My recent trip to Beijing to conduct workshops on “American style” journalism with children between the ages of 7 and 18 was one of several I’ve made to a number of different countries. In each case, I was invited to teach the kids the kind of hard-edged reporting that the American media is—or maybe was—known for.
Check Your Cultural Baggage at the Gate
This being my first trip to China, I was struck by the obviously sudden and historic transformation taking place. Like any world traveler—or avid viewer of the Travel Channel—I was aware of the now-familiar fault line between ancient and futuristic, between haves and have-nothings, which shamefully exist from Kuala Lumpur to San Francisco, but which had never seemed so dramatic.
Before I left Brooklyn, people asked me if I thought Chinese kids would able to absorb my lessons, if they would feel “free” enough to ask hard questions and express their own opinions.
But no worries...unless you’re a Chinese Politburo member. On the first day of the training, the Chinese kids surprised me with their wit, tough questions, and a droll skepticism that's ideal for budding journalists. For instance, after watching a presentation on youth rights and the importance of young people having a voice, a 15-year-old Beijing boy said:
“We always hear how our voice and opinions are important but where is the proof? Our parents say they listen to us when making a decision but, afterwards, they go ahead and do whatever they want anyway.”
Dude, me too!
Time and again throughout various workshops, the young people offered insightful and frank assessments of their own work (something that many American kids, too easily satisfied, would benefit from imitating) and a real desire to learn how to be good journalists and ask tough questions. (That’s a skill I always teach by offering a tennis analogy, kid vs. interviewee—but that I customized to ping-pong for this group.)
During spirited roundtable dialogues on topics the kids suggested (Beijing’s pollution, exam pressure, society’s idolatry of money), the young people were respectful of each other’s views and unafraid to express opinions contrary to those of their peers.
At one point, I announced to the kids that their practice reporting topic would be...the Olympics! But met by collective groans, dead stares and rolling eyeballs (all decipherable in any language), I knew it was Topic DOA. Tossing my ideas into the trash, we started over and they suggested much better story topics, ranging from those mentioned above to issues dealing with HIV, discrimination against the disabled, and gender roles.
Olympic Preview: Chinese Kids 1, American Guy 0.
The Kids Are Alright...Just Not Special
After the three-day training concluded, many Beijing parents and reporters asked me how Chinese kids differ from others I had worked with. This is a common question I’ve heard over the years, coming from Bosnians and Bangladeshis, as parents from every corner of the globe want to believe that their kids are special, are unique in some way.
Sorry, but they’re not.
Sure, they like to eat different snacks, worship different rap stars, different slang, different fashion, but even these things are becoming more similar globally as MTV and the Web have made kids in Laos more and more like kids in LA.
That being said, they are all special. And that’s what is special.
Another worldwide commonality is the shocking lack of awareness adults have about their own young people, even their own children. Lack of awareness about their kids’ innate creativity, maturity, capacity for critical thinking and skepticism, their need for self-expression, and a heartfelt desire to connect with their peers in the wider world.
And, sadly, these kids share the feeling that they are under tremendous pressure, emanating from the “global economy” that they are told they will compete in. That they are competing in, even though kids never asked to compete in a race they were entered into by someone else: parents, governments, schools, corporations. Which in some kids’ minds all amount to the same thing.
More than any other, this loss of "child time" has been a common global refrain I’ve heard directly from kids over the years:
Jiao, 10, Beijing, China: “When will I have time for being a kid?”
Chris, 13, Kansas City, USA: “I wished I had played more when I was young.”
Petrov, 14, Mostar, Bosnia: “We are the lost generation.”
Nami, 16, Tokyo, Japan: “I hope to provide a better quality of life for my kids than me,
one where they can be free to play and enjoy just being young.”
Lastly, kids are special in their resiliency. Somehow, despite enormous obstacles that young people face in every country, they are able to have dreams, to want something better, to imagine. Kids in the poorest neighborhoods in Bangladesh and Haiti have much the same dreams as kids in New York or London: to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or, OK, a rap star.
Rana, 14, Dhaka, Bangladesh: “I hope to get an education so that I can become a doctor, and help the people from here.” She and her family shared a one-room tin shack at the base of an enormous garbage heap, where they worked every day recycling plastic bags and discarded batteries.
Ronald, 17, Los Angeles, USA: “All this shooting just makes me stronger. I'm not gonna make these same mistakes, I’m gonna get an education so I can move my mother and my brothers outta here.”
So during the closing dinner when I told a mom that Chinese kids were special, just not any different from kids anywhere else, she looked disappointed...until I quickly added how smart and serious their kids were, equal to any kids in the US.
The Future Is Bright (if you can see through the smog)
No, I won’t be packing up my Brooklyn bags for Beijing anytime soon. Among other problems, the environmental damage caused by capitalism on steroids – plus a seemingly willful lack of planning—have resulted in incredible pollution of China’s air and water, and remedies are only now being...considered.
Despite such problems which threaten not only China but the entire planet, I now have some hope based on a new generation of young people. If they have anything to say about it—and they will—China and the world might exit the 21st Century in better shape than it entered.
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