Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The public interest in this fight is unprecedented, but people care much less about who are the wrong-doers in this particular case than what will happen to the whole program of China's military training. Many say that military training is already outdated, and I agree with them.

First and foremost, the ideas represented by military training are challenged by a new generation who grow up watching Hollywood films and eating McDonald's. This training stemmed originally from an instruction from Chairman Mao Zedong in the 1960s when he urged Chinese people to look to the PLA as an example. Since then the training has become mandatory for students of all middle schools and universities. The point is to teach them the virtues of collectivism, obedience and selfless devotion.

This way of teaching did work when China was a country largely shut to the outside. But that era is long gone. Today, as China is opening up and building a civil society, in which individualism is more emphasized than ever, the generation born after 1990, with no memory of Mao's era, embrace individualism than previous generations. And military training may do little in changing such individualistic ideas.

Military training should be encouraged if it can lead to positive and effective results. But the fact is that in many cases the training can be counterproductive. To many students, the drill is not just unattractive, but monotonous and meaningless. They include endless practice of goose stepping, standing still, folding quilts into exact rectangular shapes, and singing revolutionary songs before each meal. The final part is a well-rehearsed military parade in front of the school authorities.

Few of these practices are relevant to modern national defense. Many students complain that this kills their interest in army life and further enhances their negative impression of the training.

It may be too soon to jump to the conclusion that military training should be abolished once and for all. But the incident in Hunan, though an isolated extreme case, and the public stir afterward show that it is time to consider reforming and modernizing the way military training is carried out. After all, the Chinese leadership's encouragement of modernization in the army does not just mean weapons and combat skills, but also the way it interacts with the public.

The author is a Beijing-based journalist. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn