Yang Lan:The generation that's remaking China
The night before I was heading for Scotland,I was invited to host the final of"China's Got Talent"show in Shanghai with the 80,000 live audience in the stadium.Guess who was the performing guest?Susan Boyle.And I told her,"I'm going to Scotland the next day."She sang beautifully,and she even managed to say a few words in Chinese.[Chinese]So it's not like"hello"or"thank you,"that ordinary stuff.It means"green onion for free."Why did she say that?Because it was a line from our Chinese parallel Susan Boyle--a 50-some year-old woman,a vegetable vendor in Shanghai,who loves singing Western opera,but she didn't understand any English or French or Italian,so she managed to fill in the lyrics with vegetable names in Chinese.(Laughter)And the last sentence of Nessun Dorma that she was singing in the stadium was"green onion for free."So[as]Susan Boyle was saying that,80,000 live audience sang together.That was hilarious.
So I guess both Susan Boyle and this vegetable vendor in Shanghai belonged to otherness.They were the least expected to be successful in the business called entertainment,yet their courage and talent brought them through.And a show and a platform gave them the stage to realize their dreams.Well,being different is not that difficult.We are all different from different perspectives.But I think being different is good,because you present a different point of view.You may have the chance to make a difference.
My generation has been very fortunate to witness and participate in the historic transformation of China that has made so many changes in the past 20,30 years.I remember that in the year of 1990,when I was graduating from college,I was applying for a job in the sales department of the first five-star hotel in Beijing,Great Wall Sheraton--it's still there.So after being interrogated by this Japanese manager for a half an hour,he finally said,"So,Miss Yang,do you have any questions to ask me?"I summoned my courage and poise and said,"Yes,but could you let me know,what actually do you sell?"I didn't have a clue what a sales department was about in a five-star hotel.That was the first day I set my foot in a five-star hotel.
Around the same time,I was going through an audition--the first ever open audition by national television in China--with another thousand college girls.The producer told us they were looking for some sweet,innocent and beautiful fresh face.So when it was my turn,I stood up and said,"Why[do]women's personalities on television always have to be beautiful,sweet,innocent and,you know,supportive?Why can't they have their own ideas and their own voice?"I thought I kind of offended them.But actually,they were impressed by my words.And so I was in the second round of competition,and then the third and the fourth.After seven rounds of competition,I was the last one to survive it.So I was on a national television prime-time show.And believe it or not,that was the first show on Chinese television that allowed its hosts to speak out of their own minds without reading an approved script.(Applause)And my weekly audience at that time was between 200 to 300 million people.
Well after a few years,I decided to go to the U.S.and Columbia University to pursue my postgraduate studies,and then started my own media company,which was unthought of during the years that I started my career.So we do a lot of things.I've interviewed more than a thousand people in the past.And sometimes I have young people approaching me say,"Lan,you changed my life,"and I feel proud of that.But then we are also so fortunate to witness the transformation of the whole country.I was in Beijing's bidding for the Olympic Games.I was representing the Shanghai Expo.I saw China embracing the world and vice versa.But then sometimes I'm thinking,what are today's young generation up to?How are they different,and what are the differences they are going to make to shape the future of China,or at large,the world?
So today I want to talk about young people through the platform of social media.First of all,who are they?[What]do they look like?Well this is a girl called Guo Meimei--20 years old,beautiful.She showed off her expensive bags,clothes and car on her microblog,which is the Chinese version of Twitter.And she claimed to be the general manager of Red Cross at the Chamber of Commerce.She didn't realize that she stepped on a sensitive nerve and aroused national questioning,almost a turmoil,against the credibility of Red Cross.The controversy was so heated that the Red Cross had to open a press conference to clarify it,and the investigation is going on.
So far,as of today,we know that she herself made up that title--probably because she feels proud to be associated with charity.All those expensive items were given to her as gifts by her boyfriend,who used to be a board member in a subdivision of Red Cross at Chamber of Commerce.It's very complicated to explain.But anyway,the public still doesn't buy it.It is still boiling.It shows us a general mistrust of government or government-backed institutions,which lacked transparency in the past.And also it showed us the power and the impact of social media as microblog.
