It takes some courage to make certain statements these days. For example, to say you support the closure of some cyber cafes, or to say that universities are right in banning couples from public displays of affection on campus, or to express your repulsion at the millions of fans who are obsessed with pop stars. You will surely be chided if you hold these opinions.

No, you will not have trouble with the authorities the official ideological guardians would not be unhappy with such points of view. But you will run the risk of being drowned in the saliva of cyber critics and bloggers who will denounce you as an old fogey in opposition to such sacrosanct concepts as freedom, human rights and "realization of personal values." Any remarks that sound adverse to the ears of these dabblers would be scorned as trite.

Press circles seem to be taking to this trend, too. Whatever controversy arises concerning social issues, media columnists certainly not all of them but quite a number make comments featuring unconventional and unorthodox ideas to show how different they are from conservative philistines.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that they are wrong in advocating freedom and human rights. (Nowadays, who would dare to say they oppose these things?) I am saying that some people are merely dabbling with these concepts to show off. They would seize upon any remark that smacks of traditional values to make an issue of it.

A few days ago, 10 PhD students from famous Chinese universities issued a petition urging Chinese people not to celebrate Christmas amid concern that a blind pursuit of Western culture may lead to a weakening of traditional Chinese culture. While triggering widespread debate among netizens, the online declaration provided a golden opportunity for columnists and bloggers to demonstrate their cultivation in modern civilization.

They jeered at the young scholars, calling them "ignorant," "extreme" and "narrow-minded" like the legendary countryfolk who feared the sky would fall. They said the petition "goes against the rule of cultural development." Some even said that the thoughts represented by the PhD students' petition were the "most dangerous," and "may bring up autocracy, coercion and harm to freedom and human rights."

It is true that the young scholars appeared to be courting defeat in their attempt to dissuade people from getting infatuated with Western culture while millions of China's youth swamped glittering hotels, plazas, malls, Western restaurants and bars to frolic on Christmas Eve. And it is true that these people have the right and freedom to celebrate this Western festival. It is also disagreeable to try to prevent foreign culture from entering China.

However, the PhD students' move still merits our admiration, for they had the courage to buck the trend. And their ideas deserve our thoughts, for their worries about people blindly worshipping any novel thing from the West in what they called a state of "collective unconsciousness in culture" are not unfounded. They are just raising petitions rather than pushing for administrative bans. They are far from being able to "bring up autocracy, coercion and harm to freedom and human rights."

We certainly should not use administrative measures to interfere in people's cultural lives. But this does not mean we cannot do something to help young people acquire a more correct understanding of our own and other countries' cultures. Media columnists have the responsibility in this regard.

Unfortunately, many columnists seem to care more about showing off by playing with imported cliches rather than writing anything of profound insight. Some even write sheer nonsense. For example, one columnist said Western festivals prevail over their Chinese counterparts because they focus on spiritual enlightenment while Chinese festivals are all about feasting.

This learned writer needs to brush up on his knowledge of Chinese legends about zongzi (rice dumplings) of the Dragon Boat Festival and the moon cakes of the Mid-Autumn Festival. He may also need to recall Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Match-Girl." If he cannot remember the roast goose with a knife and fork in its breast waddling in the poor girl's dream, he is advised to read the headline of a piece of news reported yesterday: "Paris entertains 160 vagrants with a big Christmas Eve meal."

(China Daily 12/27/2006 page4)