Letters

China is truly amazing

An experience I've had in China has left me somewhat ambivalent and maybe amazed. Perhaps that's because I arrived in China saddled with my own pre-conceived ideas: China is a strictly controlled society with rigidly conforming people. Students were apt to be passive learners: neither encouraged to ask questions, nor to explore issues of a sensitive - possibly contentious - nature. I figured Chinese students were likely to be closed minded, so were less concerned about addressing problems in the world. Such thought caused me to feel a bit anxious.

Something happened, however, that changed a part of my thinking. Some students attending Nanjing Medical University, where I teach oral English, voiced their thoughts, opinions and feelings - in English, mind you - about some highly sensitive and contentious issues. They discussed a wide range of issues from abortion, death penalty, God, evolution, stem cell research and cloning to issues about animal, environmental, industry, state and human rights. The youths even questioned the concept of civilization. Many of their arguments were brilliant and smashed a slew of illusions I'd had about Chinese students' thinking ability.