Young people and their military service in China today.

My students have required military training.  All young people in China do this.  Girls and boys both.  When we first arrived, there was an impressive army of students on the athletic field marching.  Young men and women both!  

I have spoken to a young Chinese friend, a college student,  who told me more about it on Wechat.  

She wrote, “We do running early in the morning, around 6 AM, then have breakfast.  Then spend about 10 hours the rest of the day marching.”   I asked her about what the whole experience is like and if her uniform and boots were OK.  She wrote, “It’s kinda boring because we are required to repeat the same actions all the time and sometimes stand still at military poses for hours.  Quite suffering.”  She added, “The shoes are comfortable, but her heels and legs do hurt.”  Finally, she noted “Girls need to learn military boxing and boys are going to learn shooting.”  Seems like they take it in stride…