Shanxi: teenage leaders to see the real rural China

Paul, Nikki and Moses are three of the 20 students going to Xian City and Shanzou next month on a Federation trip sponsored by the Commission on Youth. They will visit farms and villages, help in the fields and see a methane conversion plant in action. The trip will also involve discussions with university students and teachers and a visit to World Vision's offices. We found out how they were preparing for the trip and what they were looking forward to most:

“I was born in Beijing,” said Paul who is doing science at Clementi School although he looks and sounds much more mature than a teenager. “I have many friends on the Mainland. We keep in touch regularly but this is the first chance I have had to visit a rural area on a study tour. When I meet the farmers I want to ask them personally for their views.”

“Last December I went on another study tour to Beijing,” said Nikki who is at Tsuen Wan Government Secondary School. “I met students there but I think they were not being wholly honest with me. This time I hope to learn more about real life in China.”

Moses who is from Lee Kau Yan Memorial School told us about his experience in Guanxi Province last summer.

“The students I met there seemed quite contented and happy but I have learned about the dissent and discontentment in rural areas, especially among the farmers. Some of them are very unhappy about their living conditions. They are angry about corrupt government officials and central government control. I really want to talk to them face to face about how they feel.”

“When I was in Beijing I saw only the bright side of economic development,” said Nikki. “We were not shown any of the signs of poverty* that is still so widespread. I hope this time I will meet people who tell me the truth. I want to see the bad side as well as the good side. I want to compare rich with poor but I know about the problems of freedom of speech because I have friends there too.”

All of these students have taken prominent roles at school. They regularly give presentations and act as leaders of a range of school activities. However, they expect their communications skills to be the most useful during the study trip. Paul is confident in Mandarin but Nikki and Moses expect to rely more on body language and, with children, play to get their message across.

“I am going to try to stand in their shoes,” said Nikki, “and to try to imagine what life is really like for them. It will be a lot easier when we have stayed with them for a short while.”

“We will also get a lot of insight by communicating with each other while we are away,” said Moses. “We will learn from our peers as well as from the people we meet. When we get back we are going to give a presentation about the trip in a primary school. For that, our communication skills will be really important. We know that much in advance! So we are all taking cameras and recorders to help us remember and to give our audience a picture that is as accurate and alive as possible.”

“I want to try to get people to really think about what we have seen in rural China,” said Nikki. “That's what we are always being told to do in presentations. It won't be easy with primary school children but we will try. Pictures speak louder than words and we will do some interactive sessions with them too as part of the presentation.”

Paul, Nikki and Moses will learn more about the practicalities of the trip after the briefing session next weekend but these 18-year-olds are already well informed and politically aware. They read widely about the situation in China, on Internet political forums, in books and newspapers. This trip will give them something no amount of reading can. They will come back from the Mainland next month after getting in touch with China's people. They will have a broader, deeper perspective. Something that only travel can bring.

*Recent Asian Development Bank figures show that the average urban income in Beijing is over 17,000 yuan per annum. Poverty, rife in the rural areas, is defined as an annual income of under 825 yuan per annum.

The Economist 18 March 2006 p.30

Facts & Figures

Youth poll on attitudes and perceptions of personal data privacy

The Federation with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong recently conducted a survey* on the attitudes and perceptions of youth about personal data privacy. 1,002 young people aged 15-29 were interviewed from 3-21 October 2005 and 95.5% had used the Internet. For registering an email account 71.4% thought it acceptable to provide their year of birth, 59% would give monthly income range and 50.1% would give their name as on their HKID card. In the same group, 65.7% have never read the Privacy Statement on websites and 31.6% said it was too lengthy while 26.6% said they have not seen the statement.

More than half of those interviewed had never conducted any kind of online transaction but of those who had 77.5% were concerned about misuse of personal data and 69% were worried about financial loss. The methods most currently used to protect personal data privacy were logging out properly (77%) and conducting online transactions only on reputable websites (64%).

Young people are generally more sensitive about protecting personal data in job applications. 86.1% would not send a CV to an organization that did not identify itself in the job advertisement and 73.9% would not consent to an employer retaining his/her CV if he/she were not offered the job.

*http://www.hkfyg.org.hk/yrc/chinese/yr-p149c.html

60% of youngsters think street dancing is cool and creative

A local organization called Youth Reach interviewed 499 young Hong Kong people aged 11-21 from September-December 2005 about street dancing* and advised parents not to be prejudiced against it. Over half of the young interviewees said they found it a cool, creative way to demonstrate dancing skills and 78% said street dancing could boost self-esteem and 61% found this very satisfying.

Their parents disagreed. Nearly 60% objected to it, 70% on the grounds that it meant poorer school marks. 60% thought it was a simple waste of time. Some parents worried that their children would fall into bad company if they went street dancing with 51% fearing that young people who went street dancing would be stereotyped as a bad influence and as academic underachievers. Youth Reach said they should be more open-minded and learn to appreciate the different ways youth express creativity.

* Sing Pao 17 March 2006

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