They took to the streets last month. Tens of thousands of student demonstrators marched in cities from Beijing to Shanghai, in what Western newspapers have heralded as the most serious challenge to the Chinese Communist Party in years.

And some say it was all because of bad food in the dining halls.

Waving banners and shouting slogans, the students have demanded "democracy" and "freedom." But while papers in the U.S. see the rallies as a sign of progress and hope, some Chinese students at Harvard are not so sure.

Many students from the People's Republic of China feel that media accounts--both from the PRC and the West--are skewed in their representation of the current situation. They say that while such Chinese papers as the People's Daily do not offer complete coverage of the demonstrations, American journalists tend to impute political purposes where none may exist.

"Newspapers in the West, when writing about communist countries, definitely have a propagandist slant. They try and connect these movements with those 30 years ago, and I don't think the students themselves have that in mind," says Hu Hong '89, a Biochemistry concentrator from the capital, Beijing.

Hu, a Cabot House resident, says she feels that news stories here may be misleading because they exaggerate the importance of the protests. "This is only a small part of what's going on in China. I don't think it really touches the workers and the peasants," adds Hu, who says she is not a member of communist party organizations.

Li Yuwen '90, a 19 year-old from Shanghai, has similar doubts about the impartiality of American news. "The West has too much concern about the demonstrations themselves, and not full awareness of the possible consequences," he says.

"It's unwise to have such demonstrations because they do not have sufficient, if any, positive consequences to make up for their negative impact. These students are causing traffic breakdowns and social instability; they are responsible, indirectly, for the rise in crime rate in these cities," Li explains. "If public transportation breaks down as a result of the protesters' actions, people cannot go to work; they cannot go home; mothers cannot nurse their children. It disrupts society."

Party Paper Distorts The Facts

But if some students feel that the West does not understand the full negative impact of the marchers, others think that it is the Chinese papers which are presenting a distorted view.

Yu Shibao, a graduate student in inorganic chemistry who came to Harvard in 1983, sympathizes with his fellow students in China. "All the [Chinese] newspapers talk about is that the students are bad. Nothing is good here," he says, referring to the People's Daily Overseas Edition, the Party paper to which he subscribes. "To them it is just fighting police, disorder in the streets. These newspapers are full of news that isn't real news."

Hu agrees with this assessment. "The news from China isn't exactly what's happening. The press is controlled by the government, so the government uses it as a tool."

All the students interviewed say that the current protest in China is the biggest topic of conversation in the close-knit Chinese community here in Cambridge. Many are worried, however, that unless the students are well-organized, they won't have much impact on the policy decisions of Communist Party leaders. Others fear that these marches, which began late last year, could influence the Party to reverse steps made toward political reform.

"Objectvely, the student demonstrators are good for reformers in the Party because the reformers can say, `Look. If we don't do more about political reform, the students and the general public will resist our administration. They will reject cooperation with the government," says Ding Xuelian, a sociology graduate student who was a Red Guard during China's decade-long Cultural Revolution.

"But on the other hand," he argues, "the conservatives could accuse [Paramount Leader] Deng Xiaoping that these protests are caused by his relaxation on political and ideological issues. They will tell him, `You cannot keep political order.' "

Ding says he is not surprised by the eruption of student protest at this time. According to him, the current political climate is ideal for students to voice demands.

"By mid-1986 political reform was seen as an end in itself--and not just a means to economic reform--by Deng and other leaders of the Party. And just recently, authorities have emphasized the implementation of a constitution which gives people the right to go to the streets, to protest, to spell out opinions," he explains. "So this is a way for students to try to prove their constitutional rights."

The initial protests were based on complaints about the hard life of students in Chinese universities. Dorms are usually under-heated and cafeteria food is both expensive and inedible. Furthermore, Chinese students are required to work very long hours and are rarely permitted to take classes outside their concentrations.

Food At Heart Of The Matter

"Our life is terrible in the universities," says Yu, who attended Fudan University, one of the flashpoints of student unrest. "The food is very bad, we have no money, and we are expected to work very hard. I read an article that said students lack exercise, that they are in poor health because they don't exercise. That's not true. It's nutrition. Student health is not good because they are not well-nourished."

