Xiang Xiaolian, a 13-year-old girl of Yingxiu town would not have survived the earthquake had it not been for the efforts of her classmate Ma Jian who spent four hours digging rubble with bare hands to free her.

It is indeed amazing and moving that a teenage boy could scramble through tons of concrete risking his life to get his classmate out of danger.

When their school building in Dujiangyan started to shake and was about to collapse, a student shouted to his classmates to lie prone on the floor, which had proved instrumental in saving the lives of some of them.

A senior high school student from the county of Beichuan who was rescued recalled how she and her classmates sang songs when they were buried under the rubble to cheer themselves up while waiting to be rescued.

These are only a few examples of how some teenagers reacted at such a critical time - their lives threatened by an unexpected natural disaster.

While our hearts are saddened by what these boys and girls have suffered and we pray for them and other victims, we have good reason to feel inspired by their courage and tenacity not to give up despite the overwhelming odds.

The earthquake has produced a number of examples that a person's perseverance and unyielding spirit can sometimes make the difference between life and death. Without singing songs to cheer themselves up, students of a middle school in Beichuan county would have found it difficult to cope with their ordeal.

These examples should be a reminder that we do need to educate our youngsters on how to cope with emergencies, and develop a strong will. This will also hold them in good stead in later life.

Many urban one-child families pay too much attention to their children, leading to concerns that those born after 1980s and 1990s might turn out to be a lost generation.

The braveness and perseverance of the young during the earthquake, especially those in the remote mountainous areas, indicates that such concerns are unfounded.

The exemplary qualities that some of the young have shown should be wake-up call to many parents, those in the urban areas in particular, that their children need to be brought up with the same qualities.

(China Daily 05/17/2008 page9)