The national congress of the Communist Youth League of
China, the country's largest youth organization, has roused
great attention in the Chinese cyberworld.
About 500 Websites are scheduled to cover the 15th CYLC National
Congress, which is held every five years and scheduled to open
tomorrow.
A host of popular commercial Websites, such as Sina and
Sohu, plan to set up columns on the congress or provide
links to the CYLC Website, while several leading news Websites will
make live reports.
The 80-year-old youth organization, which now comprises nearly
70 million young people aged from 14 to 28, is trying its utmost to
adapt itself to a new generation in China who grew up with the
Internet.
"I will turn first to the Internet if I want to know what is
going on at the congress," said Chen Hui, a 26-year-old office
worker in Beijing municipality.
Chen, a veteran CYLC member since the age of 15, is an
Internet-loving Chinese youth who loves to read books, listen to
music, watch movies, buy clothes and seek news online since she
opened her first e-mail account five years ago. She even ordered
medicine online when SARS hit the city.
The new Chinese generation, mostly born in the late 1970s and
later, is embracing the Internet in all aspects of life, not only
work and entertainment, but also seeking love.
A 22-year-old girl, who calls herself "Pisces" online and
declined to give her real name, is in love with a boy she met on a
Bulletin Board System.
The two chat for one or two hours every day using MSN Messenger
voice chat software, after they met online when the boy was sent
overseas for training for three months.
Pisces said that one of her best friends had married the man
that she first dated online.
However, there are also earnest and serious young people who
like to talk about political issues and some social problems at
various BBS and on-line communities.
A bunch of young people, some of whom are students, often meet
to exchange ideas about the most heated domestic and international
events daily on the Cycnet.com BBS, the largest youth and
teenager-oriented Website.
They enjoy the flexible and open atmosphere at the Website
worrying little about "political incorrectness."
The Website, founded by the CYLC in 1999, registers more than
3.5 million daily hits on average.
"We see what happens in Chinese society and try to do something
as responsible citizens," said Pan Xihui, a postgraduate student at
the prestigious China University of
Geosciences.
Since June this year they have been talking about a volunteer
project to urge college graduates to work in less-developed western
regions initiated by the CYLC. Approximately 170,000 young people
downloaded application forms for the project from the Website.
The CYLC set up a Website on July 8 especially for the national
congress and the total number of hits had reached 35,000 by last
Wednesday.
(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2003)