一键复制
演讲稿也叫演讲词，是指在群众集会上或会议上发表讲话的文稿。演讲稿是进行宣传经常使用的一种文体。演讲的作用是表达个人的主张与见解，介绍一些学习、工作中的情况、经验，以便互相交流思想和感情。我们想要好好写一篇演讲稿，可是却无从下手吗？那么下面我就给大家讲一讲演讲稿怎么写才比较好，我们一起来看一看吧。
王力宏牛津大学演讲稿分析 王力宏牛津演讲的评析篇一
thank you all for being here today and the as well. thank you for coming in quietly.
谢谢在座的各位，谢谢晚来的同学，也谢谢你们悄悄的进来。
i wanna start off today just to the sichuan earthquake and also for the victims of the boston marathon bombing. thank you.
今天开始之前，我想要先为四川地震的灾民们以及波士顿马拉松爆炸事件的受害者们默哀。让我们用一分钟时间，为他们祈福。
谢谢你们。
, of the oxford union, without a guitar or an erhu, without my crazy stage hair, costumes. but i did perform in the o2 arena in london last week. i am not sure if any of you were able to make that. but in many ways, that was similar to what im talking about today, that is, introducing chinese pop music here.
尊敬的各位牛津大学辩论会和牛津大学亚太学生会的同学们，万万想不到会以这样的方式跟你们相聚。没有吉他和二胡，没有夸张的舞台装也没有“火力全开”头。不过上周确实在伦敦的o2体育馆表演过了。不知道大家有没有去看呢。 但是，从各方面来说，这些跟我们今天的话题都有密切的关联。那就是-介绍华流音乐。
see, . its not the oxford union. its the union of east and west. i wanna frankly, openly and honestly talk about how weve done a good job or how weve done a bad job of bringing chinese pop to the west. and i also
其实无论我喜不喜欢，我都被认为在代表者华流音乐以及电影。那么今天，我就要来做一次“国情咨文”报告了。但是，这个“国”不是牛津，而是东西方的一个联合体。我想跟你们聊一聊，我们在将华语音乐引入西方社会方面所做的事情，无论是成就，还是不足。我都会坦诚布公。同时，我也想借此机会给你们留下这样一个印记：软实力交流的重要性以及它同我们每个人的相关程度。
soft power, a term i am sure you are all familiar with this point
软实力这个词我相信大家都不陌生。这个概念是由rhodes scholar 和牛津校友joseph nye 提出的。
被定义为一种“吸引”和“说服”的能力。
shashi tharoor called it, in a recent ted talk,
shashi tharoor 在最近的一次ted演讲中把它定义为“一种文化让其他文化在听了他动人的故事之后受到影响并爱上这种文化”的能力。
我很喜欢这个定义。
but i want to put it in collegiate term for all you students in the audience: the way i see it, east and west are kinda like freshman roommates.
但是我想用贴近你们在做大学生们的方式来解释这个词。在我看来，东方跟西方在某种程度上，像是两个大一刚入学的新生舍友。
and each one is scared that the others gonna
两个几乎陌生的人，突然来到同一个屋檐下，其中一个总是怕另一个会跟他抢洗澡的时间，或者在他想要学习的时候大开趴体。
heard about those stories. i know a lot of students here in oxford have your own separate bedrooms. but when i was a freshman at williams college,
这种关系很可能就变成跟地狱一样了，不是么？“我的室友是极品”的故事大家都讲得出来。这些事我都有耳闻。还有我知道牛津这儿的很多同学都一人一间的对吧，但是，在我刚上威廉姆斯学院的时候，我并不幸运，而且人身安全堪忧。
(you are kidding me. woo-hoo! all right, all right！great. )哇，你还真的是我们学校的！好吧，好棒！
well, i had a roommate, and he was that roommate. and . and he did it every day.
我当时就有一个这样的极品舍友，让我们暂且叫他frank。这个frank 就是那种好像除了抽没有别的爱好的人。而且他每天都抽。
and frank had a two-foot long bong under his bed that was constantly being fired up. for those chiese speakers in the audience. frank would “火力全开” on that bong every day.
他床底下有一个两英尺长的烟斗，持续不断的得点着。给在做讲中文的同学们形容下，就是他每天会对着那个烟斗火力全开
all right 好吧。
so, i guess i was kinda of the opposite of bill clinton who “tried marijuana but didnt inhale”. second hand. and strangely enough every time i dwelt into our bedroom, it was like “dude, it is already ten oclock”.
我可能在这点上算是跟bill clinton 相反吧。bill clinton 是那种“我试过，但我不上瘾。”我不抽，但是我每天都在吸啊吸，而且还是二手的。奇怪的是，只要我在我们的卧室里，我最后都会稀里糊涂地上课迟到。我也不知道怎么回事。我当时就是那副吸了的样子，嘿，已经十点了吗？
but it also has the potential for being the greatest friendship youve ever had. see, frank, and i got two new roommates second year, stephen and jason. and in this day, the three of us are the best friends.
你们中有多少人有过frank那样的舍友呢？或者，你们也像他一样。所以有一个室友可能是一场灾难的开始。但也可能会酿造一段非凡的友谊。frank第二年就辍学了。于是我换了两个新的舍友，stefan 和 jason。如今，我们三个是铁哥们。
so going back to my analogy, of east and west as roommates. do we want to be frank, or do we want to be stephen and jasonand i think, in this day and age of 2013, should we…
回过头来看我的那个类比，我们东方和西方的舍友。是应该成为frank那样的存在，还是想像stefan 和 jason那样呢？我认为在当时当下，在2013，我们应该努力成为后者。我们应该， 我是说，我想在这一目标上我们是可以达成共识的，对吧？
china’s victim complex. , the agence
france-presse, human rights in china worsening us finds. bloomberg says, on the cover of its magazine, “yes, the chinese army is spying on you.”
那么，回过头来，正视我们在现实中的处境。看看最近的新闻头条：《外交政策》杂志上的，“中国的受害者情节：为何中国领导人如此猜忌美国”或者法新社的财经杂志《彭博商业周刊》上说，“没错，中国军队正在测探你。”
and its such a great one that i just want to show you the cover of the magazine. yes. be very afraid! ok, is it shown to you rightok.
这个特别逗，我来给你们展示一下这封面。是的，特别恐慌有木有！方向那对的吧，嗯，对的。当今对于中国有太多的负面东西。恐华情绪很严重。我觉得这种现象不仅是一种误传同时也是一种误导。这是很可怕的，超级可怕。
and what about how westerners are viewed by chinese. the most common of which are gweilo in cantonese, which means “the old devil”, lao wai, meaning the old outsider in mandarin, ang moh, which means the “red hairy one” in taiwanese. the list goes on and on. so are these roommates headed for a best friend relationship. and as china rises to be global power, 那么，中国人又是如何看待西方的呢？我们对西方人的称呼五花八门。大家熟知的有：香港人叫他们“鬼佬”，字面上就是“老妖”。大陆人叫他们老外，字面上就是“蛮夷”。还有台湾人叫他们“红毛”。还真说不完呢。这看上去像是能发展成一段最佳友谊的舍友关系吗？我认为我们得治治病。随着中国实力不断强大，看清楚应该相信什么这一点空前重要。因为，归根结底，这就是高等教育的目的。
r own decisions. chinas not just those headlines, the burgeoning economy of the unique politics. its not just the worlds factory or the next big superpower, its so much more. a billion people with rich culture, amazing stories and as a product of both of those cultures, 这就是我们坐在这里的原因：有能力独立思考，自主选择。中国当然不能通过那些新闻头条来定义。也不只是所谓的特殊政策下快速增长的经济。中国不仅仅是一个世界工厂，也不仅仅是未来超级大国。中国的意义价值远大于此。一个拥有十几亿人口，丰富悠久的历史文化与传奇故事的民族。作为中西两种文化的共同产物，我特别想要帮忙在两种文化之间培养起一种互相的理解，建立起一种很美好的情谊。
because knowing both sides of the coin, i really think that and when i said love story because i believe it is, the stories that will save us, will bring us together. and my thesis statement for todays talk is that, 但凡事都有两面，所以我认为这背后蕴含着一个亟待讲述的爱情故事。我说“爱情故事”不完全在说笑。因为我相信，这些关于爱的故事能够拯救我们，把我们凝聚在一起。我今天讲的主题就是，通过流行文化修复东西方世界的关系。好宏伟的计划有木有啊！我会想办法讲明白的。
the un secretary general bunki boo said: civilizations of other people. in this era of instability and intolerance, we need to promote better understanding through the power of music.
