First Published: In Beijing
Red Flag in Chinese, No. 15, 1 August 1984, pages 9-14.
Source of the translation: Foreign Broadcast
Information Service, China Report: Red Flag No. 15, 1 August 1984.
(JPRS-CRF-84-018), 3 October 1984, pages 14-23. A publication of Joint
Publications Research Service, Arlington (VA), USA.
Transcription/HTML/Markup for marxists.org: January
2024.
In the last few years, gratifying progress has been made in the work of ideological education among youngsters in our country. The entire society shows concern about the healthy growth of the youngsters, and more and more people from various circles become interested in the youth work. In the course of our work, we are striving to eliminate the "leftist" influence, inherit and develop the fine tradition and experience in ideological and political work, actively study new conditions and new problems, strive to explore and create new experiences in ideological and education work, and have achieved very good results. As an enthusiast about youth work, I wish to express some personal ideas on further strengthening and improving the work of ideological education among youngsters, so that we can carry out studies together.
Since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the key points in the work of the party and the state have been shifted to the aspect of economic construction, and our country has entered a historical period of opening up a new overall situation in building socialist modernization. The people of the country are striving for building a highly civilized, highly democratic, modern socialist country with Chinese characteristics. Because Of the series of important policies adopted in opening to the outside world and enlivening the domestic economy, and especially the reforms currently taking place on various fronts, many new changes have taken place in various aspects of our social life. The development of history requires us to strengthen and improve the work of ideological education among youngsters, so that the work can better suit the great historical change and meet the requirements in the reforms on various fronts, and can train and nurture a new generation of youths who are bold in exploring new paths and in conducting reforms and can open up a new situation in building the socialist modernization. This requires us to conscientiously sum up the positive and negative experiences of the past youth work, analyze the characteristics of the young people of the present times who have grown up in the new historical environment, adopt methods suited to the characteristics of the young people in the new period, and create new experiences in the work of ideological education with the characteristics of the times. This is the new question faced by the work of ideological education among young people. However, there are still many shortcomings in this respect. The key points of the work of the party and the state have shifted, and we are still not good at developing the work of ideological education with economic construction as the central point so as to enable the work to become an impetus in promoting economic development. With the deepening of the reform and the development of the building of the material civilization, new conditions and new problems crop up among youngsters. We have not done full justice to the initiative of the young, and, on the other hand, are not adequately prepared to deal with problems among them. The work of ideological education lacks foresight, and is some- times weak and not to the point. We are often accustomed to adopting old methods which are not completely compatible with the new situation, and using some formalistic and simplistic approaches to handle problems which may not be in keeping with the reality of the ideology of youngsters. And there are also other problems such as the comparatively poor results of ideological education.
The young people are an important force in building the socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization. In the next 10 or 20 years, the young people of today will become the main force on various fronts of our country, and part of them will become key leading members at various levels. Therefore, striving to overcome the defects in our work and further strengthening and improving the work of ideological education among youths so that the younger generation can grow up healthily is a strategic task having a significant bearing on the future and destiny of our party and our country, which should have the attention of the whole party and the entire society.
The young people constitute a very large percentage Of workers, peasants, and servicemen of our country. When the number of young students is added, the total number is over 300 million. The formative years of a big segment of them coincided with the turmoil of the 10 years of the "Cultural Revolution." They witnessed the perverted actions of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques, which plunged our country into serious set- backs and losses, personally experienced the great struggle of defeating the two counterrevolutionary cliques, and have personally seen the excellent situation since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th GPC Central Committee was held—order has been brought out of chaos, various kinds of work of the party and the country have been carrying on with daily increasing positive results, and the life of the people has been constantly improving. Although they lack the experience of comparing the new society with the old, they have personally experienced the 10 years of turmoil and seen the sharp contrast between the situations before and after the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee. This is a very important kind of social practice, and they have received very profound education from their own experience. The young people who have grown up under these historical conditions are good at thinking and reasoning and not so prone to blind following. In this process of thinking and reasoning some may deviate somewhat, but once they recognize and accept the truth, they will stand firm, and will dedicate their lives to truth without reservation. This is an important hallmark of the young people of the 1980's.
