Published: Sun, Apr. 27, 2008 12:30AM

Modified Sun, Apr. 27, 2008 03:37AM

tool name

In the Chinese student community at Duke, however, people have mixed feelings about Wang. Many Chinese students are appalled that she blamed the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association for helping to release information about her on its e-mail list. That accusation caused some campus groups to call on the university to disband the student association. Other Chinese students have openly speculated that Wang is a political opportunist. They say she has said different things to different audiences.

At the April 9 protest, she wrote "Free Tibet Save Tibet" on Weiss' bare back after making him promise that he would try to talk to the pro-China side. And she lectured Chinese students in English about being more tolerant and open to dialogue with the pro-Tibet side.

Later that night, she composed an open letter in Chinese to the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association e-mail list. In it, she explained she was not for Tibetan independence, but rather better ties between Han Chinese, who make up the ethnic majority in China, and Tibetans. She also tried to convey her patriotism.

Response carefully couched

"The Americans want to roast us in hot coals," she wrote in Chinese. "Be sure not to let them take advantage or show off their cleverness."

Wang said she thought she should use words that were more nationalistic than her actual feelings to calm some of the animosity toward her. At the protests, Chinese students had just told her she could be "burned in oil" for speaking up; when discussion became too heated, police had to escort her away.

Ming Qian, a former Chinese student association leader, said despite their ambivalence toward Wang, many Chinese students at Duke condemn the vicious attacks against her.

"Let Ms. Wang go," the engineering doctoral student wrote in one e-mail message. "She is still young, let her find her own way. Stop bashing her."

Wang said she knows she's not perfect. Looking back, she sees that she might have been "more sophisticated" about speaking up. "Sometimes it's not what you say but how you say it," she said.

"I make mistakes all the time. ... I rush into things," she said. "But isn't it right for young people to try?"

At Duke, she is tackling new languages, taking classes in Italian, German and French, and perhaps Arabic this summer. She said she loves a diction class where she sings off-key in German. Next year, she hopes to take fencing or tennis.

She still hopes to enter politics someday -- maybe with the United Nations, maybe in China. But it's early yet; she's only a freshman who hasn't declared a major.

Wang is wrapping up interviews with the media. "Her 15 minutes is winding down," Savitt said, "although '60 Minutes' called today. ... "

Wang said she needs to refocus on her studies and try to do well on exams, especially in her favorite class this semester -- grass-roots democracy.

BY THE NUMBERS

46 - Number of undergraduate foreign students from China at Duke University

511 - Number of total foreign students from China at Duke University

1 - Rank of China as the country sending most foreign students to Duke

(DUKE UNIVERSITY, INTERNATIONAL OFFICE, 2007-2008)

1,450 - Number of foreign students from China in North Carolina

67,723 - Number of foreign students from China in the United States

(INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION, 2006-2007)