THE following is the English translation of a speech by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to students at Beijing University A conversation with China’s youth on the future I begin by congratulating Beijing University which this year celebrates its 110th anniversary – making this university three years older than the Commonwealth of A Beijing University is the most famous in C And it has played an important part in modern Chinese In the early 20th century, when China was going through a period of rapid transformation, it was Beijing University that led movements for a new era in Chinese educational, cultural and political Beijing University was at the centre of the May 4th M The May 4th era - for I realise that it was a transformative decade from 1917 to 1927 - was one of crucial and lasting importance in the emergence of a modern C Many famous figures in this period were active at your One thinks, for example, of Cai Yuanpei , Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Li Dazhao and Lu X This year, 2008, is the 90th anniversary of some key events of the May Fourth era: through his essays for the major magazine New Youth the writer and educator Hu Shi successfully advocated the use of modern vernacular Chinese in education and the This helped bring about a major change in the way that the young people of China expressed themselves to their Also the writer Lu Xun published the first, and justifiably famous, story in modern Chinese, Diary of a M I would also note that Lu Xun’s design for the school crest of Beijing University is still in Indeed, you, the students of Beijing University today, are heirs to a great tradition of intellectual engagement with your Studying China This is not the first time I have visited Beijing U But it is the first time I have given a speech It is a great honour for And it is a great honour for me to address the students of this university because you are an important part of China’s I first started studying China and the Chinese language in It was a different China back Zhou Enlai had just Mao Zedong was still And the Cultural Revolution had not concluded -indeed our Chinese language textbooks were still full of class Some have asked me why I decided to study C I had grown up on a farm in rural Queensland where China seemed very I remember as a teenager following closely the visit of Australia’s Prime Minister Gough Whitlam to China on television in 1973 after the Australia Labor Government recognised China in I remember watching the footage of him meeting Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping escorting his party on a tour to the Great W That visit inspired my interest in this extraordinary When I went to university I knew that I wanted to study C I went to the Australian National University in C And for the next four years I studied Chinese language, Chinese history and Chinese literature together with Japanese and Korean history as