王力宏牛津‘认识华流’英文演讲稿

力宏在牛津大学以“认识华流”主题演讲的英文演讲稿。

【Leehom Wang Full Address Oxford Union】Thank you all for being here today, and the late comers as well. Thank you for coming in quietly.I want to start off today just to take a moment of silence for the victims of the Sichuan e arthquake and for the victims of the Boston American bomb. So let‟s take a minute to pay our respect to them. Thank you.I never thought I would be addressing you, the esteemed members of the Oxford Union, without guitar or Erhu, without my crazy stage hair and costumes . But I did perform at the O2 Arena in London last week. I am not sure any of you would make that. But in many ways, that would be similar to what I am talking about today, that is, introducing Chinese pop music to you. I am actually a Chinese ambassador of Chinese pop whether you like it or not. Both music and movies. And today I am here to give you the state of the union address. It‟s not the Oxford Union.It‟s the union of east and west. I want to frankly, openly and honestly talk about h ow we‟ve done a good job or how we‟ve done a bad job of bringing Chinese pop to the west. And I also want to press upon all of you here today the importance of that soft culture, that soft power‟s change and how each of us is involved in that change.Soft power, a term I am sure you are all familiar with coined by Rhodes Scholar and Oxford alumnus Joseph Nye is to defined as the ability to attract and persuade. Shashi Tharoor called it in a recent TEDTalk, …the ability for a culture to tell a compelling sto ry and influence others to fall in love with it‟. I like that definition. But I want to put it in college terms for all you students and you audience. The way I see it, east and west are kind like freshman roommates. You don‟t know a lot about each other but suddenly you are living together in the same room. And each one is scared the others gonna steal his shower time or wants a party then the other one wants to study. It has the potential to be absolute hell, doesn‟t it? We all had horror stories of that roommate without heard about those stories. I know for a lot of students here inOxford have your own separate bedrooms. But when I was a freshmen at Williams College, I was not so fortunate. You‟re kidding me!Woohoo! All right！Great. Well, I had a room mate, and he was that roommate. Let‟s just call him Frank. So Frank was my roommate and Frank liked nothing more than to smoke weed.[laughter] And he did it every day. And Frank had a two-foot long bung under his bed that was constantly being fired up. Fo r those Chinese speakers and audience. Frank would “火力全开” on that bong every day. So, yes I guess I was kind of opposite of Bill Clinton who tried America but didn‟t inhale. I didn‟t try a but I did inhale. Every single day, second hand. And strangely enough every time I go into our bedroom, I mysteriously end up late for calss. I don‟t know what happened. It was like …Dude, is it already ten o‟clock ?‟ So, how many of you have live lived with that Frank ,or be a Frank Gat? Having a roommate can be a recipe for disaster, but it has the potential for being the greatest friendship you have ever had. See, Frank, he didn‟t make it to second year. And I got two new roommates in the second year, Stephen and Jason. And these days, the three of us are the best of friends. So going back to my analogy, of east and west, and roommates. Do we want to be Frank, or do we want to be Stephen and Jason? And I think, in this year of 2013, we should all be striving for the later, shouldn‟t we?I mean I am assuming that we all agree that this is the goal that we should all be strving for.Let‟s look at where we are in reality. Recent headlines in the media include foreign policy magazine. Chinese victim complex. Why are Chinese leaders so paranoid about the United States? Or the AFP, Agence France-Presse, human rights in China worsening US fines? Bloomberg says, in the cover of this magazine, Yes, The Chinese Army is Spying on You. And It‟s such a great one I just want to show you the cover of the magazine . yes,be very afraid! So, it actually in extremely high mount of negative fear and anxiety about China ,Sinophobia , that I think is not just missing form, but also misleading and also ultimately dangerous, very dangerous. And what about how westerners are viewed by Chinese? Well, we have terms for westerners. The most common of which are …gwailo‟, in Cantonese, which means the “old devil”, …laowai‟, meaning …the old outsider‟ in Mandarin, …ang moh‟, which means the “red hair one” inTaiwanese. The list goes on and on. So are these roommates headed for a best-friend relationship? I think we need a little help. And as China arises to be a global power, I think it‟s more important than ever for us to be discerning about what we believe, because after all, I think that‟s the purpose of a higher education. And that‟s why we are here to be able to think for ourselves and make our own decisions. China is not just those headlines, the burgeoning economy, the unique politics. It‟s not just the world‟s fa ctory or the next big superpower,it‟s so much more. A billion people, with rich culture, amazing stories and as a product of both of those cultures. I want to help faster understanding between the two and help create that incredible relationship. Because knowing both sides of the coin, I really think that there is a love story waiting to be told, willing to be unfold. And I am only having joking when I say love story because I believe it is, the stories that will save us, will bring us together. And my thesis statement for today‟s talk i s that, the relationship between the east and west needs to be and can be fixed via pop culture. That‟s a big fat claim. And I am going to try to back it up. The UN Secretary Journal, Bun ki Moon said …There are no language required in musical world.