联合国秘书长潘基文说过，在音乐的世界里，沟通时无需语言的。这就是音乐的力量。这就是人心的力量。通过发扬艺术，我们才能够更好的了解其他民族的文明与文化。在这个动荡不安，人与人之间不甚宽容的年代，我们需要利用音乐的力量来更好的了解彼此。
now the un secretary general thinks we need more music, and i think he is right. music and arts have always played the key role in my life in building relationships, replacing what once was the ignorance, fear and hatred with acceptance, friendships and even love. .
联合国秘书长认为我们需要更多的音乐。这一点我很赞同。音乐和艺术一直在我的生命中占据着很重要的地位。音乐和艺术的力量能够帮助建立人与人之间的关系，用包容，友谊和爱来驱逐因为无知的仇恨而产生的恐惧。在不同文化之间推广音乐这一点上，我自己的童年时期的经历是一个最好的例证。
. i didnt know the difference between taiwan or thailand. i was…
playground, the inevitable finally happened. now every kid gets teased or made fun on the playground, this kid, lets call him bryan m. he started making fun of me, saying “ chinese, japanese, dirty knees, look at these.” 我在纽约的罗切斯特长大，几乎不会说中文。我连“台湾”和“泰国”这两个词都分不清楚。那是真的！我那时是个地地道道的美国人。直到我上了三年级，有一天在操场上，不可避免的事情终于发生了。因为中国人的血统，我第一次被人嘲笑了。当然一起玩的小孩都会互相戏弄开玩笑，但这次绝对不同。这点当时我立马就感觉到了。我们暂且管那个孩子叫bryan m吧。它开始嘲笑我说，中国人，日本人，脏膝盖，快来看。（英文还押韵）你们居然还笑，我太受伤了！好吧，我只是开个玩笑。我依然能够记得我当时的感觉。我感觉特别丢脸，特别尴尬。
them. right但是我当时跟着所有其他人一直在笑。年幼的我并不知道该怎么办。当时感觉好像灵魂出窍一样。好像我能够和操场上其他美国孩子一起嘲笑中国人，我就是他们当中一员了。这种想法可取吗？当然不可取，而且是大错特错。
which in those days had an asian population of one percent.
那是我第一次感受到一件残酷而现实的事实。我属于一个少数群体，但那绝不是最后一次。在那个时代的罗切斯特，亚洲人口特别少，几乎之占当地人口的百分之一。
but he was faster than me and he was stronger than me. . and time i started getting good with the violin, the guitar, and the drums. and i would soon discover that by playing music or singing, other kids would, for a brief moment, forget about my race or color and accept me and then be able to see me for who i truly am, a human being whos emotional, spiritual, curious about the world and has a need for love, 我当时心里很乱，我很想把bryan 打一顿。他让我陷入那种窘境，因此我也要让他难过。但是他身材比我壮，出手也比我快。如果和他打架，我一定会被揍得更惨。这一点我们都知道。所以我就忍了下来。我从来没有告诉过别人。也没发泄什么感受。一直自己忍着，想让他们烂在心底就好了。后来慢慢地，这些感受在音乐里竟然十分巧妙地把我治愈了。我那个时候对小提琴，吉他，鼓都越来越得心应手，当然不是巧合。我渐渐发现，当我演奏或者唱歌的时候，其他孩子便会忘记我的种族或我的肤色。而真正接受我，了解真正的我，哪怕只是一小会。每当这个时候，他们就会发现，我跟他们都是一样的人。我也对世界充满感性的好奇和想象，我也需要爱。
and by the six grade, guess who asked me if i would be the drummer for his bandbrian. and i said yes. and thats when we together formed the elementary school rock band called nirvana. i am not kidding. i wan in the rock band called nirvana before kurt cobains nirvana was ever known. so when nirvana came out, bryan and i were like “hey, hes stealing our name.” but, really what attracted me to music at this young age was just this and its still what i love about music is that connected through music. 到了六年级的时候，猜猜谁拉我加入他的乐队当鼓手？对，就是bryan，我答应了。于是bryan跟我一起，组成了我们小学的摇滚乐队：涅槃乐队。是真的我没开玩笑。我们的乐队在科特柯本的涅槃乐队之前就有了。所以后来涅槃乐队出道的时候，我跟bryan还嚷嚷，嘿，他盗用我们的名字！所以在那么小的时候，我就发现了音乐的迷人之处。当然这迷人之处也是我至今热爱音乐的原因之一。那就是，音乐能打破人与人之间的隔阂，能让我们那么快就看到彼此的相似点，而不是那些不同之处。后来上了高中，我学到了更多，音乐不仅仅能够沟通彼此，就像我跟bryan通过音乐结缘一样。它同时也是一股强大的影响他人，激励他人的力量。
sam wayne was my high school sam scrubbed 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 the opening night of our schools annual musical, holding a letter. and i was taken aback. i was thinking, “ . it was scrawled in a shaky hand written in all in capitals. and i read: “in all my years of working as a genitor at sutherland, you are the first asian boy that played the lead role. i am gonna bring my six-year-old daughter and that letter. thats the first time i realized how music was so important.
