Step into one of the mandatory political classes in any Chinese school, whether it be about Marxism, Leninism, Maoism or Dengism, and you will realize that it's going to take more than textbooks and fine teachers to brainwash China's youth.
Chinese students rudely sleeping in front of the teacher, reading materials from other classes, talking among themselves, and missing classes are common signs of apathy toward the subject matter.
After all, it is not difficult to score well in such classes. If final grades are determined by thesis papers, Chinese students need to only fill their essays with shallow commendations of the communist ideologies to guarantee a good grade. The students would be even happier with a closed-book exam since years of the Chinese education system has perfected their rote memorization skills.
As a foreign student majoring in journalism at a Chinese university, I am required to take a course on Marxist journalism ideologies with my fellow Chinese classmates. I took the class during my freshman year when I first arrived in China with a preconceived notion of Chinese youth similar to that of most foreigners, and I was shocked to see the couldn't-care-less attitude displayed by Chinese students.
I thought -- similar to how it has been widely depicted in foreign media -- that since Chinese youth were brought up under the iron-hand rule of the communist state with years of political ideology education, they would be extremely nationalistic, opinionated and rigid in mindset, and they would be more positive and enthusiastic about their political ideology classes. A series of recent incidents incited by angry Chinese youth following rising tension between China and the West -- anti-CNN protests, attacks on so-called Chinese traitor Grace Wang from Duke University, calls for a boycott on French goods, the wrecking havoc at a Carrefour outlet in Kunming -- provide stark examples that validate the firmly-held impression of foreigners.
I am not rationalizing the actions of those fiery Chinese youth. However, the image of Chinese youth has been so badly tarnished and misrepresented in the media lately that some justice needs to be done. For a country of China's size, the population has to be much more diverse than to allow the generalization of all its youth into one stereotypical category.
Having interacted with members of my generation from various nationalities, I would say that mainland Chinese are among the most knowledgeable and mature in thought. If you get to know them well enough to engage in a discussion of sensitive issues -- anything concerning their government's policies -- as they cautiously thread their responses, you realize China's youth have a great burden to bear. But more importantly, they have their own views with regard to many subjects.
Don't be surprised to hear young Chinese confess that they do not trust their state media, or that they do not watch CCTV news because its reporting style hasn't changed in decades. Engage them deeper and they may share their multiple ways of circumventing Internet control (a must-know for every Chinese Internet user). Western audiences would be happy to hear that as much as the credibility of Western media like CNN and BBC has been hurt by inaccurate or biased reports on Tibet and the Beijing Olympics, Chinese readers well-engaged in current affairs still trust Western media to provide professional news reports -- as long as the subject doesn't involve China.
As one of my Chinese classmates explained, Chinese sentiment toward the media and their country is "very complex." As much as Chinese do not believe in their own state media, when their country is under attack, they temporarily put aside criticisms of it. This is why the popular catchphrase among Chinese youth has transformed from "don't be too CCTV" to the current "don't be too CNN." Westerners must learn that while individualism is highly regarded, Chinese place greater emphasis on team effort and unity; hence, the current wave of patriotism, or what the Western media prefer to label as "irrational nationalism."
My classmate is one of the many sensible, well-educated Chinese youth out there who can objectively point out the faults of both the Western media and the Chinese government. Western media demonizing China is expected, and as China transforms to become a superpower, it has to be prepared to face hostility from other nations.
There are Chinese youth who understand and are prepared to deal with increasing antagonism from the West. Compared to the headline-grabbing ones who loudly declare their support for the government on the Tibet issue yet make no sound when it comes to dissatisfaction toward government policies affecting them, the quietly confident ones have concluded that retaliation, when gone overboard, only generates more hostility toward China. But don't assume that they are not passionate about their country, because they wholeheartedly want to see the Beijing Olympics succeed and China rise harmoniously and respectfully onto the world's center stage.
These youth are exactly the ones I see around me, displaying their own attitude during our Marxism journalism ideology class. They are the misrepresented youth of China, silent but well-informed, who are definitely deserving of more attention from anyone wanting to gain a more balanced view of China.
As my Chinese classmate put it, the real China is better than the worst of your expectations, but worse than the best of your expectations.
