Today I'll talk about understanding, that is understanding between children and their parents. So my topic is when the wall topples down, it becomes a bridge.

As everyone knows, children from age 12 to 16 enter a rebel¹ phase². They are perplexed³ and do not know what's right or wrong. They quarrel with other people and complain about their families or parents. Some of them smoke, drink, fight or leave home. But they do not know how. Unfortunately, many families break up just because of communication difficulties. We're sorry to see that many tragedies have happened because of this. I'll tell some of the stories I know.

Firstly, Chen Weili was a very good student at school. He quarrelled with his mother because his mother read his letters without his permission. He was so mad that he couldn't control himself. He shouted at his mother; "You can't read my letters;

It's against the law! "But his mother couldn't understand him. She just wanted to be near to her child as mothers quite often do. She wanted to care for her child. She was also very angry. She shouted at him: "I'm your mother! Go to the court and charge me! Go! Go! Nobody will help you! "They both cried. As a result, the generation gap⁴ widened⁵.

. . The second example is also about a boy. His name was Zhang Yong. The story happened in a small town in Hunan province. Zhang Yong's parents were both teachers. Because teachers are very busy and don't have much money? it was diffi-cult for Zhang Yong's parents to make a fuss⁶ of him. He began to live and study at school at 10 years of age. His parents rarely visited him. He felt unfairly treated. "Why do other children's parents care about their children, but my parents don't?" he thought. One day, he felt unwell and went to see the school doc-tor. The doctor told him he had caught hepatitis. He told his parents of the bad news. But his parents seemed unconcerned and gave him only 20 yuan. Then let him go to the hospital by him-self. His parents didn't take him to the hospital until he couldn't get up from the bed. His parents finally paid 6000 yuan to the hospital. That was all the money they had! Zhang Yong asked his parents: "Why didn't you care about me before? Now, it's useless!" But he knew nothing of his parents' difficulties. They asked for bank loan⁷. The interest was 200 yuan a month. This amount is equal to his parents salary per month! When Zhang Yong discovered this, he was overwhelmed⁸ with emotion. "Oh, my parents are so great!" he thought. "They love me. They would do anything for me!" He realized that he had the same love as other children had. Unfortunately, this realization⁹ arrived too late. He died in his mother's arms some days later. He was only 17.

Yes, it was a sad story, and it made us think very deeply. If you're a student of this age, have you ever thought about your parents' mind? Have you ever felt compunction because of your bad treatment to them? Have you thought about their deeds? You can find a lot of reasons to say that your parents are bad. But you can't deny one word—love, father's love, mother's love and fami-ly love.

If you are children's father or mother, do you know your children's mind? It they are unhappy, will you care about them? Every parent loves his children. But they show their love in differ-ent ways.

I don't understand why so many people say that the genera-tion gap can't be crossed.

Maybe the world is too contradictory¹⁰ and complex. I can't find any reason to say that children must have a heart exchange with their parents. I just know; "In this world parents' love to their children is the strongest one. To protect this love is very im-portant. "

Although children and their parents have different point of views and sometimes they do not understand each other, there is a wall between them, yet they're two generations that are heart to heart. Everything could be OK. The generation gap could be crossed.

We ask for help. We ask for understanding. We ask for love. So, hold out our hands, let's push down the wall, let's make a bridge across the two generations!