sam wayne是我们学校的门卫。他是越南侨民。几乎从来不说英语。sam在我们学校做了二十几年的清洁工，擦地板，扫厕所。却从来没跟学生们说过话。学生们也从不跟他说话。但是一天，我们学校一年一度的音乐节前夕，sam找到我，手里拿着一封信。我吓坏了，心里琢磨，门卫sam找我会有什么事？于是他递给了我那封我至今保存的信。一看就是用颤抖的手写下的潦草字迹。全都是大写字母，信上写着，我在这个学校当了那么多年门卫，你是我见过的第一个担纲主唱的亚洲男孩。我今晚要带我六岁的女儿来看你的演出。因为我想要她看到，我们亚洲人也可以带给人好多正能量。我真的被那封信震惊了。十五岁的我当时就惊呆了。我第一次意识到，原来音乐如此重要。
with bryan, music helped two kids who were initially enemies become friends. but with sam, it was even a higher level. who barely spoke english. pop culture, music, and the other methods of story telling, movies, tv dramas, they are so key and they do connect us like me and bryan and do influence us and inspire us.
在bryan那儿，他让两个本来是敌人的孩子成为了朋友，然而在sam这里，音乐的意义超过了个体的范畴，达到了一个更好的层次。音乐以我想不到的方式影响到我甚至完全不认识的人。我从头至尾对门卫sam的感激是无法用语言来形容的。他真的算是帮助我发掘人生目标的人之一。我从来不知道我的一个小小的行为，能够对这样一位甚至从来不说英文的越南侨民产生如此大的影响。流行文化，音乐以及任何一种讲述故事的方式包括电影，电视剧，他们都是如此的重要，连接着我们。比如bryan和我，又真的在影响着我们，激励着我们。
power exchange between these two roommatesare the songs in english that become hits in chinafor sure. how about movieswell, there are so many…that china has had to limit the number hollywood movies imported into the country in the westwell…(yes!)
回过头来再看看这个东西方的联合体，是存在一种软实力偏向的。东方和西方这两个“舍友”之间的软实力交流会是什么样子的呢？有没有在中国很红的英文歌呢？当然有。英文电影呢？那就太多了。多到中国不得不限制好莱坞电影的引入，来给本土电影制造些成功的机会。那么反过来，又在西方很红的华语歌曲吗？
heheha,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 its a soft-power deficit, lets call that. i mean look in this direction. that is to say, the west influences the east more than vice versa. and forgive me for using east and west kind of loosely but i think its a lot easier to state this than english-speaking language or the asian speaking language… chinese, or cantonese specifically, i think im making a generalization i hope you can go with me on this.
观众：江南style！王：哈哈，没错，还有电影。比如卧虎藏龙，那也是十三年前的事了。我觉得这当中有一种不平衡存在。我认为这是一种软实力赤字，就这么叫吧。当我们放眼这个方向的时候，也就是说，西方对东方的影响远远大于东方对西方的。原谅我这里把东方和西方这两个词用的这么随意。因为这比说，以英语为第一语言的国家，讲中文或讲粤语的地区，这样的话方便点。我在使用一种概况化的表达方式。希望你们能理解。
and its interestingly a problem with this imbalance in pop cultural influence. and i think so. i think in any healthy relationship or friendship or marriage, isnt it important for both sides to make an effort to understand the otherand that this exchange needs to have a healthy balance.
