Read my latest story, "The All-Nighter", at 52|250.

I was going write a post about how, after months of feasting mosquitoes and weeks of humming cicadas, the dragonfly armadas have finally arrived, black with bars of opalescent white or brilliant yellow. I was going to explain how, on my daily runs around campus, jogging shoulder-to-wing with them makes me feel as if I, too, could learn to fly.

Instead, I thought I’d give you a little background on the riots in Zhengzhou. First, I should note that my college is a forty minute drive from the downtown area, so it’s probably not surprising that I learned about the riots via the Internet. It’s also highly unlikely that any of my students here were involved, thanks to Shengda’s closed-campus policy.

The riots apparently broke out in response to city inspectors’ assault on a female student who was allegedly selling things on the street without a permit. Street vendors without permits are not unusual here; the police periodically sweep through the night market just outside the college gates– but the sellers reappear a few days later. It doesn’t entirely surprise me that students here would respond to seeing the use of brutal force in such an operation by rioting. When I was waiting for my train ticket for the May holiday and the police arrived to force everyone into formal lines, there was a lot of anger– and some pushing back; most of the people there that day were students from various local universities.

The Reuters article also briefly alludes to the riots that took place here last June after students found out that their diplomas would bear the name of the institution they attended, rather than that of the better-known Zhengzhou University with which it is affiliated. That it couldn’t have been the same students involved in both riots (again, because Shengda has a closed campus, and those who took part last year were mostly seniors) suggests that this tendency to fight back has broad social causes.

Indeed, the same article concludes: A widening gap between rich and poor, corruption and official abuses of power have fueled demonstrations and riots around the country that are often sparked by seemingly minor issues. This is especially applicable to Henan Province.  Despite its location in the Yellow River Valley, one of the cradles of civilization, and a history that includes two early capitals of the Middle Kingdom, Henan remains underdeveloped.  It is China’s most densely populated province yet lacks the same quality of infrastructure that other provinces have.  (Visiting next-door Shandong Province made this quite clear to me.)  Many of my students are farmers’ children whose parents have had to borrow money from everyone in their village to send them here.

These young adults have a lot of reason to be angry.  Combine that with their intense commitment to study, and you get an incredible amount of potential here.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.