Through the above-mentioned comparison of the positive aspects with the negative aspects, the young people realize still more deeply that the prospects of an individual are closely linked with the destiny of the country. They wholeheartedly support the party's line, principles, and policies implemented since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, engage in the cause of building the socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization with a high sense of responsibility as masters of the country and with tremendous political enthusiasm, and have become very active forces on various fronts of our country, and many out- standing members among them have been selected and promoted to leading posts at all levels. They are full of energy and active in thinking, quick to respond to new ideas, have less conservatism, and dare to reform and explore new ways—this is another prominent feature of the young people in the 1980's. This spirit of conducting reforms and breaking new ground is particularly precious today when we are opening up a new situation in the building of socialism.
A thirst for knowledge and diligence in studies is also an important feature of today's young people. Today's world is confronted with a new techno- logical revolution, science and technology develop very rapidly, and various kinds of new technologies and new industries are springing up. In the field of social science, there have also emerged many new problems which are in urgent need of further investigations and studies. With the active call and organization of the party and the country, there appears a great upsurge of studies among youths, which has never been witnessed before. Millions of youths take part in various forms of studies. They display a thirst for knowledge and great efforts in studies with the aim of realizing the four modernizations as soon as possible and making our country rank among the powerful countries in the world. Many of them have achieved gratifying results, and there has been a large batch of moving examples of successes in self-study.
While we fully affirm the mainstream of the young people, we should also note their shortcomings. Young comrades are bold in seeking truth, and are relatively sensitive to problems and defects in realistic life, but they should also learn to use the stand, viewpoints, and methods of Marxism to understand and handle problems all-sidedly and historically, so as to guard against one-sidedness and simplism. The young people have a strong sense of responsibility and enterprising spirit, but they should also be good at listening to different kinds of opinions, especially the opinions of dissent, and be good at uniting with more people to do work together. It is good for the youths to have a thirst for scientific and cultural knowledge, but they should also pay attention to going deep into practice, and being in close contact with the masses so as to enrich their experience. It is hard for them to be rid of all these shortcomings which we also once possessed when we were young. It is hoped that the young comrades can fully realize the earnest expectations placed on them by the people and the heavy responsibility placed on them by history, learn from the old comrades, learn from the masses, and learn from practice. I believe that through the enthusiastic assistance of the old comrades and through the tempering and nurturing in the studies and the practice in work, the young comrades will certainly become increasingly mature and will grow up to be a new generation capable of shouldering the great responsibility of history.
We should also see that among a considerable number of young people, there exists a great gap between their ideological and political conditions and the requirements of the times for them. They have been rather seriously affected by the ultra-left ideology of the 10 years' turmoil of the "Cultural Revolution" and other erroneous ideological trends in society, and there are individualism, anarchism, and bourgeois liberalization, as shown in their lack of a sense of social responsibility. Therefore, we should not make light of but should pay enough attention to the influence of various kinds of erroneous ideology in the young people. At the same time, there are still a very small number of young criminals and a few elements hostile to socialism, and we should never underestimate the seriousness of the harmful effects caused by these people on society. However, it should be fully affirmed that the overwhelming majority of the youths are good, and with the development of the construction of the socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization, the strengthening of the ideological and education work, and gradual perfection of various kinds of systems and the improvement of the entire social trend, the overwhelming majority of the problems existing among youths can be solved, and it is certain that more and more youths will become advanced citizens, and that many passive factors will gradually turn into active factors.
Marxism is a scientific truth, and we should firmly believe that Marxism will certainly embrace the young generation. We should also have the conviction that the young generation, being keen on making progress and aspiring for truth, will prove themselves capable of embracing Marxism. These two points are the starting point of our work of ideological education. We can say with conviction that the young people of today are very promising and are fully trustworthy, and it is certain that they will sur- pass the older generation.
The current situation at home and abroad provides an excellent opportunity for our country to speed up the economic construction and rejuvenation of our nation. We should grasp the opportunity to boost our economy as soon as possible. The central task of the work of ideological education for young people in the new period is to make the youths conscious of their historical task, and to train and bring up a new generation capable of creating a new situation in building socialist modernization.