‟ That is power of music and that is the power of the heart. Through this promotion of arts, we can better understand that the culture and civilization of other people in this era of instability and intolerance, we need to promote better understanding through the power of music. Now the UN Secretary Journal said we need more music, and I think he is right. Music and arts have always played a key role in my life in building relationships, replacing what once was the ignorance fearing and hatred with acceptance, friendships and even love. So I have a strong case for promoting music between cultures because it happened to me early in my life.I was born in Rochester in New York. I barely spoke a word of Chinese. I didn‟t know the difference between Taiwan or Thailand. I was. It‟s true. I was a American as an apple pie. Until one day, on the third grade playground, the inevitable finally happened. I got tease for being Chinese. Now we can get tease for making fun on the playground, but this was fundamentally different. And I knew right there. This kid, let‟s call him Brian. He started making fun of me, saying “ Chinese, Japanese, dirtyknees, look at this.” I can‟t believe you are laughing at it. It hurts. OK, I am just kidding. I can still remember how I felt. I felt ashamed. I felt embarrassed. But I laughed along with them, with everyone. I didn‟t know what else to do. It was like having a out-of-body experience, as if I could laugh at that Chinese kid on the playground with all the Americans because I was one of them. Right? Wrong. On many levels. And I was facing the first, but definitely not the last time, the harsh reality that I was in minority in Rochester, which in those days, an Asian population of 1%. And I was confused. I wanted to punch Brian. I want to hurt him for putting me in that situation. But he was faster than me and he was stronger than me. And he would kick my butt and we both knew that. So I just took it in. And I didn‟t tell anyone or share with anyone these feelings. I just held them in and I let them fester. And those feelings would surface in a strangely therapeutic way for me through music. And I wan coincidence that around that time I started getting good at violin, and guitar, and drums. And I soon discovered that by playing music or singing, other kids would, for brief moment, forget about my race and color and accept me and then be able to see me for who I truly am, a human being, who‟s emotional, spiritual and curious about the world and has the need for love, just like everyone else. By the six grade. Guess who asked me if I would be the drumer for his band? Brian. And I said yes. That‟s when we together formed our elementary rock band called Nirvana . I am not kidding. I was in the rock band called Nirvana before Kurt Cobain everyone knows. So when Nirvana came, Brain and I were like “Hey, he‟s stealing our name.” But, really what attracted me to music at this young age was just this and it still work. I love about music is that it breaks down the wall between us and shows us so quickly the truth that we are much more alike than we are different. And then in high school, I learned that music wasn‟t just connecting with other, like Brian and I were connected through music. It was a powerful tool of influence and inspiration. Sam Nguyen was my high school janitor, He was an immigrant from Vietnam who barely spoke a word of English. Sam scraped the floors and cleaned the bathrooms in our school for twenty years. And he never talked to the kids and the kids never talked to Sam. But one day, before our opening night of our school‟s annual musical, hewalked up to me, holding a letter. And I was taking a back. I was taking, “Why is Sam the janitor approaching me? And he gave me this letter that I have kept to this day. It was scrawled in a sha ky hand written in all capitals. And it read: “In all my years of working as a janitor at Sutherland, you are the first Asian boy to play the lead role. I am going to bring my six-year-old daughter to watch you perform tonight. Because I want her to see th at Asians can be inspiring.” And that letter just floored me. I was fifteen years old and I was absolutely stunned. That‟s the first time I realized how music was so important.With Brian, music helped two kids who were initially enemies become friends. But with Sam, music went beyond the one on one. It was a in a higher level. It influenced others I didn‟t even know in ways I can never imagine. I can‟t tell how grateful I am, just to Sam, the genitor, to this day. He really is one of the people who helped me discover my life‟s purpose. And I had no idea that something I did could mean more than I ever imagined to an immigrant from Vietnam who barely spoke English. Pop culture, music, and other methods of story telling, movies, TV dramas, they are so key and they do connect us like