Microblog boomed in the year of 2010,with visitors doubled and time spent on it tripled.Sina.com,a major news portal,alone has more than 140 million microbloggers.On Tencent,200 million.The most popular blogger--it's not me--it's a movie star,and she has more than 9.5 million followers,or fans.About 80 percent of those microbloggers are young people,under 30 years old.And because,as you know,the traditional media is still heavily controlled by the government,social media offers an opening to let the steam out a little bit.But because you don't have many other openings,the heat coming out of this opening is sometimes very strong,active and even violent.
So through microblogging,we are able to understand Chinese youth even better.So how are they different?First of all,most of them were bornin the 80s and 90s,under the one-child policy.And because of selected abortion by families who favored boys to girls,now we have ended up with 30 million more young men than women.That could pose a potential danger to the society,but who knows;we're in a globalized world,so they can look for girlfriends from other countries.Most of them have fairly good education.The illiteracy rate in China among this generation is under one percent.In cities,80 percent of kids go to college.But they are facing an aging China with a population above 65 years old coming up with seven-point-some percent this year,and about to be 15 percent by the year of 2030.And you know we have the tradition that younger generations support the elders financially,and taking care of them when they're sick.So it means young coupleswill have to support four parents who have a life expectancy of 73 years old.
So making a living is not that easy for young people.College graduates are not in short supply.In urban areas,college graduates find the starting salary is about 400 U.S.dollars a month,while the average rent is above$500.So what do they do?They have to share space--squeezed in very limited space to save money--and they call themselves"tribe of ants."And for those who are ready to get married and buy their apartment,they figured out they have to work for 30 to 40 years to afford their first apartment.That ratio in Americawould only cost a couple five years to earn,but in China it's 30 to 40 years with the skyrocketing real estate price.
Among the 200 million migrant workers,60 percent of them are young people.They find themselves sort of sandwiched between the urban areas and the rural areas.Most of them don't want to go back to the countryside,but they don't have the sense of belonging.They work for longer hours with less income,less social welfare.And they're more vulnerable to job losses,subject to inflation,tightening loans from banks,appreciation of the renminbi,or decline of demand from Europe or America for the products they produce.Last year,though,an appalling incident in a southern OEM manufacturing compound in China:13 young workers in their late teens and early 20s committed suicide,just one by one like causing a contagious disease.But they died because of all different personal reasons.But this whole incident aroused a huge outcry from society about the isolation,both physical and mental,of these migrant workers.
For those who do return back to the countryside,they find themselves very welcome locally,because with the knowledge,skills and networksthey have learned in the cities,with the assistance of the Internet,they're able to create more jobs,upgrade local agriculture and create new businessin the less developed market.So for the past few years,the coastal areas,they found themselves in a shortage of labor.
These diagrams show a more general social background.The first one is the Engels coefficient,which explains that the cost of daily necessitieshas dropped its percentage all through the past decade,in terms of family income,to about 37-some percent.But then in the last two years,it goes up again to 39 percent,indicating a rising living cost.The Gini coefficient has already passed the dangerous line of 0.4.Now it's 0.5--even worse than that in America--showing us the income inequality.And so you see this whole society getting frustrated about losing some of its mobility.And also,the bitterness and even resentment towards the rich and the powerful is quite widespread.So any accusations of corruptionor backdoor dealings between authorities or business would arouse a social outcry or even unrest.
So through some of the hottest topics on microblogging,we can see what young people care most about.Social justice and government accountability runs the first in what they demand.For the past decade or so,a massive urbanization and development have let us witness a lot of reports on the forced demolition of private property.And it has aroused huge anger and frustrationamong our young generation.Sometimes people get killed,and sometimes people set themselves on fire to protest.So when these incidents are reported more and more frequently on the Internet,people cry for the government to take actions to stop this.
