Chang Kun: A Youth's Endeavor for Civic Right
【Introduction】28-year-old Chang Kun hopes to turn this place into something like the US youth center. "I hope that my neighbors, fellow countrymen and young students will realize how big the world is…" In Linquan County, Chang Kun's practice is like a miracle!
The house of Chang Kun's grandpa is likely to be demolished and the youth center will be more likely to be shut down. However, children's pure eyes are filled with curiosity and hopefulness. These young kids are even curious about the price of eggs in Hongkong and richshaw puller Zhang Dongfeng, are eagerly looking forward to new books. All of thses expectations tell Chang Kun that he can't give up.
Journalist Ma Jinyu, from Southern Metropolis Daily heads for Linquan county, Anhui province just as usual. In fact, it is not a happy journey. Floating dust and various noises from the road flood into this two-story old building. Closing the wooden window on the south, the whole room on the second floor will dim immediately and two lights must be turned on even in the day. However, opening the window, it's not enough even to wipe the table three times a day.
Whatsoever, Chang Kun's House should keep running. In the building materials market, there should be such a youth center for free reading and free access to the internet. The 28-year-old Chang Kun hopes to turn this place into something like the US youth center. "I hope that my neighbors, fellow countrymen and young students will realize how big the world is…".In Linquan county, Chang Kun's practice is like a miracle!
It is early winter now. Wang Qin, Chang Kun's mother, thinks that winter is much better than summer since in summer, the roof of this two-story building is exposed to the sun for all day long and it is almost 70 oC inside the room. Two donated computers have broken down in the hot weather. What's worse, there are always some people think that all of Wang Qin's family are idiots with nervous diseases.
Just like the real life, these harsh sneers are ruthless and inevitable. However, Wang doesn't care about these sneers. She just quietly takes out a book from one of the shelves, sits down by an old table which was one of her dowries and begins to read her book. Next to this old table is an even older table which has witnessed the stories of five generations in this family. This table is too old, so Wang repaints it with white paint to make it looks like a sound one. Even so, the neighbors will always say, "Hey, look, what rubbishes these are."
Wang Qin and her husband Chang Yingfeng don't know how to answer these neighbors, so they just respond to them with a bitter smile. They wait patiently until 12 o'clock. A little while later, one after another, the vibrant young kids returned from school and came here to borrow books. It is the young kids' innocent smiles and curious eyes that give Wang Qin and her husband some consolation. Some American, Japanese or Hongkong people are sometimes invited here to have seminars. The kids are more active seeing these people and keep asking questions, such as:
"Do American kids have so much homework?"
"Do Japanese students have to attend night classes?"
"What's the price of half a kilo eggs in Hongkong?"
An outstanding person of Linquan County
It is not too far either from Fuyang, Anhui province or from Zhengzhou, Henan province to Linquan County. With 2.13 million people, it is the largest county in terms of population in the mainland. Similar to other county-level cities in China which are under massive constructions, Linquan County is also covered with buildings which are under construction or begin to sell. By the roadside of Linquan county stand a great amount of cranes, waiting for work or being rent. November 6th is Saturday, a busy day for people of Linquan county. The wedding photography studio has its mobile loudspeaker standing in the street, advertising for itself with a horn; bedding shop has its models leaning by the bed with pink pillows holding in their arms, amd a truck holds all of these models parading along the crowded streets of Linquan County.
However, what makes Linquan County infamous is not its large population but drugs. Linquan County is one of the 17 problem counties which need key regulations on drugs in China. In 2003, Linquan County became one of the first national AIDS prevention and treatment comprehensive demonstration zones. The Survery of Farmers in China by Chen Guidi and Chun Tao gives quite a lot of chapters to depict the stories in Linquan County. In the first half of this year, great changes have taken place among the county leaders, from secretary of the county committee who accepts bribes of more than 4 million RMB to secretary of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs, from commissioner of the Public Security Bureau to chief of the Criminal Division, from director of the drug rehabilitation center to dean of the 110 commanding center, from district chief of the trafic management to directors of three local police stations, etc, according to the reports of XinhuaNet on April 13th and 16th , 2010.