me and Brian and do influence us and inspire us.Then let‟s take another look at the stated union. The east-west union with this soft power bias. How is soft power exchanged between these two roommates? Are the songs in English that become hits in China? Sure. How about movies? Well, there are so many, that the China has the a limit of the number Hollywood movies imported in the country so that local movies can even have a chance at success. What about the flips(14:20) at that. The Chinese songs that have hit on the west. yeah! And movies. Well there was Crouching Tiger, that was thirteen years ago. And, well I think there is a bit of an imbalance here. And I think that‟s soft power deficit, let‟s call it then we look in this direction. That is to say, the west influences the east more than the vise versa. And forgive me for using east and west kind of loosely but I think it‟s easier to say to understand English-speaking language or the Ansian speaking language of Chinese, I‟m making generalization and I hope you can go with me on this. And is this [15:15]? the problems, this imbalance in pop culture influence. And I think so. I think in any healthy relationship or friendship or marriage, is it important for bothsides to make efforts to understand the other? And that exchange needs to have healthy balance. And how do we address this as an ambassador for Chinese pop nusic and movies, I have to ask myself the question, Why does this deficit exist? Is it because Chinese music is just lame? Don‟t answer that, please. Yeah, I can stop complaining ,write a hit song!Psy did it !But there is truth in that. And the argument being that the content we‟ve created just isn‟t as internationally competitive, and why should be? Well look at Korean pop, look at K pop for example. Korean is an export-based economy and they are outward looking. And they must be outward looking. Chinese pop, on the other hand, can just stay domestic, tour all over Chinese-speaking territories and comfortably sustain. So whe n you‟re that big and powerful, over 160 cities in China with a million or more people. It turned in kind of turn-inward and be complacent. So it certainly can be an argument made for Chinese pop being not marked with international sensibilities in mind. But the other side of the argument, I think is more interesting and thought provoking and even more true that ears aren‟t familiar with, therefore don‟t really understand how to appreciate Chinese music .Ouch! The reason I think the arguement hold water tho ugh is because that‟s exactly what I went through. So I happen to know a thing or two about learning to appreciate Chinese pop as a westerner. Cause I was 17 years old when I went from being a Asian kid in America to being an American kid in Asia. And the entire paradise I was in suddenly got flipped on its head. I grew up listening to BC Boys, Led Zeppelin,Guns and Roses. And I found myself in Taiwan, listening to the radio and thinking, “where is the B? Where is the screeching guitar solos?” Here I am a A merican kid in Asia, listening to Chiness music for the first time and thinking “this stuff is lamb. I don‟t like it.” I thought it was cheesy, production value is low, the singers couldn‟t bell like Axe or Rose, or Maria Carrie. But then one day, I went t o my first Chinese pop concert and it was Yu Chengqing, performing in the Taibei Music Center. And as he performed, I looked around the audience and I saw their faces. And I looked in their eyes and their responses to his music. And it was clear to me, fin ally, where the problem lay. It wasn‟t that the music was lacking. It was my ability to appreciate it and to hear it in the right way. The crowd, they were singingalong and be totally inmmersed in his music and I had an epiphany that I was missing the point. And from now on, I was going to somehow learn how to get it. I was going to learn how to hear with local ears and I deconstructed and analysed what it was made Chinese audiences connect with certain type of melodies, rhythms and song structures and lyr ics. That‟s what I‟ve been doing for the past almost twenty years. And it took me a long time and I am still learning. But to some point, I not only began to be able to appreciate the music, but also I started to be able to contribute to it and create my own fresh spins on the tried-and-true. And I think this happens to everyone, really, who is on the outside looking in, it always looks strange. If you look at things from your perspective, you will always think these people are weirdoes .What‟s wrong with them? Why are they listening to this stuff? And I am saying that you can make an effort and get it. It can be done and I am a living proof of that. And as an ambassador of Chinese pop, I am trying to get people to open up to a sound that they may not feel is palatable as they first listen.What else can we do to reduce imbalance in our popular cultures. Well maybe give a talk to Oxford union. Tour more outside of China. But seriously, actually I think the ties are already starting to change very slowly, very cautiously, almost calculatingly. You see more cross-culture now more exchange interest in China definitely a lot of joint ventures, a lot of co-productions in recently years, Iron Man 3, Transformers 53 . Resident Evil,really it‟s beginning to be kind of a world pop. And that‟s what