演讲稿之21世纪英文报演讲比赛

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梁励敏

梁励敏

北京外国语大学

< br>梁励敏，生于浙江杭州，毕业于北京外国语大学，获英语语言文学

硕士学位，

研究生期间专攻方向为美国社会研究。

2002

年进入中央电

视台英语频道采访组工作，所采写的新闻获得

2003

年全国新闻彩虹

奖二等奖。

专家点评

:

引用文学大师的诗句作为开场白，

与结束语首尾呼应，

颇

有感染力。东西方文化的融合表现得十分鲜明，意味深长，是篇优秀

的演讲。

crossing the sea

good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. the title of my speech

today is crossing the sea. an english poet by the name of

rudyard kipling once wrote in his poem we and they:

all the people like us are we

and everyone else is they

we live over the sea

while they live over the way

we eat pork and beef with cowhorn- handled knives

they who gobble their rice off a leaf

are horrified out of their lives.

when these lines first caught my eyes, i was shocked-how

could two peoples remain so isolated and ignorant of each

other in the past? todays society, of course, is an entirely

different picture. those people who used to eat with

cowhorn-handled knives might be very skillful in using

chopsticks, and those people who used to gobble their rice

might be as well have taken to fish and chips.

indeed, just take china as an example: our modern life has

been influenced by western style of living in so many ways that

its no longer surprising to see teenagers going crazy about

rock-and- roll, whole families dining out at mcdonalds and even

rather elderly people dressed in apple jeans.

however, these are only some expressions of the cultural

changes taking place in our society today. what is really going

on is a subtle but significant restructuring of the nations

mentality. just look around.

how many college graduates are ready to compete

aggressively for every job opportunity, whereas not long ago

they were asked just to sit idle and wait for whatever was to be

assigned to them by the government?

how many young people are now eager to seek for an

independent life whereas only two decades ago they would rely

totally on their parents to arrange for their future? ask anyone

who participates in todays speech contest. who has not come

with a will to fight and who has not come determined to achieve

self-fulfillment in winning the game? and im quite certain that if

confucius had lived to see todays china, he would have been

horrified to see young lovers kissing each other in public

places in an ueserved expression of their passion.

it is therefore evident that we as descendants of an ancient

eastern civilization are already living under strong inf1uence of

the western culture. but it is not only in china that we find the

incorporation of the two cultures.

take the united states as an example: during the 1980s,in face

of the overwhelming competition from japan, many american

companies such as the ford began to adopt a teamwork

management from their rivals, the essence of which, lay at the

very core of eastern culture.

take the chinese acupuncture as another example: this

traditional treatment of diseases is finally finding its way to the

west and hence the underlying notion that illness is resulted

from the imbalance between yin and yang within the body -- an

idea which would strike any westerner as incredible in the past!

ladies and gentlemen, we live in a great epoch when the global

integration of economy and the information revolution have

brought cultures of the world closer than ever before. we live in

a particular era when countries, east and west, find themselves

in need of readjusting their traditional values. we live, at the

same time, at a critical juncture of our evolution because such

problems as ethnic conflicts and regional uest are increasingly

posing a threat to the peace and happiness of the whole human

race. to cope with such an era and to embrace an even brighter

future, we need to learn to live more harmoniously in a world

community which is becoming smaller and smaller.

my dear fellow students, our command of the english

language renders it possible for us to gain an insight into

western culture while retaining our own cultural identity.

therefore, it is our sacred responsibility to promote the cultural

exchanges and hence the mutual understanding between china

and the rest of the world.

it is my happiest dream that the new generation of chinese will

not only grow up drinking coca-cola and watching hollywood,

but also be blessed with the far- reaching benefits of multiple

cultures; benefits that our forefathers had never, ever dreamed

of.

to end my speech, i would like to quote rudyard kipling again:

all the people like us are we

and everyone else is they

but once you cross over the sea

you will end by looking on we

as only a sort of they thank you.