China to send urban students into the countryside to work
Chongqing announces community service plan to 'educate' a youthful urban elite
Supporters say it will help bridge the soaring gap between village and city, giving privileged youth a taste of how others live. Critics complain it has unpleasant echoes of the cultural revolution.
The south-western Chinese metropolis of Chongqing has announced that it will send urban-born students to live and work in the countryside for a month as part of a community service plan.
Many have welcomed the initiative, which addresses a generational gulf as well as a geographical one: the sharp increase in living standards has created a youthful urban elite with little conception of their parents' struggles.
Tu Jingping, deputy secretary-general of the municipal government, said it would improve students' all-round abilities, give them practical skills and help them better understand society.
But some dismissed it as a waste of time and others compared it to the 60s, when university entrance exams were suspended and millions of educated youths – including many of China's current leaders – sent "up to the mountains and down to the villages" for re-education by farmers.
"[They said] the youth could learn from the countryside, and become 'both socialist-minded and professionally qualified'. But look how that turned out. It is the same today," wrote Wang Yi, education editor at a publishing firm.
Although students should gain broader social experience, "having these detailed requirements … is just another form of restriction on the students' thought, which will in no way help them develop 'all-round talents' or help them when they enter society in the future," he said.
But Professor Zhou Daming, who was sent to labour in the fields at 16, said the new exercise was completely different.
"We had barely graduated from high school. We did not even have the most basic knowledge about many things," he said.
"They are much older than we were. It is good for them to go and learn about another kind of life."
Zhou, now dean of anthropology at Sun Yat-sen University, said many of his generation had suffered and "maybe only 1%" went to university after entrance exams were restored in 1977.
But he added: "The experience was good in that it taught me to 'eat bitterness'. Everything that came afterwards did not seem challenging or impossible anymore.
"I think this experience – especially now that I am doing social study work – broadened my view of society."
Parents hope the new plan could bring similar benefits to children who have led a sheltered life.
"My daughter spends all her time watching TV, or on the internet at home during holidays. She does not have any social experience," Zhou Yujun told a local newspaper.
Wang Hongxia added: "My son has grown up in a relatively wealthy environment … he has spent all his time studying and is weak at doing other things.
"Encouraging them to participate in social practice gives them a platform and opportunity to learn from different places and different people."
China has already hired 200,000 college graduates as village officials, believing more educated cadres will speed rural development.
Last year the gap in incomes reached its highest level since economic reform began 30 years ago, with city dwellers earning an average of 17,175 yuan (£1,607) while rural residents earned just 5,153 yuan, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Services such as health and education also remain poor, despite recent investment. A study published in the Lancet this year showed children born in rural China were three to six times more likely to die before they turn five than those born in cities.
Chongqing's 750,000 students will also have to plant 100 trees each, spend a month in military training, work in factories and complete a month's internship at a business or government body.
A press officer for the city's education committee said the activities were voluntary and would not affect grades or graduation, although some Chinese media have said all students are expected to take part.
The plan is the latest attention-grabbing initiative from Chongqing's ambitious party boss, Bo Xilai, who unlike most Chinese leaders has courted publicity rather than avoiding it. Previous campaigns include a high-profile crackdown on organised crime and a "red culture" drive involving mass singalongs of revolutionary songs and text messaging residents with quotations from Mao Zedong.
Additional research by Lin Yi
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