I am looking forward to, that‟s what I am focusing on these days. There was J-pop, there was K-pop, there was C-pop. And there is like this W-pop That‟s kind of starting to emerge. This world pop. And I think. Yeah, I love that idea. It‟s not world music. There used to be a section HMV called world music .Now it‟s like ethnomusicology musical class in college. But world pop is more about breaking and tearing down age-old stereotypes, the artificial confines that have kept us apa rt for a way too long.It‟s a melting pot and it‟s mozic(21:00) that even when we look up close we will still see the colors and flavors of each culture in detail. And where can we go to listen to the world pop? I don‟t think there is a world pop station or a magazine unfortunately. there are none. There should be. But there is an Internet and Yutube has proven to be a drving force for world pop and Britain hasgot Talent, made Susan Boil the hottest act in the world. And she achieved that not through the record labors or the networks, but through grassroots sharing. Gangnam Style is another great example. How that just took over and became a huge worldwide world pop phenomenon. So world pop also suggests a worldwide pop culture and something that can be shared by all of us and give us a lot of common ground.So today, what‟s my called action? I want to help to prove and promote cultures exchange between the east and the west. I think I‟ve made that clear. But how? I think you can all be a pop singer. That‟s the answer.I am just kidding, unless that‟s really what you want to do. My call of action is this: build and protect that roommate-relationship between the east and the west. Value this relationship and take ownership of it. Don‟t come to Oxford as an excha nge student from Taiwan and only hang out with other Chinese students. Why would you do that? You could do that back in Wuhan or Nanjing or wherever you came from.Don‟t buy into the headlines or the stereotypes or in the hypernationalism . Think for yours elves ,and think for yourselves and don‟t believe the hype .For just a moment ,if we could just disregard the governments and what the media are saying ,just for the sake of the argument ,with our own tools of critical thinking ,can we build relationships that actually see one another as individual human beings and not faces or members of a particular ethnicity or nationality ? Of course we can do that .And that‟s the goal and dream ,I think of the romantic artists and the musicians ,I think it‟s always been there .And that‟s what I reach for ,and that makes music so powerful and so true ,that breaks down instantly and disintegrates all the artificial barriers that we create between each other ,government ,nationality ,black ,brown , yellow ,white ,whatever colour you are ,and shows each other our hearts ,our fears ,our hopes ,our dreams ,and it turns out in end that the East isn‟t that far after all ,and the west ,well the west ,aren‟t so white .and through understanding each other‟s popular cultures ,we gain insight into each other‟s heart and true selves.And for those of you who are just beginning that journey ,the west and east ,I want to invite you today on this amazing journey with me ,and I ,as an experienced traveler on this road ,on this West and Ea st road ,I‟ve prepared a mixtape for all of you today ,often songs that I love .There ,that‟s a C-pop mixtape that you can check out .I was gonna bring you all CDs but my publicist reminded me lovingly that would be illegal .that as a professional recordi ng artist ,I shouldn‟t do that .but I still think that it workshop out nicely because you get to see the music videos as well on a lot of these songs .these ten songs are songs that I love and ten different Chinese artists to start you off on getting to know and love Chinese pop and I think this got all *&.27‟12‟‟I just wanna wrap up by saying that being here in the Oxford campus really makes me nostalgic for my days at Williams and when I look back on those four years ,some of my finest memories are spending time with my roommates Stephan Papiano and and Jason Price. In fact Jason is here in the audience today ,and made this special trip from London just to see me. And I suppose in the beginning we were strangers ,who didn‟t know much about the other, and sometimes we did compete for the shower and there were times when we did intrude on each other‟s privacy, but I always loved listening to Stephan‟s stories about growing up in a Greek family and his opinions on what authentic Greek food really was; or Ja son‟s stories,about wanting to make violins and to live in Cremona, Italy like Antonio Stradivari and he did do that. And I will never forget many years later when I played a Jason Price handmade violin for the first time, and how that felt .They were always attentive and respectful when I tell them about what it was like for me growing up in a Chinese household with strict parents who made me study. So we shared stories ,but the strongest bonds between us were formed just sitting around and listening to music together. And I really do see that as a model for East and West, so that‟s why I wanna share Chinese music with you today because it‟s the best way I know how to create the lasting friendships that transcend all barriers and allow us to know each other truly ,authentically and just as we are .。