Young Chinese defy authorities on Internet

One worries sometimes whether people have a desire to be free or whether they are content simply to be wards of the state or live depending on the kindness of strangers. Then I see a story like this one.

Comrade Zhang Guobiao, party secretary for Gangshan County (pop. 150,000), which surrounds the city of Gedong (pop. 20,000) banned Internet cafes last year. It was not only in line with the Chinese government's attempt to keep the Internet under tight government control -- filters that prevent access to impure political thought and porn and the like -- but reflected outrage that teenage boys were wasting their time playing computer games rather than doing their homework and preparing to be good little contributors to the Greater Good and all that rot.

But it turns out that the Internet cafes reopened clandestinely and the teenage boys all know where to go. Shucks, they'll guide a foreign reporter there. When he goes to get comments from the authorities, the authorities ask him for locations so they can close them again. But it won't stop the gaming.

Seems teenage boys resist authority all over the world. Good.