Like many other counties in China, Linquan County once was a rural area, but now it has become the center of a city. Guangming community of Chengguan town, where Chang Kun's house, the youth center is located, has almost 100,000 people. Many peasant workers and businessmen come here. There are many schools nearby the community, but there are no parks, public library or public places of entertainment. In front of the youth center is a small piece of grass land, but submerged by the real estate constructions in the neighborhood.
"Working hard to enroll in a key university in big cities so as to get rid of this place is the dream of many children in Linquan County. That was also my dream before," says Chang Kun, who chooses to set up a youth center in Linquan County, "however, this is my hometown, and I can't stop loving it."
Five middle schools, such as Linquan County Tin Ka Ping Experimental Middle School, Normal School and so on, are intensively located around the building materials market. Everytime when school is over, it is always the best moments for the nearby restaurants. Suddenly, the crowded street is filled with tastes of various foods. Adding the advertisements of "on sale" from the supermarket and the vehicle noises, standing on the street, you will feel like setting yourself into a wok of boiling water. In a little while, the dirty water poured by the restaurants floods to the street. On the ground lies a big iron basin with bowls and chopsticks soaked in water, overflowing yellow bubbles.
On May 4th, 2010, Chang Kun's house, the youth center was founded quietly in the building materials market.
The 28-year-old Chang Kun once studied law in Xinjiang Normal University and now he is working in Beijing for the public interests of the AIDS patients. Two years ago, he went to the United States as a visiting scholar. America's equal communication culture of freedom and tolerance, construction of communities in the cities and youth service left a profound impression on him. "The United States is a country of freedom and all Americans have their dignity. The strong feelings of these drive me to go home". Just then, the idea of "civil rights education begins at home" occurred to Chang Kun. "I hope that I can first change the place where I was born and grew up, making contributions to the community construction in my hometown."
It was on May 4th, the Youth Day that the center was founded. Linquan County had a heavy rain that day. Except for the over 20 classmates of Chang Kun's little sister, all the other guests didn't attend the ceremony. Chang Kun couldn't stop laughing each time he told others about this matter.
Chang Kun wrote in his blog at the beginning of the establishment, "Most of the people coming to our center are students from the nearby schools and residents from the nearby communities only account for less than 10%. Many students are very shy, so they come here in crowds. Even so, they still dare not come in. Finally, when they get into the center, when you speak with them, they are too shy to talk, especially girls, leaving me a feeling that they are not living in the 21st century."
However, on July 25th, not long after the establishment of the center, Chang Kun received a letter from the young students with a list of the books that they want to borrow. Chang Kun was very shocked after seeing their list. "In fact, we loving reading books, but the surrounding we live in is too bad and we don't have access to books." The list includs 78 books, such as Critique of Pure Reason, A History of Philosophy, A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind, A Treatise of Human Nature, A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes, Les Miserables, The Ordinary World, Seal of Evil, etc. Thereafter, Chang Kun gained more faith in his youth center.
All the services are free in youth center, including free books for reading and borrowing, free internet to access and free law consultation for help. A young person who became one of the members in the youth center once wrote in an e-mail he sent to Chang Kun, "In reality, when I first knew the youth center, I thought that it was just a publicity stunt since there is no free lunch in the world. Therefore, my first impression was that you must be a cheater in the name of public interests. However, time tells us the truth. So I sincerely beg your pardon. " One day in June, 2010, Yang Yutian, a student of Grade 2 in Normal School passed by the youth center. Seeing the word "Free" writing on a board, he was skeptical about it, "Is there free lunch in the world? It must be a cheat." However, driven by his curiosity, he went upstairs along the narrow stairs to have a look. Chang Kun and his sister Chang Jun were there. After a little while of hesitation, he finally said:" May I come in?"
You don't have to pay any deposit to enjoy the free service of borrowing books. All you need to do is to provide a copy of ID card and your telephone number. Besides, you should hand in a piece of composition. Yang Yutian borrow a book of The Comedies of William Shakespeare. Thereafter, he borrowed several other books, such as Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another, Criticism of the Chinese People's Thinking, History of Chinese Political Thoughts in 20th Century and so on. Although he cann't fully understand these books, he felt that they are very interesting. If you can independently think in a free state, you seem to have a special feeling about yourself.
