I was born after the economic reform began, which puts me into the younger generation. And I've been living in the US for some time.

Most Westerners are puzzled by the fact that a majority of the younger generation are against radical political changes in China, even if most of us do not like how the Chinese government works.

Most scholars and columnists living in the West impute this to Communist propaganda, indoctrination in education and "brainwashing". This implies that young people are not capable of independent, critical and rational thinking. However, most of us are well-educated, liberal-leaning sophisticates, at least the ones pursuing graduate degrees in the US.

My friends and I have a rather simple, but different, explanation for the paradox. But I really want to hear NPR's take on this.

Sent by Pan | 3:42 PM ET | 04-24-2008

When we were in Chengdu in 1987, there was a cinnamon-colored (the 'black' patches were very light brown) panda at the zoo there named Dan-Dan. I've always wondered what happened to her, and whether there have been any other 'tan pandas'.

Sent by Terry Tucker | 4:25 PM ET | 04-24-2008

The Chinese people, because of their Confucian upbringing, are never a radical race.

We always prefer evolution over the revolution. We like to compromise and find the middle ground. Throughout Chinese history, when Chinese people were pushed against the wall, either by their own government or foreign power, a radical revolution would start.

Sent by David | 5:27 PM ET | 04-24-2008

I was dismayed to hear your host flatly state that Mao Zedong's policies killed tens of millions of people. Mao is blamed for 20 to 40 million famine deaths as a result of the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960) when China tried to move from agriculture to industry too soon.

True, the program was risky and millions of people died of famine, but China had emerged from a century of humiliation and was surrounded by enemies. The famine was also attributable to bad weather and a U.S. grain embargo.

Henry C. K. Liu has written about this extensively in the Asia Times. Another China scholar, Prof. Wim Werthheim, University of Amsterdam, writes that the estimate of tens of millions of deaths comes from Chinese census figures in the 1960's which seem to show China's population short by 17 to 29 million Chinese compared with projections from a 1953 census. China's population was estimated at 450 million before the Revolution but China's 1953 Census claimed 600 million. The 1953 figures are questionable and may be mostly responsible for the population shortfall blamed on the Great Leap Forward.

Sent by James V. Cook | 9:37 PM ET | 04-24-2008

Welcome to Chengdu!

Chengdu NewArchitecture:

http://picasaweb.google.com/wam8314

Sent by George Wang | 11:14 PM ET | 04-24-2008

Why are you guys dwelling on all of this irrelevant stuff in China? The REAL story is the Total Solar Eclipse on August 1. Anyone close to Zhengzhou, Xian, Ya Nan, and Lanzhou can easily make it to the totality path. Jiuquan is actually inside the totality path. You guys should be doing a story on this. You can send me. I volunteer. I am an experienced eclipse photographer.

Sent by Spencer R. Rackley IV - AKA: the Astronerd | 10:32 AM ET | 04-25-2008

I 've been interacting with students at schools in Sichuan Province, especially in Chengdu. There are numerous high schools in China that have student exchange programs with schools in Oklahoma. It would be excellent to visit some of those schools and talk to the students who have visited the U.S. about their actual impressions of Americans versus their preconceived notions before they visited.

Their English is excellent; they have native English-speaking teachers who teach Oral English at the schools.

The best schools to contact would be Chengdu #4 and Chengdu #7. I can give you names of principals and teachers there.

Sent by Jessica Stowell | 10:42 AM ET | 04-25-2008

Regarding the blog comment "Pay a visit to Chengdu's universities:"

Those with a bio-science bent would likely be interested in the State Key Lab of Cancer Biotherapy associated with Sichuan University. I gave a seminar there a few years ago and was very impressed by their facilities for chemical synthesis, molecular biology, testing in biological systems (including a zebrafish & Xenopus facility) and GMP manufacturing of drug candidates. This is an unusually vertically-integrated project, with one building housing labs to move a candidate molecule from drug discovery to manufacturing for human trial.

