Speeches that still need polishing...
I want to be a Chinese
My ID card, with my BEST (overemphasize while making a funny face) picture on it, says I’m a Chinese woman living in China. But does that mean I’m REALLY Chinese? I don’t think so... Just look around: I live in a place where all the cities are calling themselves metropolitan, and all the ugly buildings are calling themselves “Little New York” or “Man-hattan Plaza”... I speak Chinese, but I’m learning English as the rest of the country is. In fact, my Chinese sucks! I don’t know much about Confucius, I don’t drink tea and some one in the States is trying to teach me that Zhangfei and Yuefei are not brothers…Dear Mr. Contest chair, all my Chinese friends and non-Chinese friends...Do you also have the same question, as I did, when I was walking between the McDonald’s, and passing by that World Trade Center in BJ ... is this really China, or is China becoming just a geographic name?
After 1980, new generations of China have been bombarded by the cultures of developed countries. It’s really cool! I love that. But the thing is: we had lost almost all the precious traditions long before that... China developed rapidly, like a whole new country, from no-where. That’s why I was really confused when I was growing up.
If generations are having this identity crisis, than so is our country. Now, China has never before been so committed to globalization: every aspect of China, from its language, modes of production, education, architecture, to family structure, entertainment… is chang-ing so rapidly. Well, China has never being afraid of change. In fact, the essence of Chinese philosophy is ‘change’. But what we are changing now is our own culture: customs, spirits, and values. This culture helped China survive brutal invasions through thousands of years. But, we’re changing it. In other words, we are changing the identity of our nation. We are changing the soul of our country. I keep wondering: if China loses its culture, will it still exist? Wow! Maybe, we’ll become real international drifters! But it won’t be as romantic as it sounds. Will we live happily ever after in other countries with that Green Card? The ID card is not related to our spiritual identity, but culture is. Can the world afford to lose the great culture of China? I say NO!!!. In this messy era of globalization, in this era of scien-tists playing God, in this era of unpredicted conflicts...I hope that some precious Chinese spirits can contribute something to the world, like the harmony between human and nature, between humans, and between our body and spirit...
But, unfortunately, this precious culture has almost vanished...even though I’m Chinese, I’m learning my own culture from books, movies, antiques and the opera. Even my par-ents didn’t have the chance to learn to be a real Chinese. What is a real Chinese? From my study, I got to know that he is someone who is wise, knowledgable, humorous, caring, and respects others’ opinions. He writes beautiful Chinese, he loves painting and poetry; he has this house full of birds, fish , cats, flowers and trees. He appreciates and adores the beauty of nature… He is anything but a fighter dashing through the streets. But there’s no such real Chinese man living around me. And this place, without this model with bones and flesh, is becoming a desert full of skyscrapers. This picture is surreal. So, my friends who speak English, let’s do something about it. Allow me to quote a sentence from a wife who was trying to ruin her husband’s career in front of the whole world: “China can never be called a great country unless it exports it’s value to the world!” It’s true: if we finally have the opportunity to sit at the table of globalization with other countries, we are not meant to just follow or copy, or show them red lanterns, Kung Fu, young girls flirting with the whole world with naked thighs… we don’t just provide products made in China. We have to contribute to the world the precious value made in China.
If that really happens, I’ll make a speech, and it’s name will be ‘I’m so proud that I’m Chinese’!
Watch out! Here comes Advertisement!
I believe every woman has had this experience in a salon: the hairdresser first suggests that: "You should curl your hair, and you’ll look perfect." You took their advice, which cost you a lot of money. When you returned to the salon, only one month later, the hairdresser says: "hmm...you looked great when your hair was straight"... again, you listened to him and straightened your hair, which permanently damaged your hair!! The next month, the same guy would casually remind you that your hair was greatly damaged, of course by you, and you need to use their new product to ‘repair’ your hair...But, of course, this treatment didn't repair your permanently damaged hair and merely adds a new damage to your pocketbook!!!...So, finally, you add one new year's resolution to your list: you won't go to the salon this year! At the end of the year when you finally have your own shining, healthy, and beautiful hair, you do need a haircut, so you decide to see the hairdresser that had previously ruined your hair for a simple hair cut. Now he tells you: ”You need to curl your hair with our new technique, which would never harm your hair...” (Scream)
Dear Toastmaster, fellow members and guests: I know I was stupid. But why did I keep listening to him as if he had a magic spell over me? Why? Finally, I found out that these spells only function when I felt unsafe, or when I was persuaded that I was not ‘perfect’. My dear friends: in the same way, the most evil thing in the world - advertisements - cast this same spell on everyone of us, making us all feel inadequate without their product.
Advertisements are everywhere, like viruses - they are on the TV, on web sites, on (and in) buses...even people's foreheads may as well have a sign saying, "This space is available for your advertisement."... Ads are tirelessly persuading us that we are not perfect, until we possess more material things...Your computer is broken? No need to fix it, your old model is obsolete!! (Buy a new one...); You’re driving a Volkwagen? A real successful man drives BMW; 10,000 RMB? This bag is cheap, because It’s made of crocodile skin. Try this one! It’s made of panda’s skin...I have to confess that women are more vulnerable when attacked by this 'advertisement virus'... In fact, there are tons of amusing advertisements that target women. There is the lotion that claims to enlarge your breasts; the magic machine to shake off your fat within 3 months, I'm sure you can add to the list.... When I saw a salesman grabbing someone to test this shake-off-fat machine, I thought to myself: ’He’s a real comedian!’