译文:
被误解的中国青年
进入任何一个中国学校的必修政治课堂，不管是马列主义还是毛泽东思想、邓小平理论，你都会发现书本和教师已经不足以给中国青年洗脑了。
中国学生公然在老师面前睡觉、看课外资料，随意聊天、旷课，这已经是对这种课程表现漠然的普遍现象。
毕竟，要在这样的课程中拿高分并非难事。如果最终考核的成绩是论文形式，中国学生只需写满对共产主义的颂扬之词便可取得好成绩。近年来中国的考试制度强化了学生们死记硬背的功力，这使得他们更乐意采取闭卷考试的形式。作为一个在中国大学里就读新闻专业的留学生，我被要求同其他中国学生一起学习马克思主义新闻学（？）。来中国第一年修这门课程的时候，我以为中国的青年跟大多数外国人一样，然而却被他们极度不以为然的态度震撼了。
我原以为，这些中国青年与大多国外媒体描述的一样，由于在社会主义制度下长大，接受了多年硬性的有关意识形态的政治教育，会极端的国家主义，固执己见，并且坚决而热情的支持拥护他们的意识形态。随着中西关系不断升级的紧张态势——中国愤青们纷纷向西恩恩抗议，攻击来自公爵大学所谓中国叛徒的Grace Wang，联合抵制法货，昆明还发生了家乐福门前的破坏活动。近来所发生的这一系列事件都成为了印证外国人对中国青年固有印象的铁证。
我并非要为那些暴躁的愤青的行为辩护，然而中国青年的形象最近被媒体如此严重的误读，这确实需要一些修正。对于中国这样的人口大国来说，它的年轻人是形形色色的，而绝不能只简单的概括成一类。
与不同国籍的同龄人接触过后，我得说中国大陆的年轻人是当中思想最成熟最有见地的。如果你对他们足够了解，可以加入他们对任何敏感事件的讨论——任何涉及到他们政府政策的事情——通过他们审慎的思辨，你会发现中国青年是确实忧国的。而更重要的是，在很多话题上，他们都有自己的观点和立场。
如果听到中国青年说不信任他们的官方媒体，或者他们不看央视新闻，因为报道方式数十年不变，你无需诧异。你愿意的话，他们还会分享许多绕行网络监管的方法（这是每个中国网民必知的东西）。尽管西方媒体的信誉因为CNN和BBC对西藏事件以及北京奥运的不实偏颇报道而大大降低，中国人还是愿意相信西方媒体对实事新闻提供的专业报道——只要不涉及到中国，而这一定是西方民众乐于听到的。
据我的一位中国同学说，中国人对他们的媒体以及国家的看法是“非常复杂的”。尽管他们不信任自己的官方媒体，但当国家遭到攻击的时候，他们会暂时把批评搁置。这就是为什么中国青年的流行语从“不要太西西踢微”变成了“不要太西恩恩”。西方人一定认为，当个人主义被极度推崇的时候，中国人更讲究协作和团结，理所当然会产生当前的爱国主义浪潮，或是西方媒体口中的“非理性民族主义”。
我的一位同学就是众多理性并受过良好教育的人之一，他们能客观的分别指出西方媒体和中国政府的过失。西方媒体妖魔化中国是可以想见的，随着中国向超级大国的转变，它不得不做好面对别国敌意的准备。
深刻了解并时刻准备应对与日俱增的西方敌对势力的中国青年大有人在。比起那些摇着标语条幅大声疾呼在西藏事件上支持政府，而谈及影响到了他们的政府政策却悄无声息的年轻人们，这些沉默而自信的青年们认为，鲁莽的过度的还击和报复只会滋生更多指向中国的敌意。但是千万不要以为他们不热爱祖国，因为他们是一心一意的希望看到北京奥运成功，希望看到中国在世界舞台上河蟹而有礼的崛起。
这就是我身边确确实实存在的中国青年，对我们的马克思主义新闻学持有自己的态度。他们是被误读的中国青年，沉默但广识，对于想要全面的了解中国的人来说，实在应该给他们以足够的关注。
正如我的中国同学所说，真正的中国比你们最坏的猜想要好，但也比你们最好的期望要糟。