I meet the 15-year-old Jasmin Nielsen on a wet winter day in Hangzhou. She is in Hangzhou with her parents and younger sister for a visit to her mother’s hometown. The family now lives in Denmark. Her mother is a native of Hangzhou and her father is Danish. Jasmin Nielsen’s Chinese name is Chen Neilan.

She wears a thick shirt and a sleeveless woolen sweater. She has big eyes and laughs a lot. With short hair dyed in purple, she looks cool. She says she had her hair dyed in Hangzhou for a family photo. The family takes a family photo whenever they are back in Hangzhou. Her younger sister has long curly hair and she has short hair. So she picked the color purple to look attractive.

Though born in Denmark, she speaks Chinese fluently and is well acquainted with Chinese culture. The fifteen-year-old Chen is a ninth-grade student in a school not far from Copenhagen. Mentioning her school activities, she tells me a story about her lecture on China in her classroom.

Her homeroom teacher teaches politics and social science. The fifty-year-old teacher used to look down upon China. Whenever her teaching concerned China and Chinese people, she used words such as backward and ignorant.

At the beginning of a new semester in 2019, the teacher gave a plan of what she was going to teach and want the class to discuss. One thing in the outline was a comparison between China and the west. In the plan, China was listed as a country that exemplified the backward. Jasmin couldn’t stand such statements and asked her teacher if she had visited China or had Chinese friends. The teacher had never visited China and had no Chinese friends. Jasmin Nielsen protested, saying she had visited China many times and had Chinese friends and asking why the China she witnessed and experienced was different from the China the teacher portrayed.

After the class, Jasmin sent a long email to the teacher. The teacher gave no response, but she chose to drop the comparison in the classroom. After the class, Jasmin and her teacher had a conversation and the teacher showed the 15-year-old the press coverage in Denmark on Hong Kong events in 2019. Jasmin pointed out the coverage was neither complete nor truthful. She asked the teacher if she could give a lecture on China. The teacher okayed her proposal.

The fifteen-year-old spent about two months preparing the lecture. She made a long PPT document. She invited the school principal to attend the lecture. She thought the invitation was appropriate as she was going to touch upon some events such as the opium wars in the history of China and the school principal was a teacher of history.

The lecture was a success. The classmates listened attentively and applauded. She became aware that they really wanted to know more about China. The warm response touched her. She regretted only that her time was limited.

In her home visit to Hangzhou, she gives herself a task of making short videos in Hangzhou and sending them back to her classmates in Denmark, showing what she sees and what she visits. “My sister and I have visited the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City in Beijing. Many classmates have watched my videos and they think China interesting.”

Chen plans to do some street interviews in a day or two. Her questionnaire lists some questions her classmates in Denmark want to ask. She wants to film direct answers from people she is going to meet.

“I think this is going to be very interesting and therefore I am happy,” says the girl.

        这次回国探亲，陈内岚给自己带了任务。她每天拍微视频，包括吃了什么、玩了什么、路过什么地方。她想用短视频告诉丹麦的老师、同学和朋友，现在的中国是什么样子。

        在这个湿冷的冬天，我认识了一位15岁的女孩Jasmin Nielsen。她从丹麦来，中文名字叫陈内岚，爸爸是丹麦人，妈妈是杭州人，一家人生活在丹麦。近段时间，他们回杭州来探亲。

        出现在我眼前的陈内岚，穿了厚衬衣外加毛衣背心，大眼睛，爱笑；更显眼的是一头紫红色的短发，满满的青春活力。

        “我刚刚吃了面，很热。杭州的面真好吃。”虽然是在丹麦出生，但从小对中国不陌生的陈内岚，中文交流完全没有障碍。

        “这是在杭州染的，为了全家合影时好看。”她说的是自己的发色。原来，每次回国，全家都要去拍一张全家福做纪念。比她小两岁的妹妹是长卷发，而她是短发，就选择染了个出挑的颜色。

        看得出来，陈内岚是一个有主意的女孩。

        陈内岚住得离哥本哈根不算太远，今年上九年级。班主任是一名50岁的女老师，丹麦人，教政治、社会等课程。这位老师平时上课提到中国和中国人时，总是以“落后”“愚昧”来形容。对此，岚岚忍不住了——

        “老师，你去过中国吗？”

        “没有。”

        “老师，你有中国朋友吗？”

        “没有。”

        “老师，那为什么您坚持认为中国就是落后的，中国人是愚昧的呢？我经常去中国，我有很多中国亲友，我看到的、感受到的中国和您认为的不一样。”

        去年学期初，老师提前发了授课计划，其中有一项，是中西方对比，授课计划里中国是“落后方”。于是就有了上面岚岚和老师的对话。下课之后，岚岚还给老师发了长长的邮件。但老师并没有回复她。

        后来不知道什么原因，这个章节老师没讲。岚岚倒是希望老师讲，因为她想趁着这机会，好好说说她的看法。课后，她去问老师，老师拿出了丹麦媒体对香港修例风波的报道回应她。

        陈内岚更不理解了：“这些报道就是全面、真实的吗？老师您教我们要有质疑精神，那么能不能给我一堂课的时间，我来给同学们讲讲我认识的中国。”

        老师答应了。

        陈内岚的妈妈说，她学习成绩还不错，在学校中一直属于乖乖女的形象，不张扬，以前也很少在老师面前表达不同意见。

        “但是这件事我生气了，因为一直以来，我的班主任老师对中国的观点就是错误的，更可悲的是同学们竟认同她。平时有些课老师讲到什么，同学们觉得不能接受时会马上站出来质疑，可到了关于中国的时候，他们就沉默了。他们并不了解中国，却接受老师传达的错误信息。”说到这里，陈内岚情绪激动，汉语英语丹麦语都冒了出来。

        对于15岁的她来说，这一堂课意义重大。

        老师既然以丹麦当地的报道来说，她就查阅了不同国家（地区）在同一时期对同一事件的报道来进行对比，她以“我们的质疑精神呢”切题，和同学们讨论如何全面看待中国和中国人。

        陈内岚准备了两个多月，精心制作了PPT，还去邀请了校长来听她的课。“因为我会讲到一些历史知识，诸如鸦片战争，而我们的校长是历史老师，应该了解。”

        意料之中，这堂课是成功的，“同学们听得很认真，为我鼓掌。原来他们也想多了解一些中国。我特别感动。就是一堂课的时间太短了。”她想做得更多。

        这次回国探亲，陈内岚给自己带了任务，“我要用我的短视频告诉丹麦的同学，现在的中国是什么样子。”她每天拍微视频，包括吃了什么、玩了什么、路过什么地方，然后把视频发给丹麦同学、朋友看。“我和妹妹去北京爬了长城，还去了颐和园、故宫。很多同学看我发的视频，他们觉得中国很有趣。”

        这两天，陈内岚还在计划做街头采访。她设计了一些丹麦同学最想问的问题，让中国人自己面对镜头直接回答。

        “我觉得我做这些很有意义，所以很开心。你觉得呢？”陈内岚问我。

        我觉得，青春一代很有活力。我为认识你而感到开心。