All of the over 2000 books are selected by Chang Kun, such as What Has China Done by economist Zhou Qiren, The Law of Defing by Wu Si, Silent Spring by American writer Rachel Carson, Collected Works of Lu Xun, etc. Most of the books are new ones, and also some are old books which are hard to buy, for example, The works of Chu Anping (upper and lower) and a biography of Chu Anping collected by Chang Kun himself. He said, "When I was young, I was eager to read books. However I didn't have access to lots of books. Chu Anping's book had a great impression on me at that time. I hope that these books can lead the students to independent thinking."
Yang Yutian introduces the youth center to his classmates. At first, they don't believe him. Later, Yang Yutian became a volunteer of the youth center. "I am very grateful to have the opportunity of reading books here for free, so I want to make my own contributions to the center. Therefore, I choose to be a volunteer of the center and help them tidy the books and do some cleaning work."
At noon of November 6th, Chang Kun's father and mother were reading books without greeting the students since the young students from the nearby schools were very familiar with the programs. Arriving here, they themselves would register first and then go to look for their favourite books, for instance, Li Chunjie likes reading Something about the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Hui likes reading Hai Yan's books, and Zhang Jing's favorite book is Now is Good, etc. It was lunch time, so they hurridly left after getting the books they want to borrow.
"Foolish" questions
Later, some famous people begin to visit Chang Kun's house. Every time they have a seminar, Chang Kun will repeatedly require the visitor to stress the great influence of the internet to the students. "Many students here don't have the awareness of the internet. Some high school students haven't had access to the internet. They know there is something called 'computer', but they don't know how to use it." Said, Chang Kun.
If you want to borrow books from the youth center, you need to have an e-mail address and know how to send e-mails. However, Chang Kun finds out that it is very difficult to achieve this since many students don't have e-mails. Therefoer, Chang Kun teaches them how to apply for e-mails. Up to now, several students have learnt how to use the internet.
Young kids are always curious about the things happening around the world. On October 11th, the famous Japanese writer and critic, Asou Haruichiro came to visit Chang Kun's house. One of the students asked, "How do young people become indoorsmen and indoorswomen in Japan?" "The main probles for young people are to make friends and keep in touch with other people. This phenomenon is also very popular in China now." Asou Haruichiro answered.
Another student asked Asou Haruichiro what the Japanese students would do if they don't attend university and Asou Haruichiro told him that they would go to find a job all by themselves.
Students also had other questions, such as, whether people burn straws in Japan and whether Hokkaido is beautiful. Asou Haruichiro told them that Japan has clean air and great hot springs.
Earlier on September 14th, 2010, reporter Wu Zihui from Nanhua Morning Paper, Hongkong came to Chang Kun's house to attend a seminar. At the seminar, one of the students suddenly asked the reporter how much an egg is and what the university enrollment rate is in Hongkong, all of these questions are difficult for Wu to answer.
After the seminar, Chang Kun wrote a lot in his blog: "We talk about university systems and life ideals here at the seminar. As for our students here, I am very gald that they get more and more opportunities now, on the other hand, they have a poorer foudation far than I can imagine, almost the same as mine 10 years ago. But the fact is that our society has developed for 10 years!"
A ray of hope
10 years ago, the factory of Chang Kun's father was pulled down by the government. However, Chang Kun's father didn't have the awareness of protecting his own private property. He thought that it was reasonable for the government to pull down his factory to build roads even without offering compensations. At that time, Chang Kun also had the same views. Nobody thought that it was fault to damage other people's private property without offering compensations even for the sake of public interests. After entering university, Chang Kun studied law in school and learned that it was illegal to violate the property rights of citizens. "My father, together with many other kind common people, didn't know that they have to protect their rights and interests. They didn't know that they suffered unfairs and they did't have common sense on many problems."
The youth center first changed the thoughts of Chang Kun's father. He said that in the later Cultural Revolution, he suffered losses because of lacking knowledge. He went to do business to support his family, but he didn't know how to set up contracts with others. Therefore, no matter how hard life was, he would firmly support his children to go to school.