What qualities should this new generation possess? They should have firm faith in socialism and communism, have the interests of the state and the people at heart, and have a strong sense of responsibility toward the missions assigned by the times. They should be active and persistent in their studies and research, be able to grasp modern scientific and cultural knowledge, and have the ability to effect modern management. They should emancipate their minds, have broad vision, and dare to break new ground and explore new ways. At the same time, they should be practical people who can persist in their missions and be good at uniting with the broad masses. Such youths and cadres are the best youths and cadres for the new period.
Due to historical reasons, a considerable segment of today's young people have not been educated with systematic ideological and political education as well as the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, and they lack the ability to identify and resist various erroneous trends in society. Therefore, educating youths in this respect systematically and in a planned way is an urgent task and is a requisite task for capital construction in training and bringing up a new generation. In carrying out political and theoretical education, we cannot adopt a method of dogma, but should proceed from practice in close association with the ideological reality of the youths and with the party's line, principles, and policies. At the present stage emphasis should be laid on education in patriotism and on education about the party's line, principles, and policies practiced since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee. Patriotism is a great banner for uniting and encouraging the broad masses of young people in building and defending the motherland, and is also a starting point for embracing communism and establishing a revolutionary life outlook and world outlook. The history of civilization of the Chinese nation in the last several thousand years, especially the modern history in the last 100-odd years, as well as the history of the party in the last 60-odd years, are good teaching materials for conducting education in patriotism for youths. We should not only make the youths understand the history of the motherland, but should also guide them to have a good understanding of today's motherland and to explore the future of the motherland. At present an important part of conducting education in patriotism is to educate the youths to realize their historical responsibility and to mobilize their efforts and ambition in realizing the four modernizations and rejuvenating China. The line, principles, and policies implemented since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee have been formulated by our party on the basis of earnestly summing up the experiences both at home and abroad and of systematically and intensively studying many important practical problems, and are the enrichment and development of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, which should become an important part of educating youths with ideology and politics. Through the systematic ideological and political education and the education of the basic principles of Marxism- Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, a basis will be laid for their gradual mastery of the Marxist world outlook and methodology, so that the Marxist theory can truly become the scientific weapon for the young people to correctly realize, understand, and solve their various kinds of ideological and practical problems.
The most important method for training and bringing up the new generation is to boldly promote young cadres, assign heavy responsibilities to them, and let them have the opportunity of striving to open up a new situation on the forefront. At present the reforms on various fronts, especially the efforts made in resolutely changing the defect of "eating from the same big pot" in a planned way so as to award the diligent and punish the lazy, are beneficial to the mobilization of the initiative of the young people, motivating them to give play to their enterprising spirit, to make bold reforms, and to provide a broad stage for them to display their abilities and ambitions. ^ The practice of reform is also a broad one, whereby young people can obtain training and improvement and transform their subjective world while changing the objective world; It is as some people say: "Reforms punish the lazy, turn out able persons, and temper the young." Of course, deviations and mistakes are bound to occur among the young people because of their lack of experience, and some of them have certain shortcomings and defects. How- ever, as long as they have good qualities and talents and are able to open up a new situation, we should give them patient assistance and enthusiastic support so as to make up for their deficiencies. When they are unjustly treated, we should speak up for them and give them due protection. Their talents should not be -slighted and their achievements and contributions should not be negated just because they have shortcomings.
The realization of the grand objective put forward in the 12th CPC National Congress requires the Common efforts of this generation and successive generations. When training and raising a new generation, we should not only resolutely promote the outstanding young cadres to leading posts, but should also focus our attention on the whole young generation and mobilize all their initiative. This is just like building a house—not only do we need supports, beams, and rafters, but we also need bricks, tile, lime, sand, and stones, and none of these is dispensable. Hence we should show concern for our youngsters, help them solve their practical problems, and create conditions for all the young people to grow up healthily and make progress. It is necessary to enable each one of them to possess certain specialized skills which Can be put into good use, and to provide a good environment for them to display their talents and become specialized personnel in their respective trades. In this way we will be able to build our grand and magnificent socialist mansion with the best supports, beams, and rafters, and with the best bricks, tile, lime, sand, and stones.
