In China’s fierce race for success, mental health struggles are starting earlier

Moon Chen stared down at her textbook, struggling to make sense of the words on the page. The 15-year-old felt a suffocating weight press into her chest, while her heart fluttered erratically.

Chen’s mother rushed her to a cardiologist – only to be told that she should see a psychiatrist instead. Chen, now in higher secondary school in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, vividly recalls the period before she was diagnosed with depression and anxiety.

At the time, she did not know that...