So the good news is that earlier this year,the state council passed a new regulation on house requisition and demolition and passed the right to order forced demolition from local governmentsto the court.Similarly,many other issues concerning public safety is a hot topic on the Internet.We heard about polluted air,polluted water,poisoned food.And guess what,we have faked beef.They have sorts of ingredients that you brush on a piece of chicken or fish,and it turns it to look like beef.And then lately,people are very concerned about cooking oil,because thousands of people have been found[refining]cooking oil from restaurant slop.So all these things have aroused a huge outcry from the Internet.And fortunately,we have seen the government responding more timely and also more frequently to the public concerns.
While young people seem to be very sure about their participation in public policy-making,but sometimes they're a little bit lost in terms of what they want for their personal life.China is soon to pass the U.S.as the number one market for luxury brands--that's not including the Chinese expenditures in Europe and elsewhere.But you know what,half of those consumers are earning a salary below 2,000 U.S.dollars.They're not rich at all.They're taking those bags and clothes as a sense of identity and social status.And this is a girl explicitly saying on a TV dating show that she would rather cry in a BMW than smile on a bicycle.But of course,we do have young people who would still prefer to smile,whether in a BMW or[on]a bicycle.
So in the next picture,you see a very popular phenomenon called"naked"wedding,or"naked"marriage.It does not mean they will wear nothing in the wedding,but it shows that these young couples are ready to get married without a house,without a car,without a diamond ring and without a wedding banquet,to show their commitment to true love.And also,people are doing good through social media.And the first picture showed us that a truck caging 500 homeless and kidnapped dogsfor food processing was spotted and stopped on the highway with the whole