It is totally out of Chang Kun's expectation that his 48-year-old father learned how to surf the internet in the youth center. Because of working needs, his father even began to buy novel stuff on the internet.
The neighbors nearby also come to the center to borrow books. They say, "Chang Kun, you are really great, you are Lei Feng of the contemporory times. Other people do everything for the sake of money, but you do things for the sake of public interests. Why are you so great?" Zhang Dongfeng, a puller living downstairs, has no money to buy books. He often comes to the youth center to borrow books since he found the free service here. Zhang Chunjie, a 36-year-old woman who sells cement always comes here to borrow books on cultivation of kids. She will read a few pages when there are no customers.
On the wall of the youth center lie the letters of the county government's replies to the problems Chang Kun reflected to them. For example, "A middle school is surrounded by dirty water pit and rubbishes, attracting many mosquitos flying around. Why does the government deal with it?" "We have already reported this problem to the county government and they have to work out a plan to solve this problem." "There aren't street lamps around the middle school, why?" "We have arranged it into the 2011 installation plan."
"I hope that one day; the young people can themselves reflect these problems to the government. I put these letters onto the wall, hoping that I can change my surroundings. I want to tell the youth that as a citizen, you have the rights to have your ideas heard. I hope that my neighbors, fellow countrymen and young students will realize how big the world is…" Chang Kun was very excited when talking about these.
The new members of the youth center are required to write a piece of composition, such as I Love My Hometown, My Ideal County in China, the Community I Want to Live in, etc. They can also write something about their views on historic culture, public health, women rights, environment, ECT. Chang Kun purposely leads the youth to pay attention to their own surroundings.
"Americans really love their own homelands. They first pay attention to their own home, their own community and their own surroundings, and then they will give their attention to their state and state." said Chang Kun, "Now the youth center has 8 volunteers. They don't have the concept of volunteers before, so you have to tell them what a volunteer is and how to be a volunteer."
"I also hope residents come to realize that the dean of the community is seclected by citizens according to Organization Law of the neighborhood committee. Besides, the neighborhood committee has its own laws. However, the local residents believe that the leaders are appointed by the county or town leaders. In fact, they are not civil servants at all."
Survive through hardships
Apart from a county-level public library, Linquan county has another two rural project hope libraries which are located in the primary schools of Wang Lou and Zhao Zhuang viliage in Jiang Zhai town. These two libraries are rural libraries for students and the rural residents and they are co-founded by the Love Transmission Charitable Fund which focuses on education in poor areas (a non-profit organization registered by the overseas Chinese students in the United States), Hongkong Chen Yixin Family Foundation and the local education department.
Chang Kun's house was set up by Chang Kun, but actually, it was supported by his relatives. The house was borrowed from Chang Kun's grandpa without any charges and the water dispenser was also offered by his grandpa. The walls of the house were painted by Chang Kun's mother. Those book shelves and steel stairs were welded by Chang Kun's father-Chang Yingfeng. Now, the youth center get many new books and they are laid on the ground because there are no spare book shelves. Therefore, Chang Yingfeng has to weld many new book shelves. Adding the 4000RMB which is used to buy a duplicator, Chang Yingfeng has already invested more than 10,000RMB into the youth center. Chang Kun's 17-year-old sister, Chang Jun stays in Chang Kun's house each day. She has been a voluntary administrator ever since she dropped out from school for bad health.
Things happened on May 12th, 2010 scared Chang Jun.
"Your institution is illegal. You must get a business license, otherwise, your institution will have to be colsed down", a drunken inspection brigade member from Press and Publication Bureau came to the center to check whether Chang Kun's books are pirated books. "It is illegal that you broke in my house. Will you allow me to get into your house without your notice and get your things into a mess?" Later, Chang Kun called the police and then the conflict was finally solved.
Later Chang Jun asked her mother Wang Qin, "What if they come back and beat me?" Mother told her, "Just call the police". However, Chang Jun was still very worried. "Mom, I am scared that they will come back. Come to accompany me when you have time, ok?"
