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Open society makes youth more ambitious, stressing 'I' not 'we'
By Zhou Yan and Nan Ting |
November 13, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
DONG Yue gets up at 5:50am for an hour-long bus trip across the city to her school.
The six-year-old springs up the minute her alarm clock goes off, although she often dozes off during the bus ride.For Dong, a first-grader at Haidian Experimental Primary School in western Beijing, being punctual at school is important.
Dong and her classmates cherish the stickers their teachers give them for punctuality, concentration in class, high quality schoolwork and active participation in classroom activities.
Unlike their parents who were scolded as kids for being late or disrupting class, Dong and her classmates face losses of stickers, and are always given chances to make up by helping clean their classroom or contributing hand-cleaning gel to their class.
She knows nothing, however, of Lei Feng, Mao Zedong's model soldier who spent all his time and money helping complete strangers and inspired her father's generation. March 5 every year is "Learn From Lei Feng Day" in China.
Many Chinese born in the 1960s and 1970s recall their younger days when they were encouraged to learn from Lei. "Every day, I prayed the old lady living next door would tumble downstairs so that I could help her," said Dong's father, Dong Fuhai.
Good deeds
A famous joke of those days described how an elderly woman complained she was "helped" to cross the same street, back and forth, five times in an hour by children eager to do "good deeds" the way Lei Feng did.
Retired Beijing primary school teacher Liu Mingmei laughs as she recalls an embarrassing scene in 1982, when at least half of the students in her class wrote in their essays that they had "picked up a wallet" on their way to school and had turned it in to their teacher. "When my colleagues read those essays, they all asked, jokingly, 'Liu, what have you done with all those wallets'?"
At six, Dong admires Yao, the 7-foot-6 NBA star playing for the Houston Rockets, mainly for his fame and the honor he has brought to China. Although Liu Xiang limped off to a trail of tears amid public expectation for another Olympic gold last year, Dong idolizes him for his past glory as well as his perseverance to get back to the track.
Sociologists believe that the three generations of Chinese born after New China was founded in 1949 bear distinctive traits.
Those born and brought up in the 1950s and 1960s are known for their selflessness and heroism, while people born in the 1970s and 1980s are marked by their broader vision, but self-centered nature, said renowned writer and juvenile studies specialist Sun Yunxiao.
The new generation are known for their strong personalities and ambition, he said. "The open society and material abundance have enabled many children to be more confident. They tend to highlight 'I', while their parents and grandparents tend to say 'we'."
Not bookworms
In a globalized society, Dong Yue and her classmates have much in common with their peers in other countries: they begin studying English in kindergarten, and many of the books they read are international best-sellers, including the "Magic School Bus" science series and the works of Shel Silverstein.
At school they are taught survival skills ranging from how to survive fire and earthquakes to how to look after themselves in case they are left home alone.
Many are busy after school, doing sports, playing musical instruments, painting and getting involved in other activities. Dong's father proudly displays all the five violins she has used over the past two years in the family's living room: "A unique decoration that makes the whole family feel rather accomplished," he said.
China began to promote comprehensive education in the 1990s, in sharp contrast to the traditional way of spoon-feeding book knowledge. Parents and teachers are encouraged to nurture children's interests and cultivate their talents in diverse areas.
Although some parents are criticized for ruining childhoods with too much pressure and no time to play, many of China's urban, well-educated parents believe that early childhood training is essential for their children's lifelong development.
(The authors are writers at Xinhua news agency.)
The six-year-old springs up the minute her alarm clock goes off, although she often dozes off during the bus ride.For Dong, a first-grader at Haidian Experimental Primary School in western Beijing, being punctual at school is important.
Dong and her classmates cherish the stickers their teachers give them for punctuality, concentration in class, high quality schoolwork and active participation in classroom activities.
Unlike their parents who were scolded as kids for being late or disrupting class, Dong and her classmates face losses of stickers, and are always given chances to make up by helping clean their classroom or contributing hand-cleaning gel to their class.
She knows nothing, however, of Lei Feng, Mao Zedong's model soldier who spent all his time and money helping complete strangers and inspired her father's generation. March 5 every year is "Learn From Lei Feng Day" in China.
Many Chinese born in the 1960s and 1970s recall their younger days when they were encouraged to learn from Lei. "Every day, I prayed the old lady living next door would tumble downstairs so that I could help her," said Dong's father, Dong Fuhai.
Good deeds
A famous joke of those days described how an elderly woman complained she was "helped" to cross the same street, back and forth, five times in an hour by children eager to do "good deeds" the way Lei Feng did.
Retired Beijing primary school teacher Liu Mingmei laughs as she recalls an embarrassing scene in 1982, when at least half of the students in her class wrote in their essays that they had "picked up a wallet" on their way to school and had turned it in to their teacher. "When my colleagues read those essays, they all asked, jokingly, 'Liu, what have you done with all those wallets'?"
At six, Dong admires Yao, the 7-foot-6 NBA star playing for the Houston Rockets, mainly for his fame and the honor he has brought to China. Although Liu Xiang limped off to a trail of tears amid public expectation for another Olympic gold last year, Dong idolizes him for his past glory as well as his perseverance to get back to the track.
Sociologists believe that the three generations of Chinese born after New China was founded in 1949 bear distinctive traits.
Those born and brought up in the 1950s and 1960s are known for their selflessness and heroism, while people born in the 1970s and 1980s are marked by their broader vision, but self-centered nature, said renowned writer and juvenile studies specialist Sun Yunxiao.
The new generation are known for their strong personalities and ambition, he said. "The open society and material abundance have enabled many children to be more confident. They tend to highlight 'I', while their parents and grandparents tend to say 'we'."
Not bookworms
In a globalized society, Dong Yue and her classmates have much in common with their peers in other countries: they begin studying English in kindergarten, and many of the books they read are international best-sellers, including the "Magic School Bus" science series and the works of Shel Silverstein.
At school they are taught survival skills ranging from how to survive fire and earthquakes to how to look after themselves in case they are left home alone.
Many are busy after school, doing sports, playing musical instruments, painting and getting involved in other activities. Dong's father proudly displays all the five violins she has used over the past two years in the family's living room: "A unique decoration that makes the whole family feel rather accomplished," he said.
China began to promote comprehensive education in the 1990s, in sharp contrast to the traditional way of spoon-feeding book knowledge. Parents and teachers are encouraged to nurture children's interests and cultivate their talents in diverse areas.
Although some parents are criticized for ruining childhoods with too much pressure and no time to play, many of China's urban, well-educated parents believe that early childhood training is essential for their children's lifelong development.
(The authors are writers at Xinhua news agency.)
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