country watchingthrough microblogging.People were donating money,dog food and offering volunteer work to stop that truck.And after hours of negotiation,500 dogs were rescued.And here also people are helping to find missing children.A father posted his son's picture onto the Internet.After thousands of[unclear],the child was found,and we witnessed the reunion of the family through microblogging.
So happiness is the most popular word we have heard through the past two years.Happiness is not only related to personal experiences and personal values,but also,it's about the environment.People are thinking about the following questions:Are we going to sacrifice our environment further to produce higher GDP?How are we going to perform our social and political reform to keep pace with economic growth,to keep sustainability and stability?And also,how capable is the systemof self-correctness to keep more people contentwith all sorts of friction going on at the same time?I guess these are the questions people are going to answer.And our younger generation are going to transform this country while at the same time being transformed themselves.Thank you very much.
楊瀾TED演講:重塑中國(guó)的一代中文演講稿
在來(lái)愛(ài)爾蘭的前一晚,我應(yīng)邀主持了中國(guó)達(dá)人秀在上海的體育場(chǎng)和八萬(wàn)現(xiàn)場(chǎng)觀眾。猜猜誰(shuí)是表演嘉賓?——蘇珊大媽。我告訴她,“我明天要去愛(ài)爾蘭了。”她歌聲猶如天籟。而且她還可以說(shuō)點(diǎn)中文。“送你蔥。”這不是“你好、謝謝”之類的日常用語(yǔ)。這組詞翻譯過(guò)來(lái)是免費(fèi)給你青蔥,為什么她要說(shuō)這個(gè)呢?因?yàn)檫@是我們中國(guó)版的蘇珊大媽很有名的一句歌詞。這位五十幾歲的大媽在上海以販賣蔬菜為生。她喜歡西方的歌劇,但是她不懂任何外語(yǔ),所以她就把中文蔬菜名填做歌詞。當(dāng)她在體育場(chǎng)里唱到今夜無(wú)人入眠的最后一句時(shí),她唱的是“送你蔥”。蘇珊大媽和全場(chǎng)八萬(wàn)觀眾一起唱“送你蔥”,多有意思的場(chǎng)面。
我想蘇珊大媽和這位在上海做蔬菜買賣的都屬于不同尋常的人。在業(yè)界所謂的娛樂(lè)圈,他們最不可能取得成功,但是他們的勇氣和才華讓他們成功了。一場(chǎng)秀,一個(gè)平臺(tái)給了他們實(shí)現(xiàn)夢(mèng)想的舞臺(tái)。與眾不同不難,從不同的角度看我們都是不一樣的。我認(rèn)為與眾不同是好的,因?yàn)槟阌胁煌目捶?這給你機(jī)會(huì)去產(chǎn)生不同的影響。我們這代人有幸見(jiàn)證和參與了過(guò)去二三十年中國(guó)的歷史性的轉(zhuǎn)型。我記得在九十年代,剛從大學(xué)畢業(yè)的我申請(qǐng)了一份在北京五星級(jí)酒店銷售部的工作。在日本經(jīng)理一個(gè)半小時(shí)的面試后,他最后說(shuō):“楊小姐,你有什么問(wèn)題要問(wèn)我嗎?”我鼓起勇氣,定定神然后問(wèn)道:“您能告訴我銷售部到底銷售什么?”我對(duì)于五星級(jí)酒店的銷售部的職責(zé)一點(diǎn)都摸不著頭腦。那是我在五星級(jí)酒店的第一天。
