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PLA
Daily 2003-12-16
NANJING,
Dec. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese university students
are devoted to the trappings of modern life - discussing
the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs, idolizing Taiwan
pop band F4 and carrying their cell phones, but they
still express their sincerity by saying, "I swear
to Chairman Mao".
In
fact, the influences of the late great Chinese leader,
Mao Zedong, who was born on Dec. 26, 1893, on modern
youth are not limited to the language of discourse.
Cheng
Haowen, a student of astronomy from prestigious Nanjing
University in east China's Jiangsu province, said Mao's
realistic approach, characterized by testing and improving
theories in the course of practice, distinguished him
from many Chinese figureheads, who were satisfied with
being sage and detached from social reality to show
their superiority.
Although
Mao erroneously initiated the "Cultural Revolution"
(1966-1976) in his later years, fostering cult-like
admiration for himself, he and his spiritual legacy
still deserve to be studied objectively, said Cheng,
who was born in 1985.
In
1999, the Ministry of Education listed the Introduction
to Mao Zedong Thought as a required course in undergraduate
curricula and demanded that each college student spend
at least 40 credit hours to learn the course and a pass
an exam when applying to graduate schools.
However,
the move failed to provoke much enthusiasm.
Su
Yingbin, a junior in the Chinese Language Department
of Nanjing University, acknowledged that many of his
schoolmates considered the policy pointless when first
taking the course three years ago.
"Mao's
era ended long time ago and theories of the Communist
Party of China have progressed significantly since,"
said Su while detailing his former doubts on the necessity
of systematically studying Mao's theories.
Surprisingly,
Su and his peers changed their minds after takingthe
course for couple of weeks.
"It
is amazing to witness Mao creatively applying Marxism
introduced from the Western world in the practices of
Chinese revolution and achieving great success," said
Guo Zhiqiang, a schoolmate of Su.
A
socialist whose inspirational sources can be traced
back to Chinese classics such as the works of Sun Zi,
an eminent ancient military strategist, Mao left a spiritual
legacy of pragmatism, depending on the masses of people
and solving problems without resorting to foreign forces,
which have an impact on the attitudes of a new generation
of university students, said Cheng Haowen.
"Only
the Analects of Confucius can match Mao's theories on
shaping Chinese society," said Guo, who got the highest
score among his classmates in the course on Mao.
Compared
with students who emphasize Mao's individual role in
influencing Chinese history, older generations are more
likely to attribute the so-called "Thought of Chairman
Mao" to the collective wisdom of the Communist Party
of China (CPC).
Wang
Mingsheng, a noted professor teaching the Introduction
to Mao Zedong Thought in Nanjing University, said that
personal mistakes made by Mao in his later years should
not be included in the so-called the school of "thought"
because the thought is a scientific theoretical system
developed by Mao and his fellow revolutionists together".
However,
Prof. Wang is pleased to see an increasing number of
Chinese college and university students making assiduous
and conscious efforts to study and accept the legacy
of Mao and his contemporaries.
"
The Thought will exerts an ever-lasting influence on
Chinese society only by being accepted by the younger
generations," said Prof. Wang. |
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