Indeed, the quality of the food may have been one of the primary reasons for the demonstrations, at least at first. The students quickly moved from demanding better meals to demanding more say in university affairs and more control over their own lives.

Yu also thinks they want more privacy, because "in China there is hardly any privacy left."

"At all universities students are not allowed to have boyfriends or girlfriends. We are not supposed to fall in love," he says. "My wife used to be my classmate and our political conduct tutor warned us against seeing each other."

Yu says that if he had not been a good student and gotten the opportunity to study in America, he would have been assigned a job far away from the woman he was dating.

In China graduates are assigned jobs by the government. "If [students] refuse to take what is offered to them, they are not given another choice. So they stay at home with no work," says Yu. "Maybe the cafeteria will be changed [as a result of these protests], but I don't think the students will get to choose their own jobs."

"The first demonstrations may have been about cafeteria food, but now the demonstrators are calling for democracy and freedom," says Zhang Longxi, a fourth-year graduate student and tutor in the Literature Department here. "This is a sign of democracy awakening."

Although people like Zhang and Yu feel that the protest movement is indeed a positive sign of student concern over the political future of China, some at Harvard disagree.

"How could a banner with a vague word like democracy or liberalism lead to action?" Li asks.

What They Say And What They Mean

Benjamin I. Schwartz, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science has written an article on Chinese student demonstrations for an upcoming issue of The New Republic. "While there's been a considerable amount of talk about freedom and democracy, what the students mean may be something quite different." The China expert thinks the demonstrations will taper off soon because students are busy studying for their January exams.

Peer pressure may also play a role in the marches, which have attracted thousands of students, says Li, who is a freelance writer for Shanghai Youth, a campus magazine. Although he won't say whether he is a Communist, Li questions the motives of the protesters. "There is a very big psychological factor. Many people just write things and play with words to show off. For example, my friend joined the marchers because he wanted his girlfriend to think he was brave."

China's State Commission of Education has announced that fewer than two percent of a student population of almost two million participated in the demonstrations. But in a country with one billion people, that number makes some people think that the students do not really represent the people.

"I think that there must be many people in China who are worried that if the students go too far the state will crack down. The masses are probably pleased with the general drift [toward reform] but fear the students could provoke a reprisal," Harvard's Schwartz says.

"You have to understand that China is 30 to 40 percent illiterate. For the most part, the peasants have nothing to say," Yu says. "They are concerned only with food and shelter for their families. But the students are a different story. They believe in the power of the people to control themselves. Students know we can go faster, do more. They know we should have more freedom."

The protesters who are marching in the streets now are mostly first--and second--year college students. Their youth, and, by implication, their lack of political sophistication raises questions about how far the movement will go. "They are really naive. If I was in China now, I would laugh at them," says Li.

On the other hand, Li adds, some of the older students "have a good recollection of what happened during the Cultural Revolution. Those who have experienced it understand that the political enthusiasm and social concern of the masses can sometimes be used for vicious purposes."

Some have worried that this association of the current-day student activists with the drastic and occasionally brutal methods of the Cultural Revolution's Red Guards may harm protesters' efforts. But for the most part the students are seen as part of a continuing Chinese tradition of scholarly responsibility.

"Chinese students, when they are encouraged to participate in political self-expression, will tend to go quite far in expressing their opinions," says Schwartz. "I always find amazing the reckless courage which such students show."

But Straus Hall resident Li is not so impressed. He says he believes that the demonstrations will never achieve their purpose. "In general, in the case of China, I don't think any demonstrations can be helpful," says Li. "I don't think the students are really doing something political. I generally regard them as very ignorant."

Li sees the demonstrations as pointless because, he says, he does not think there is a need for greater political freedom. "In China you have the right to think, but you cannot do everything. Just like in the States there are many people who worship Hitler, but they are not allowed to practice Nazism."

"My general idea about freedom is that freedom is for qualified people only," he adds.

Zhang, however, has a different idea about the students. "Young people are for idealism," he says. "Some people might think it's naivete and lack of sophistication, but that's not a bad thing. They are full of enthusiasm for China--for a democratic and economically developed China."