同時(shí),我和上千名大學(xué)女生參加了一場(chǎng)由中國(guó)中央電視臺(tái)舉辦的史無(wú)前例的公開(kāi)選拔。制作人告訴我們他們想找一位可愛(ài),天真,美麗的新面孔。當(dāng)輪到我時(shí),我站起來(lái)說(shuō)道,“為什么女孩在電視上必須是漂亮,甜美,無(wú)邪的,像個(gè)花瓶?為什么她們不能有她們的想法,她們自己的聲音?”我想我一定得罪了評(píng)委。但是事實(shí)上,我的發(fā)言給他們留下了深刻的印象。接下來(lái)我進(jìn)入了第二輪的選拔,然后是第三輪,第四輪。在經(jīng)過(guò)七輪的選拔后,我勝出了。成為了一個(gè)國(guó)家電視臺(tái)黃金時(shí)段節(jié)目的主持人。不管你們相不相信,那是中國(guó)電視上第一個(gè)節(jié)目可以允許主持人自由發(fā)揮而不是去讀審查后的稿子。這個(gè)節(jié)目的觀眾人數(shù)高達(dá)兩到三千萬(wàn)。
幾年后,我決定去美國(guó)哥倫比亞大學(xué)進(jìn)修。之后我有了自己的傳媒公司,這是在我剛畢業(yè)的時(shí)候想都不敢想的。我和我的團(tuán)隊(duì)做了很多事情。在過(guò)去的這些年,我采訪了上千人。有時(shí)候有年輕人走過(guò)來(lái)對(duì)我說(shuō):“楊瀾,你改變了我的生活。”我也為此而自豪。接下來(lái)我們一起見(jiàn)證了中國(guó)更多的變化。我參與了北京申奧,出席了上海世博會(huì)。我看到中國(guó)擁抱世界,世界接納中國(guó)„„但是有時(shí)候我在想,當(dāng)今的年輕人追求什么?他們有什么不同?他們?nèi)绾稳?chuàng)造中國(guó)的未來(lái),往大了說(shuō),世界的未來(lái)?今天我想講講在社交媒體這個(gè)大舞臺(tái)上的年輕人他們是誰(shuí)?他們是怎樣的?這個(gè)二十歲左右的漂亮女孩叫郭美美。她在中國(guó)版的推特--微博上炫耀她擁有的昂貴的手包,衣服,車子。她自稱是紅十字商會(huì)的經(jīng)理。她沒(méi)有意識(shí)到她踩到了一根敏感的神經(jīng),引起了全民對(duì)于紅十字公信力的質(zhì)疑。如此激烈的質(zhì)問(wèn)使得紅十字會(huì)不得不召開(kāi)記者招待會(huì)進(jìn)行澄清,并且伴隨著調(diào)查的展開(kāi)。
至此,我們知道是她自己編造的頭銜,大概是覺(jué)得和慈善有關(guān)事件有面子的事情。所有的奢侈品都是她的男朋友送給她的,她男朋友曾經(jīng)是紅十字下屬商會(huì)的董事成員。這個(gè)關(guān)系解釋起來(lái)太復(fù)雜了。但是不管怎么說(shuō),公眾不買賬。這個(gè)話題始終熱議與街頭巷尾。這件事揭示了公眾對(duì)于缺乏透明度的政府及政府機(jī)構(gòu)普遍的不信任。微博在2010火了起來(lái)。玩微博的人翻了一番,織微博的時(shí)間也是過(guò)去的三倍了。單單新浪這個(gè)主要的新聞門(mén)戶網(wǎng)站就擁有一千四百萬(wàn)微博使用者。騰訊有兩千萬(wàn)。首屈一指的微博,不是我,是一個(gè)電影明星,她擁有超過(guò)95萬(wàn)粉絲。大約百分之八十的微博使用者是三十歲以下的年輕人。如你所知,傳統(tǒng)媒體依然由政府掌控,社交媒體給人們一個(gè)宣泄的小出口。因?yàn)闆](méi)有更多的宣泄渠道,來(lái)自社交媒體的宣泄是強(qiáng)大的,積極的,甚至是暴力的。
通過(guò)微博我們可以更好的了解中國(guó)的年輕人。他們有怎樣的不同?首先他們中的大多數(shù)出生于獨(dú)生子女政策開(kāi)始實(shí)施的上世紀(jì)八九十年代。因?yàn)楹芏嗉彝ハ矚g男孩多于女孩,現(xiàn)在我們年輕男性多于年輕女性近三百萬(wàn)。這可能造成社會(huì)潛在的危險(xiǎn),可是誰(shuí)知道呢?在這個(gè)全球化的時(shí)代,他們可以找別的國(guó)家的女孩做女朋友。他們中的大多數(shù)接受了很好的教育。文盲率在這一代人低于百分之一。在城市,百分之八十的孩子進(jìn)入大學(xué)。
但是老齡化問(wèn)題也不容忽視。今年的統(tǒng)計(jì)顯示超過(guò)六十五歲的人占總?cè)丝诘陌俜种?到2030年將達(dá)到百分之十五,你們知道在我們的傳統(tǒng)文化中年輕人要贍養(yǎng)老人。這就意味著年輕的夫婦要贍養(yǎng)四位平均壽命為七十三歲的老人。
