Practices to Look for Flexibility and Alternative Space Under Political Restriction

Abstract

The state built a system into universities to maintain its control over politics, and though its mechanisms have been well implemented, there remains some buffer space between state requirements and student expectations. Students’ counselors’, CYL cadres’, and students’ role therein is subtle; on the one hand, their interactions with students dilute their efforts at political indoctrination and increase their openness in party activities; on the other hand, students can find autonomous spaces in university—e.g., joining a political organization to benefit their job hunting, or even leaving the campus physically to be exposed to other cultures and ideologies. This scenario is also different from the promotion of academic freedom and critical thinking which composed a third situation in the complex process.