Sometimes Chang Jun was very angry and complained tearfully to her mother, "I stay here every day to manage the house without any wages. I want to go to look for a job." Wang Qin had to comfort her daughter, "Your brother is in difficulties now. You should have patience. When he has money, he will pay you all of your wages. My daught, don't be angry with your brother. I will buy you new clothes when the Spring Festival comes, ok?" What worried Wang Qin was that if they hire a worker, they have paid him/her over 1000RMB at least a month. "Chang Kun is in difficulties now, so I have to get my own daught, Chang Jun, stay to manage the house." Wang Qin said. After three months of voluntary work, Chang Jun finally got allowance from her brother, Chang Kun, 300RMB a month from August, 2010.
When summer comes, the house is too hot for people to stay in. Chang Jun doesn't want to go to the cneter. Wang Qin tells her, "Chang Jun, you have to go the center, otherwise, the cneter will be closed." Chang Jun always feels dizzy after coming back home from the center, without any appitite. The old two-story building is exposed to the sun diretly for all day long. In midsummer, tempreture in the house will reach 70oC without air-conditions. Because of the hot weather, two donated computers have already gone out of work. The kids who come to return books will leave immediately after handing in the books, since it is too hot in the house, even hotter than that outside the house. However, Chang Jun has to stay in the house, even though she sufferes sudamen. When winter comes, Chang Jun always gets a cold for staying in the cold house. Therefore, Chang Kun hopes to install an air-conditioner in the house. But how could he get the money for an air-conditioner?
Chang Kun's father, Chang Yingfeng also has some complains: "We are not a rich family. I have to do voluntary work for the center and sometimes, I have to invest into the center, let alone making money. What could I do if he chooses to be engaged in these affairs?"
The house of Chang Xinli, Chang Kun's grandpa, used to be rented to other people. Chang Xinli could get about 7000RMB of rental a year. However, Chang Xinli said that his grandson wanted to have a good development in his career; he should give his full suppourt to his grandson. Leaders of Chengguan town and Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs came to the old man and told him: "Your grandson, Chang Kun had an illegitimate occupation. What did he do on earth? What he does belongs to illegal affairs." The old man was very confused and went to his grandson. Chang Kun told his grandpa: "I just fulfil my civic and social responsibility. It's a kind of love and contribution to our families and countries. How should it belong to illegal affairs?" Thereafter, this old man would always say: "I'm not well-educated for I have only been to school for only one year. However, my grandson is well-educated. He is a good man and what he does are all good things."
Chang Kun did not earn much when he was working in Beijing for the public interests of AIDS patients. Sometimes, Chang Kun' parents have to give him some money to help him make a living. "I have told him many a times that he should go to look for a good job or do some business so as to earn money to support the family. However, it's useless." Chang Yingfeng sighed.
Apart from the relatives's support, Chang Kun's house also receives some donations from other people, but the donations are very little. Chang Kun put a box in the youth center. Up to August 25th, he received only 33.5RMB in total. On September 5th, Chang Kun was very supprised when he found a piece of 5RMB in the box. A two-meter long board was suspended outside the center's gate, however, when asked about "Chang Kun's house", "free reading", and the boss of a shop just on the other side of the road knew nothing at all.
However, what upset Chang Kun was not these affairs, "Up to now, there hasn't one come here for legal consultation."
What makes matter worse, the house will be likely to be pulled down in the fast development of real estate and the youth center may be closed down. However, the kids's pure eyes with great expectations and their shy smiles, their curiosity about the price of eggs in Hongkong and their surprise at the splendors of the world as well as Zhang Dongfeng's expectations for new books tell Chang Kun that he shouldn't give up.
Chang Kun has planned to buy a 36-inch or 40-inch LCD TV for the youth center so as to provide free movies for the youth. Thus, Chang Kun wrote in his blog: "We are looking forward your support". This is almost an unachievable dream before an air-conditioner being installed in the center. Recently, somebody remitted 150RMB to the center through Alipay without leaving his/her name. Apart from books, this is the most that Chang Kun's house has received from private persons. Chang Kun still hopes to that he can provide free movies and documentaries for the youth someday.
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