Unfortunately, most of the time, they are irresistible!
But what happens once we possess a lot of things that we don’t really need? What will happen when yesterday’s luxuries become todays necessities? Tons of electric trash needs to be buried, which will greatly pollute the underground water, the soil, and our food. Three quarters of the world’s vrigin forests have been cut in the last few decades; cars are releasing more and more poisonous gases into the air; natural disasters occur more frequently (<<< Lily, is that one true, or is it your "advertisement"??? LOL Scott); cancer becomes a common disease...We are depleting all the resources on this beautiful planet, wiping out all the other living things and we’re dreaming of destroying our next stop - the moon... But, are we really happier than before? Do we really need that many material things to make us ‘perfect’?
Today's industrial society is driven only by profit. How can you make profit, if people feel contented with what they have? So, corporations create marketing departments, who are always trying to think of ways to make you "need" their product. They created this most powerful tool in the known universe - the advertisement - to persuade people that what we already have is just not enough and we must purchase more. But rather than giving in to these drivers of capitalism, stop for one minute to think about the most beautiful moment in your life. Does it have to do with material things? That moment might be spending an afternoon in the sunshine, or perhaps it was helping a depressed girl began to love this world; or maybe it was when your parents were still young... The sunshine, helping another person or animal, our youth, the beauty of nature...Nobody is advertising them, because they don’t make a profit!!!
But, are they really worthless? NO!!! They are priceless! They remind us that we are living human beings, not materialistic buying machines. We have this magic body, a beating heart, a free soul, a passion for love...we have our parents and friends, and this beautiful planet, ...Isn’t that ‘perfect’?!
So, next time, my dear friends, when you are seduced by an advertisement, watch out! I hope that you will be cool and reasonable. When you feel you have to buy that hot foam shaving dispenser, give yourself one minute to answer this question: Do I really need to have that to make myself ‘perfect’?
Prison Break
I believe there're only 2 kinds of people in the world: the ones who have already watched Prison Break, and ones who're going to watch it. Why this TV series becomes so popular worldwide?What do we have to do with prisoners? Just think about it, my friend, although we are not prisoners, it doesn’t mean that we’re totally free. Actually, everyone of us has our boundaries, that indeed, squeeze us and confine us like prison cells. For a poor man, it might be just one dollar in his pocket; for a working mom, it might be 1 minute with her kids; for Liu Xiang, it might be just one second that he can never break; and for Bill Clinton, it might be just one wife.
Dear Contest Chair and my fellow cell mates：Yes, in some sense, we're all in our prison cells, behind those cold bars, longing for freedom. We need to change. We need a salvation. We must Break Out! But how? Sometimes, it’s like a mission impossible. That’s why I love Prison Break. After watching this TV series again and again and again, till I got bored by those handsome faces, I finally began to concentrate on the essence of this series. On the surface, it's about how Michael helped his brother, Linkon, break out, because Linkon was put into prison for a crime he had never committed. But on a deeper level, it's about how to achieve an impossible goal with good preparations and faith.
Just imagine there’s a unbreakable wall in front of us and we have to dig a tunnel to break out.
Before digging, Michael did a lot of research, he tattooed the prison map on his body, he knew which snail can be sharpened into a key, he researched the history and character of every single people who might be useful to him in prison... and this good preparation guaranteed him to survive in prison and break out. And for us, if we want to dig out and be a successful businessman, for example, at least, read some great books like 'The World is Flat'... I hope it can be helpful when you are digging your own tunnel. and then, sharpen our tools, like presentation skills and leadership skills here in TM. Someone might say:”my presentation sucks! To dig a tunnel out? No way! It’s like a awkward tiny spoon.” Then, my sincere suggestion would be sharpen it into a real tool, because it’s the only opportunity.
The preparation might take you months, but it’s just a beginning. and now the only thing left is endless boring digging. A great man,Benjamin Franklin, once said:'Dig deep while others sleep.' Sounds quite experienced. However, it's true that you have to be diligent and hard working, because it might take you years to achieve your goal. I promise you: this process can be complicated, dangerous, boring, and lonely. You'll always find yourself in desperate situations: you may take 6 months to dig a tiny hole; someone who is also breaking out may fail; or when everybody believes you're a joke and breaking out is just a daydream...
In face, I was honored to meet a boy was always daydreaming to be a pianist, but he was born vision impaired. Everybody thought his ambition was a joke. However, after 8 years, he won the first prize in a National Piano Contest, competing with all the healthy normal people... Nobody knows what happened in these 8 years, but a tape gave me some clues. On a hot summer night, he was playing his old piano in his dim and shabby home, and the tune he was playing again and again was Chopin’s Revolution... Soon after the contest, he taught himself computer skills, established his own studio, recorded his first album, and now he’s working as a volunteer to teach thousands of blind people to break out of the darkness with computer and internet skills. I’m sure there were times he whispered to himself:"I can't do it anymore. I gonna give it up..." I asked him what he did in those desperate situations. His answer was exactly like what Michael repeated in Prison Break: 'have some faith'. To have some faith, my friends, Have some faith, in your darkest times; have some faith if you're alone, and exhausted... If this is the only way out of your prison, then the only thing we can do is to have some faith and keep digging! Because there’re only 2 kinds of people in this world: the ones who die in prison or the ones who break out.