22 percent of young people in Shanxi would not take any action if they saw someone who needs help in the street, 60 percent thought they have good relationships with their parents and 58 percent said their legal rights have been infringed by parents or teachers, according to a survey published in China Youth Daily on November 7.

Bai Min, deputy director of the China Communist Youth League Shanxi Committee, told the paper that the survey, the Attitudes of Youth in Shanxi Province, was conducted by them and completed in early November.

Many teachers and experts on young people’s problems took part in the investigation, said Bai, and the survey lasted nearly a year and interviewed about 20,000 people aged under 18.

Although most were satisfied with their relationships with their parents, 27 percent thought their biggest problem was that “the education methods adopted by their teachers and parents are wrong.”

62 percent said they are willing to communicate or always do communicate with their parents. 57 percent said they confide good or bad things with friends, but only share good news with their parents.

34 percent said the best people to share their experiences with are senior relatives, and over 30 percent said they would not want their senior relatives to worry about them.

The 58 percent who said their legal rights had been infringed by parents or teachers said this included everything from them reading private messages to being hit by them.

The 22 percent who said they would not help strangers said it was because it was none of their business, because they had better things to do or might attract trouble if they did.

The analysts of the survey said traditional education methods impose too many limits on young people, according to China Youth Daily.

(China.org.cn by Wang Ke November 12, 2005)