Villages left without talents
It is not something that we should take pride in when all the talents nurtured by a village abandon it and choose to live in cities, says an article in China Youth Daily. The following is an excerpt:
Since the founding of New China, Bantang, a village of no more than 1,200 people in Jiangshan city of Zhejiang province, has had 10 PhD graduates, 40 Master's degree holders as well as more than 240 college students. Now, this village has been named by the local government the "Doctorate Village".
The pity is that the village really has little more than the superficial honor of being called the "Doctorate Village". For, such villages are no longer home to these well-educated people as they all have left them and live in cities. Probably, the honor of such a village can encourage more children of younger generations to study well and leave their hometown as soon as they enter college.
As Professor Zhu Yongxin pointed out: "We should let our rural kids love their villages and grasp the ideals and talents needed to reform the villages."
(China Daily 12/10/2008 page8)
