Let's Put on a Show!

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All fresmen in China, boys and girls, must go through military training their first three weeks at university. The result here at HUST is that groups of camouflaged freshmen can be seen throughout campus marching up and down "Desperation Road", the road linking the two sides of campus, and on every available field on campus. They also yell slogans as they practice, so someone who didn't know this goes on annually and wakes up to the sounds of marching soldiers might well think another revolution has begun...or that war has broken out with Japan over contested islands.

Alas, this three weeks of marching around and other exercises only lead to a show at the end of training, which I caught last year. All the "troops" gather on a soccer field on campus and show their ability to march and do other military maneuvers in unison.

My graduate students tell me that current freshmen "have it easy". It was hotter, longer...whatever..when they had to do military service. I guess that the story that it was "harder back then" is a universal one.

There are other shows around as well. I understand that the Chinese Communist Party has just 30 Million members. It is relatively easy for university students to become members, at least at prestigious universities like HUST. Prospective members have to write various long statements of personal belief and submit them, along with other materials, to the Party. Not surprisingly, the internet is filled with successful statements and, according to some students, most just copy them making small changes. It appears nobody in the Party actually reads most of the statements. While joining the Party is easy, I'm told only about 40% of students bother doing so anymore.

Every year, I ask my students to list what they see as the top 5 social problems in China. They appeared very forthcoming. This year, the cost of housing, unemployment, food safety and government corruption topped the list. Maybe this is just another show. When I asked the students if the Party had already at least mentioned these as problems, they all conceded that, yes, it had. Though the Party only concedes that corruption is at the lowest local levels of the Party. When I asked if they would mention any social problems to me that the government hadn't already conceded existed, the room became somewhat silent.

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