Youth of both nations hold key to future

Young people in both China and the US express more favorable attitudes towards each other's nations compared to older generations. This according to a new report titled "Six Facts about How Americans and Chinese See Each Other" released by the Pew Research Center in September.

"People your age have the future of US-China relations in their hands," professor Elizabeth Wishnick told a group of college students at a China Town Hall event held at LaGuardia Community College (LCC) in Long Island City, New York, on Monday.

This was the fourth year LCC has held a China Town Hall event. Most of the 30 or so students attending were taking classes in East Asian history.

Wishnick, an associate professor of political science and law at Montclair State University in New Jersey, was invited to the class to talk about the Obama-Xi summit and US-China relations.

"It's a very important relationship," Wishnick said, "and I think you are the generation that has been most exposed to the other country. The older generations experience more ideological discussions of the other country, and younger people have a broader understanding."

"Americans ages 18-to-29 are more than twice as likely as those ages 50 or older to have a favorable opinion of China (55 percent versus 27 percent)," according to the Pew study. "Similarly, 59 percent of Chinese adults under 30 give the US a positive rating, compared with 29 percent of those 50 and older."

Wishnick talked about the change in the balance of power between the two countries over the years, the difficulties China is facing, including a slowdown in its economic growth and a volatile stock market, as well as the agenda and results of Xi's state visit.

Though the visit achieved some agreements, she said, there is a lot more the two countries should work on, including human rights disputes, maritime security and the details of fighting cybersecurity.

Wishnick was glad to see attention paid to the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, the announcement that 2016 would be the Year of US-China Tourism and that the US aims to have a million American students studying Mandarin by 2020.

One student asked her what was the best way to learn more about China.

"Study the language," Wishnick said. "It gives you the tools to go there and visit, to engage with the people and learn about them with your own eyes."

She also suggested young people get involved with China though dealing with environmental issues together, learning the culture and history and enjoying Chinese food.

Student Christobal Serra, who is taking an East Asian Civilization course with professor Robin Kietlinski at LCC, said he was curious about East Asia because history classes in primary and secondary education lacked the subject matter.

"We learn a lot of European and American history, but Asia is never touched. This entire part of the world is one of the most dominant regions of the world and we don't know anything about it," Serns said.

Kietlinski said other students had expressed similar reasons for taking her classes.

She said the trend now was for colleges to offer East Asian-related classes - sometimes even China-focused - in lower-division coursework, in contrast to the past when these classes were often only offered in higher-division specialized courses.

It was not until four years ago, when LaGuardia Community College hired Robin Kietlinski, that the school had its first full-time professor teaching East Asian history. Now, not only are they offering an East Asian history class, but also that she has proposed a Modern Chinese History course that has been approved and will start this spring. The school also offers East Asian philosophy, teaching Confucianism and Taoism and other schools of thought.

Kietlinski said the teacher's job market for Asian studies is promising because of the growing popularity and demand. "Many schools are hiring," she said.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com