Sent by Jon D. Moulton | 11:56 AM ET | 04-25-2008

On May 1, 2005, our 12-month-old son (yes a boy) was placed in our arms in the adoption authority in Chengdu.

We have no knowledge of his actual ethnic ancestry. There are those who see him and comment that he is not Han Chinese.

This in itself is of no concern to us, but now as political turmoil ensues between Tibet and China, with the strong feeling within the international adoption community that a child be educated to his native culture, we question what that true culture may be.

We feel such a strong connection to China for giving us the incredible gift of a child and yet such uncertainty as to how to educate him about his origins.

Most of all we thank his birth parents for enabling us to be his family and pray for peace in his native land.

Sent by Stacey | 12:43 PM ET | 04-25-2008

I'm a nurse practitioner specializing in oncology. I'm curious to know the state of healthcare - not just in major cities, but predominately access to healthcare for most citizens, especially in my area of interest Hematology/oncology.

Sent by Wendy Smith | 7:47 PM ET | 04-25-2008

American horticulture owes much of the plants we use routinely to China, especially to Sichuan, which wasn't reached by the most recent Ice Age.

For example, the Ginkgo tree is only extant today because it was saved in gardens. I'd like to hear about some of the gardens that still exist, and about the different plants for which we have China to thank.

Sent by Anne Potter | 11:39 PM ET | 04-25-2008

I'd like you to do a story on the game of Go (in China it's called weichi.) I love this game and it bothers me no end that it isn't better known in the West.

Sent by J. Cifare | 10:21 AM ET | 04-26-2008

http://www.halfthesky.org/

Check us out in Chengdu

Sent by Half the Sky Foundation | 2:08 PM ET | 04-26-2008

Hey, Stacey,

Happy birthday to your son.

I'm pretty impressed by your efforts to have your son educated to his native culture.

It's very rare, if not impossible, for a Tibetan family (or any minority) to abandon their babies even though there isn't any one-child policy for the minority.

Sent by Yan | 6:21 PM ET | 04-26-2008

As an anthropologist who has spent her career studying the family in multi-generational perspective, I have long been fascinated by the inevitable lasting impacts of China's "one child" policy.

After just one generation, there are now no aunts and uncles, no cousins - - just one child with 2 parents and 4 grandparents.

Are those who grew up this way really as spoiled, self-centered and un-communist as some studies suggest? How do they remember their childhoods?

Sent by Donna B Birdwell | 8:04 AM ET | 04-27-2008

I asked my 10 year old daughter, adopted from China 10 years ago today, what question she would like "All Things Considered" to answer while in China. She would like to know why the Chinese government is taking the homes of old people to make room for Olympic buildings.

Sent by Ron Bilby | 10:37 AM ET | 04-28-2008

I have been making trips to China, several months at a time, as my son lives there with his Chinese wife. My intimate contact with my Chinese family gives me a different perspective. It is difficult to learn the subtleties of culture and different ways of thinking. I am amazed at the energy and the mix of ancient culture with modernity.

Sent by Hadia Finley | 11:50 AM ET | 04-28-2008

My father was in the U.S. Navy and our family lived in Shanghai about 1938. My father had been to China before and loved the country. Although I was only 4 years old, I have never forgotten our hotel, Cathay Mansions, or my second "mother", Ah Ching, or my school at the Sacred Heart convent, or the Chinese stories and Confucian thoughts read to us by my father.

It's amazing how much a child can absorb at that age. Ah Ching is long gone, but I wonder if Cathay Mansions or the convent are still there. Is it possible you could cover that period in China before WWII?

Sent by Joan Dumbauld | 10:04 PM ET | 04-29-2008

As did thousands of others, we adopted our daughter in China. I have always believed that Birthmom probably had a pretty good idea which orphanage her daughter ended up in and based on arrival date and subsequent pictures could be traced fairly easily. With widespread access to the internet becoming more available in China, have you heard about any efforts to track adopted children or Birthmoms? I know your visit to China has been completed but it micht be an interesting question to ask ext time.

Sent by Cherelyn Riesmeyer | 6:40 PM ET | 07-02-2008