BEIJING, April 29 -- "Some people criticize young people born in the 1980s as a beat generation, but I don't think so. Many people think that people of this generation only take pop stars, like Andy Lao or Jay Chow as their idols. Yet a recent survey shows that many college students born in the 1980s are heavily influenced by late Premier Zhou Enlai and nearly 60% of students regard "serving the public" as their highest personal pursuit."

    The statement was made by Wang Minzhong, deputy Party Secretary of the Education Work Committee of Beijing Municipal Party Committee when he attended the Contemporary College Students Moral Role Model Forum.

    At this forum jointly held by the Education Work Committee of Beijing Municipal Party Committee and the China Education Press, Wang said in a firm tone that college students nowadays were "an active and vigorous generation".

    In another report, titled "Research Report on Beijing College Students Social Ethics", which was also released at the forum, the data given also confirm Wang's statement.

    Nearly 70 percent of the college students in the report say that all the other college students they get to know in their daily life not only have a strong sense of patriotism, they actually have a very clear understanding of how to turn such patriotism into real actions. And 82.1 percent of the students say that patriotism is manifested first and foremost in one's concern for the destiny and future of the nation.

    From previous researches we can also see that when the country's national dignity is being challenged, most college students will remain optimistic about the future of the nation, said Song Dawo, deputy Party Secretary at the School of Statistics of the Renmin University of China.

    (Source: Chinanews.cn)