When we carry out ideological education of youths, it is essential to proceed from the characteristics and realities of young people, adopt the method of enlightenment and guidance and the correction of ideas," and attach importance to the role of practice.
When imparting cultural knowledge to students, all of us uphold comprehension rather than cramming. It is especially so in conducting ideological education. I propose that the leading comrades at all levels and all the comrades engaged in youth work should often go among the youths, make friends with them on an equal footing as comrades, get a good understanding of their ways of thinking, and, in close association with social practice and their ideological reality and level of understanding, use active and brisk methods acceptable to youths to guide them, through their studies, thinking, and practice, to consciously accept the party's line, principles, and various ideas, accept the truth of Marxism, and gradually learn to use the correct stance, viewpoints, and methods to comprehend and deal with problems.
With regard to the erroneous ideas and actions among youths, patient guidance and persuasion rather than censure and prohibition should be employed. If they are not convinced for a time about certain problems, repeated education should be conducted and patience should be practiced so as to allow time for their enlightenment. It will not do to simply resort to administrative measures such as banning and prohibition to tackle problems in terms of ideology and understanding, even serious problems. On the contrary, inappropriate censure and prohibition may yield passive or negative results. Just as in the case of water conservancy, if we only resort to building dams without dealing with the source of the floods, our objective of bringing the floods under control cannot be truly realized. Strengthening afforestation and vegetation at the upper reaches and along the slopes of river banks so as to prevent soil erosion and mud and rock flow, while at the same time broadening and deepening the river so as to increase dredging ability, will enable the water to flow smoothly and will turn the harmful into the beneficial. This truth has been expounded in the legend in which Gun and Yu adopted different methods of blocking and dredging in water conservation, leading to entirely different results. Problems among young people should generally be tackled by way of dredging rather than by way of blocking, just as in the case of handling water conservation work, so that passive factors can be turned into active factors. Even for those youths who have committed serious mistakes and have extreme sentiments, most of them can be changed after enlightenment work is repeatedly conducted. Naturally, it does not follow that those few youths who have committed serious crimes should not be punished by law. The implementation of the law itself is also a form of education for the broad masses of youths, which is in no way contradictory to the work of enlightenment and education. With respect to the decadent and evil ideology and lifestyle of the bourgeoisie and other exploiting classes, naturally we should resolutely resist them and prevent them from polluting our youths, but it is more important to provide them with healthy spiritual food in various forms, so as to enhance their feelings, enlighten their minds, enrich their socialist cultural life, and improve their ability to discern and resist various kinds of erroneous ideas. In recent years, many units have done a lot of work and made useful attempts in this regard. These activities are warmly welcomed by young people and have achieved good results because of their rich contents and vivid forms.
The Marxist theory of knowledge holds that practice is the criterion for assessing truth and is an important path for understanding truth. It is necessary for us to provide youths with the opportunity to practice, encourage them to make investigations in society and among the masses, and to participate in some productive labor and social work so that they can broaden their vision in the course of social practice and enrich their practical knowledge. Through repeated practice they will be able to deepen their understanding of the truth of Marxism as well as the party's line, principles, and policies. Some units have organized youths to investigate the situation in various fields since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, especially the situation in the rural areas, so that they can definitely see the correctness of the party's line and principles from the abundant and vivid facts, and personally perceive what a great material force will be created once the party's correct ideas are grasped by the masses. Some other units have also organized youths to interview revolutionary veterans, to help write memoirs, and to investigate and write the history of villages or factories, and very good results have been achieved in these areas.