因此養(yǎng)家糊口對(duì)于年輕人并不是件輕松的事。大學(xué)畢業(yè)生并非供不應(yīng)求。在城市,大學(xué)畢業(yè)生的起薪大約四百美元一個(gè)月,可是僅僅房租就要超過(guò)五百美元一個(gè)月。這讓他們?cè)趺磻?yīng)對(duì)?他們不得不合租,為了省房租擠在逼仄的小房間里,他們稱自己為蟻?zhàn)濉６鴮?duì)于那些將要結(jié)婚的并且準(zhǔn)備買房的年輕人,他們必須要工作三十到四十年才能負(fù)擔(dān)起自己的第一套公寓。當(dāng)對(duì)于美國(guó)人來(lái)說(shuō)只需要五年就能負(fù)擔(dān)得起,但是面對(duì)中國(guó)奇高的房?jī)r(jià)卻需要三十到四十年。
在兩千萬(wàn)外來(lái)務(wù)工者中,有百分之六十的人是年輕人。他們?nèi)缤粔K三明治被夾在城市和鄉(xiāng)村中間。大多數(shù)都不愿再回到鄉(xiāng)下,但是他們?cè)诔鞘袇s沒(méi)有歸屬感。超時(shí)工作,低薪,無(wú)法享受社會(huì)福利。受通貨膨脹,銀根緊縮,人民幣升值的影響,他們生產(chǎn)的產(chǎn)品在歐美國(guó)家的需求量下降,這使他們更容易失業(yè)。去年,在南方某個(gè)OEM生產(chǎn)原地發(fā)生了駭人聽(tīng)聞的事件:十三個(gè)年紀(jì)在二十歲左右的工人自殺,一個(gè)接著一個(gè)的自殺仿佛感染了傳染性疾病。雖然他們的自殺的原因各有不同,可是這個(gè)事件引起了巨大的社會(huì)輿論,對(duì)于外來(lái)務(wù)工人員在身體上,精神上的隔離,對(duì)于那些回到鄉(xiāng)下的打工者,他們受到了當(dāng)?shù)氐臒崃覛g迎。這是因?yàn)樗麄冊(cè)诔鞘兄兴鶎W(xué)到的知識(shí)技能,在網(wǎng)絡(luò)的幫助下,讓他們能夠創(chuàng)造更多的工作機(jī)會(huì),提升當(dāng)?shù)氐霓r(nóng)業(yè)發(fā)展水平,在欠發(fā)達(dá)地區(qū)創(chuàng)造新的商機(jī)。因此,在沿海地區(qū)發(fā)生了勞動(dòng)力缺乏的問(wèn)題。從一方面看起來(lái),年輕人已參與到公共政策的制定中,但是從另一方面看,他們對(duì)于自己個(gè)人生活的需要有著些許的迷失。中國(guó)會(huì)超過(guò)美國(guó)成為世界第一的奢侈品消費(fèi)市場(chǎng),這還不包括中國(guó)人在歐洲及其他地區(qū)的消費(fèi)。但是你知道嗎?半數(shù)的消費(fèi)者的薪水低于兩千美元。他們一點(diǎn)都不富裕。他們把這些包,衣服作為標(biāo)榜他們身份和社會(huì)地位的象征。在一檔電視約會(huì)秀中,一個(gè)女孩直白的說(shuō)她寧愿在寶馬車中哭泣也不愿在自行車上笑。當(dāng)然,我們有年輕人喜歡笑,不管在寶馬車中還是自行車上。
在下一張圖片里,你看到一個(gè)非常流行的現(xiàn)象叫做”裸婚“。這不是說(shuō)他們?cè)诨槎Y上不穿衣服,這是在說(shuō)即使沒(méi)有房子,車子,沒(méi)有鉆石戒指和盛大的婚禮,這些年輕夫婦也愿意結(jié)成連理,顯示他們對(duì)于愛(ài)情的承諾。通過(guò)社交媒體,人們做著好的事。第一張圖片告訴我們,整個(gè)國(guó)家通過(guò)微博看到了這裝有500只將用于食品加工的流浪狗的卡車被發(fā)現(xiàn)并且截停在高速公路上。人們自愿捐款,送狗糧并且自愿去截停這輛卡車。在數(shù)小時(shí)的協(xié)商下,五百只流浪狗被解救了。還有人幫助尋找走失的小孩。一位父親在網(wǎng)上上傳了兒子的照片。在成千上萬(wàn)的轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)后,孩子找到了,我們也通過(guò)微博見(jiàn)證了這家人的重聚。
在過(guò)去的兩年里幸福是我們聽(tīng)到的最流行的詞。幸福不僅僅是個(gè)人的經(jīng)歷和個(gè)人價(jià)值,幸福也關(guān)乎環(huán)境。人們?cè)谒伎歼@樣的問(wèn)題:我們真的要為了更高的GDP去犧牲我們的環(huán)境嗎?我們?nèi)绾卧趯?shí)施我們社會(huì)政治改革的同時(shí),保持經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)的可持續(xù)性和穩(wěn)定性?一個(gè)系統(tǒng)的自我更正能力如何讓更多的人對(duì)于同時(shí)發(fā)生的各種摩擦滿意?我想這些問(wèn)題將會(huì)被解答。我們年輕的一代在改變自己的同時(shí)也必將改變這個(gè)國(guó)家。謝謝。
「標(biāo)簽: ted演講稿」
