in their house to store all of her son’s collections, and she disposed of the manga series, because they had begun to develop mold from the humidity, it said.
The son was livid and sued his mother, saying some of the books were out of print, the ruling said.
Chien was contrite and asked to settle out of court, but she did not appear when summoned for further questioning, the ruling said.
The son was unwilling to engage in dialogue with Chien in court to attempt a settlement, so the prosecutors indicted Chien for destruction of property per the Criminal Code.
The court ruled that although the two were mother and son, Chien should respect the son’s rights to his property.
As the plaintiff did not wish to settle out of court, but the means employed in the act of destruction of property were mild, and the given price of the objects destroyed was not great, the court ruled that Chien should pay NT$5,000 in damages.
Commenting on the case, online author Neal Wu (吳子雲) on Tuesday shared his own experience, saying he was so angry at his mother for throwing away his comic collection in high school that he refused to speak to her for two years.
“The incident isn’t just about throwing away comic books,” he said, adding that he hoped Chien had learned from the incident or at least engage in self-reflection to learn why her actions drew such a strong response from her son.
Wu said that if a child purchases a book using their own pocket money, it is their possession, and even if the parents disagree, they should communicate to their child why they disagreed.
Wu said parents should not “throw things away” in an authoritarian manner.
Studying is not the only way to measure success in life, and as long as they do not turn “bad,” it is not bad for children to find solace in reading comics or playing games, he said.
Psychology consultant Wang Chih-yi (王智誼) said that digital products are often a source of conflict between parents and children.
Depriving children of their interests would result in stronger reactions, and sometimes self-harm, he said.
Parents should remember to consider the issue from the child’s perspective and try to de-escalate the situation, he said, adding that they should seek to handle the situation instead of punishing the child.
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