n999  0314  23 May 79
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BC-Beggar 05-23
Editors:
Following is from the London Telegraph Foreign Service.
It is for use only  the United States and Canada.
By NIGEL WADE (2d story)
Daily Telegraph, London
    PEKING - A Shanghai schoolboy collided head-on with the
Chinese system of thought control when he handed in a
composition describing an encounter with beggars
outside a movie theater.
    What happened next gives a unique picture of how the
system works. An account of the case has been published in
the Chinese press as ''a good example of ideological
work'' which should be studied by teachers and others.
    The boy's composition described going to the movies and
finding a crowd around a beggar woman and her child on
Nanking Road, the main street in Shanghai. He could not
enjoy the film for thinking of them, and as he left the
theater he saw colored lights spelling ''Brightness
Cinema,'' but could not help but think that Communist society
was not so bright after all.
    His horrified secondary-school teacher wondered how
an ''otherwise well-behaved and diligent'' pupil could have
chosen such a subject. The teacher, worried whether other
pupils might have similar feelings, distributed the
composition for discussion. Some pupils criticized their
classmate for not describing the busy street and thriving
night life. Others favored the composition and said it was an
incisive scene from life.
7The youth said he was ''liberating his thinking'' in
accordanceh current official policy and claimed that
if the ''Gang of Four'' radicals were still in charge
no one would have dared to write such an essay.
    The teacher told the student that compositions about
beggars were acceptable, provided that they explained that
beggars existed because of disruption caused by the
''Gang of Four'' or by natural disasters. She said
the youth had not explained this, but had drawn the
groundless conclusion that the bright Socialist system
was not so bright and his essay would be marked down accordingly.
    Some pupils argued that the youth deserved at least
a ''pass'' mark for daring to grapple with reality. The school
Communist Party branch held a special meeting of youth
league officials, political instructors and language
teachers to discuss the offending essay.
    They agreed that it reflected a sinister ideological
trend and a loosening of political thinking among
the young.
    Another meeting involved the municipal youth league
committee and the district bureau of education.
    A professor of political education was brought in to
lecture the pupils, quoting descriptions of beggars from
Chinese writers and from Victor Hugo. He explained that
economic and agricultural disruption before the downfall of the
radicals in 1976 was why China had some beggars today.
Some had illegally returned to the cities from rural
communes, some were boat people who had traditionally
gone begging, and some were ''bad elements.''
    Beggars were not a product of the Socialist system itself,
the professor concluded, and the government was trying to
solve the problem.
    After this, the teacher asked the students to write
about their new understandings of the subject. The pupils
shared the opinion that the few beggars in society were not
victims of Communism and no one could fail to be aware of
the happiness of the vast majority of people just because of
a few vagabonds.
    Press accounts of the case say the pupils asked school
officials to intensify their ideological and political
education to help them tell right from wrong. The youth who
wrote the composition is quoted as saying he realized
the teachers were concerned for his political development.
He is altering his essay, and the teacher will mark it
after the new version is finished.
rr    (Endit Wade, 2d story) 05-23
 
 
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