Military training is underway yet again. The perennial training course signals the start of a fresh fall semester, as scores of incoming freshmen ditch their favorite faux fashion-label threads in favor of drab, military surplus garb.
In the past I’ve likened this ongoing process, which lasts just over two weeks, to something like summer camp for American kids. If you’ve ever been to a daytime summer camp, that wonderful respite for harried parents and moderately enjoyable time waster for kids, then you can identify with these Chinese freshmen students. They all wear standard issue uniforms during their time at military ‘camp’; they have group activities that revolve around synchronized movements and speech; they spend prolonged periods of time sitting on rear ends doing nothing of importance, except maybe texting their friends or pulling grass up out of the dirt; they adhere to the sharply-dressed counselors and gather en masse to have meals at the canteen at a coordinated time.
A little background: young adults in China, after successful completion of high school, have the choice to follow their predetermined college path or enlist for military service. Because not all young adults have the privilege of becoming fulltime students, state-run colleges and universities narrow the gap between them and their counterparts that ‘choose’ to join the armed forces by forcing the first-year students to do military training.
What practical service might two weeks’ worth of parade drills serve? From my vantage point, these young men and women become excellent at one very indispensable skill. This talent shouldn’t be overlooked in the training process for any modern fighting force. It is the monumental importance of counting.
The freshmen, all looking indistinguishable in their ill-fitting fatigues, become expert at counting. Their instructors take pains to indoctrinate this one paramount skill to the young progeny. They spend painstaking hours practicing how to count to four. Their collective cries of “Yi-Er-San-Si!(one-two-three-four)” can be heard from all points across campus. This way, in a hypothetical battle situation, if China’s potential enemy is anywhere within earshot they will hear the mighty wave of synchronized counting and tremble in their field boots. No doubt they will soon throw down their weapons and abdicate to another thousand years of peaceful dynastic…or…communist rule.
Rory Keane is an American-born teacher and writer who has logged nearly two years in China, and is working on another year-long stint in the Middle Kingdom. He writes about travel, sociopolitical issues, health, entertainment, and culture, among other topics.