The images of advanced people and their- deeds have a great impact on the growth of youths. In the work of ideological education for youths, our party has always attached importance to the utilization of examples. The examples of Dong Cunrui and Huang Jiguang in the years of war, Lei Feng in the 1960's, and Zhang Haidi in the 1980's have educated hundreds of thou- sands of youths. In the new historical period in which the economic construction has become the central task of the party and the country, we should continue to propagate heroic figures such as Dong Cunrui, Huang Jiguang, and Lei Feng, because their brilliant deeds and dedicated spirits still have educational functions and realistic significance for the new generation of youths. At present it is especially important to propagate those new advanced models that can manifest the features of the times, and to propagate those models that dare to shake the fetters of old ideology and old conventions, dare to carry out reforms and innovations, and can open up a new situation in their respective fields, so as to motivate young people to actively make contributions to the construction of the four modernizations, particularly to the current reforms. When publicizing model people, it is necessary to do the work with an eye to the majority of the young people, so that they can feel the truth of the contents and the intimacy of the figures and understand the benefits of learning from them. Praising the advanced people to the skies or idolizing them will only produce adverse effects. This practice should be prohibited.
Most of the present juveniles and children were born and have grown up in one of the best periods in the history of our party, since the smashing of the "gang of four." They have enjoyed the care of the party, the state, and various sectors of the community, which is very beneficial to their healthy growth. However, it must be seen that the traces of the 10 years' turmoil and the erroneous ideological trends and evil practices in society have also affected our children to varying degrees. Today the number of children of one-child families is daily increasing, and not just a few parents have raised their children with too much attention and luxury, and there is a lack of strict and scientific education. In addition, certain defects also exist in kindergartens and primary schools. Among the juveniles and children there exist some problems that should not be neglected. For example, some children are rather selfish, and some lack the concept of collectivism or mutual help, some have relatively improper ideas toward labor, and so on. We should pay attention to these problems.
The sport of table tennis in our country has been popular up to the present without any signs of decline. One of the important reasons for this is that it has been popularized with juveniles and children. Among them the sport is very popular and has a firm foundation. That is why we emphasize the importance of the work with juveniles and children. This is the period for laying a good foundation. Grasping well education during this period and training the children to have sound ideology and healthy habits from the early years of their lives is very significant for healthy growth in their later years.
Today many countries in the world attach great importance to preschool education, which is very progressive. We should also place the problem of preschool education on our agenda, strengthen the leadership over the work of preschool education, run well the normal schools for preschool education, make great efforts in training teaching and working personnel for kindergartens and nurseries, and provide an adequate supply of teaching materials and apparatus for preschool education, so as to enhance the level of the preschool education. While doing a good job in intellectual education, the preschool educational organs and parents should attach importance to the moral education of the children, and should guide the children in doing small things in their daily life so that they will grow up with a love for labor, science, the collective, the motherland, and the people. Research should be conducted as to the methods of education in accordance with the age level of youths and children, so as to give vivid, concrete, and appropriate guidance to them. It is not feasible to apply the principles and practice of adult education to preschool or primary education, and no method bordering on pulling up seedlings in a vain bid to help them grow should be practiced.
At present the assignment of homework for primary school pupils in many cities is quite heavy and affects the all-round development of the children in terms of morality, intellect, and physical culture, and strong com- plaints have been voiced in society. This involves reforming the entire educational system. At present it is necessary to proceed from straightening out the ideology in running education, enhancing the quality of teachers, and improving teaching methods, so as to gradually change the present condition.
Various departments and units should coordinate their efforts to provide juveniles and children with more reading materials, films, songs, plays, and television programs which are to their liking, and more grounds for conducting activities should be provided. Elderly comrades who have retired or have left their posts should be encouraged to take up more work for juveniles and children.
When the children have reached the age of 12 or 13, important changes will take place in their psychological, physiological, and ideological make-up. Their curiosity and ability to imitate are great and they have a great degree of flexibility. Therefore, grasping well the education of children within the 12 to 13 or 16 to 17 age bracket plays a very important role in consolidating the results of ideological education for juveniles and children, especially in forming a revolutionary world outlook for them in the coming years.
The work for youths has a direct bearing on the future of the party and the country, and for every household. It is hoped that all relevant units, particularly the CYL, the educational departments, unions, and women's associations, and all comrades engaged in youth work can coordinate their efforts to further strengthen and perfect the work of ideological education for youths in the new historical period, and can open up a new situation in the work of ideological education for youths, so that the generation of youths can grow up healthily.