杨澜TED演讲中英文对照

杨澜

TED

演讲：重塑中国的年轻一代

The night before I was heading for Scotland, I was invited to host the final of

Talent

the performing guest? Susan Boyle. And I told her,

She sang beautifully, and she even managed to say a few words in Chinese:

送你葱

So

it's not like

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

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,

Miss

Yang,

do

you

have any

questions

to ask

me?

I

summoned

my

courage and poise and said,

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,

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,

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.

,

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

born

in

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 couples

will 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

of ants.

out

they

have

to

work

for

30

to

40

years

to

afford

their

first

apartment.

That

ratio

in

America would 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 networks they have learned in the cities,

with

the

assistance

of

the

Internet,

they're

able

to

create

more

jobs,

upgrade

local

agriculture

and

create

new

business

in

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 necessities has 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

corruption

or

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

frustration

among

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

governments to 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