Students left with impressive memories

By Liu Huai Source:Global Times Published: 2014-9-1 18:48:01

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT



Editor's Note:

Military training for students has lasted for decades in China. A recent vicious brawl between instructors and students in a high school in Central China's Hunan Province, which injured dozens of people, has drawn sharp attention among the public. A nationwide debate is underway about whether the training should be abolished permanently. Three people shared their ideas with the Global Times on this issue.

It seems that the new school year hasn't started well for some freshmen both at high schools and colleges. Incidents concerning the long-standing military training have captured headlines in recent days.

A violent clash on August 24 between instructors and students at a high school in Hunan Province left 42 people, mostly students, injured.

This incident, a first in recent years, has sparked off a hot debate over whether military training should be abandoned or not.

This clash in Hunan soon grabbed a nationwide attention on the training required by the Military Service Law of China. Besides, a very few incidents, like a Xi'an student's sudden death during military training, have also been given unprecedented emphasis on both the Internet and news reports, adding more catalysts to the public debate.

Paranoids like taking a part for the whole, but this trend of thought has become commonplace in Chinese public discourse. These individual incidents are far from serving as qualified arguments to terminate the tradition of military training in high schools and colleges.

Be it set by the law or demanded by the reality of China's national defense, military training can usually leave a special and unforgettable impression on the minds of the participants.

Basically as the first group activity for high school and college freshmen when they get into a new school, the training offers a good opportunity for students to know each other.

As for the instructors, most of them are well-disciplined soldiers and military officers. No matter how strict or serious they behave in the training, when the time to bid farewell comes, most students would hug their instructors and deliver sentimental messages of leave-taking, and the experience will usually turn to be a good memory their whole lifetime.

This is actually the common ending for most sessions of military training without violence, clash and insult.

It is high time for public opinion to stop cooking up charges against military training, and take a reasonable attitude toward the big picture.

After all, military training constitutes a beautiful memory for every generation of students who have taken part in it.

The author is a freelance writer based in Shanghai. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
Newspaper headline: High time to reform military training


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