More than 2,000 Beijing middle school students arranged thousands of paper cranes on a blackboard to form the message "Peace, Democracy and Freedom" in commemoration of International Students' Day.
On Nov. 17, 63 years ago, nine anti-Nazi students in Czechoslovakia were killed by German invaders, who then proceeded to shut down every university in the country. Since then, the day has been commemorated as the International Students' Day.
The activity arose spontaneously from among students in the High School of the People's University of China. This was the first time that International Students' Day was commemorated in a Chinese high school.
Shen Dichai, one of the activity's organizers that is also the head of the Student Union, said that, through the activity, the students learned more about the history of International Students' Day and became more conscious of their own happy and peaceful lives.
The primary aim of the activity, he noted, was to express the wish of Chinese students for world peace, democracy and freedom.
(People’s Daily November 19, 2002)