王力宏牛津大学演讲稿分析 王力宏牛津演讲的评析篇二
i never thought i would be addressing you, the esteemed members of the oxford union, without a guitar or an erhu, without my crazy stage hair and costumes, but i did perform in the o2 arena in london last week. i’m not sure if any of you [x]…
but in many ways that is similar to what i’m talking about today, that is, introducing chinese pop music. see, i’m actually an ambassador for chinese pop, whether i like it or not, for both music and movies, and today i’m here to give you a state of union address. it’s not the oxford union, it’s the union of east and west.
i want to frankly and openly and honestly talk about how 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 impress upon all of you here today the workings of that soft power exchange and how each of us is involved in that exchange.
soft power, a term i’m sure you’re all familiar with, coined by rhodes scholar and oxford alumnus joseph nye, is defined as the ability to attract and persuade. shashi tharoor called it, in a recent tedtalk, “the ability of a culture to tell a compelling story and influence others to fall in love with them”. i like that definition. but i want to put it in collegiate term for you students in the audience. the way i see it, east and west, are kinda like freshmen roommates. you don’t know a lot about each other aside that you’re living with each other in the same room. and each one is scared the other’s gonna steal his shower time or wants to party when the other wants to study. it has the potential to be absolute hell. we all have horror stories of that roommate, we all heard about those stories. i know a lot of students here in oxford have their own separate bedrooms.
but when i was a freshman at williams college [crowd interjects] you’re kidding! woohoo! well i had a roommate. 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 2-foot long bong under his bed that was constantly being fired up. for those chinese speakers in the audience, frank would 火力全开 on that bong. so i guess i was kinda the opposite of bill clinton, who tried marijuana but didn’t inhale: i didn’t try marijuana but i did inhale. every single day. second hand. and strangely enough, every time i go into our bedroom, i mysteriously end up being late for class. i was like, dude is it already 10 o’clock
so, how many of you have lived with that frank, or be a frankhaving a roommate can be a recipe for disaster, but it also can have the potential of being the greatest friendship you’ve ever had. see, frank, he didn’t make it to second year. and i got two new roommates instead: stephan and jason, and these days the three of us are the best of friends. so going back to my analogy, east and west, as roommates, do we want to be frank, or do we want to be steph and jason, and i think in this day and age, in 2013, we should all be striving for the latter. i’m assuming we all agree that this is the goal that we all strive for.
now, let’s look at where we are in reality, in recent headlines, in the media include, foreign policy [maybe], china’s victim complex, why are chinese leaders so paranoid about the united states or the [ap, the associated press], human rights in china worse than us. bloomberg says, on the cover of this magazine, yes, the chinese army is spying on you [laughter] and it’s such a great one that i want to show you the cover of the magazine [laughter][ed:check out the photo on the right!] yes, be very afraid! [laughter]
there’s actually an extremely high amount of negativity and fear and anxiety about china, sinophobia, that i think is not just misinformed and misleading and ultimately dangerous. very dangerous. and what about how westerners are viewed by chinesewell, 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 hairy one” in taiwanese, and the list goes on and on. so are these roommates heading for a best friend relationshipi think we need a little help. and as china rise to power, i think it is more important than ever for us to more discerning about what we believe because after all, i think, that’s the purpose of higher education, and that’s why we are all here, to be able to think for ourselves and make our own decisions.
china’s not just those headlines. the burgeoning economy with unique politics. it is not just the world’s factory 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 foster an understanding between the two. and [x] that incredible relationship, because knowing both sides of the coin, i really think that there is a love story waiting to be told, ready to unfold. and i’m only half joking when i said love story because i believe it is the stories that will save us and bring us closer together.
and my thesis statement for today’s talk is that the relationship between east and west needs to be and can be fixed via pop culture, and i’m going to try and back it up. now, the un sec-gen ban ki moon said, “there are no languages required in the musical world. that is the power of music. that is the power of heart.” through this promotion of arts we can better understand the culture and civilisation of other people. and in this era of instability and intolerance, we need to promote better understanding through the power of music. the un sec-gen thinks that we need more music, and i think that he is right. music and arts have always played a key role in my life, in building relationships, replacing what once were ignorance, fear and hatred, with acceptance, friendship 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, new york, i barely spoke a word of chinese. i didn't know the difference between taiwan or thailand. [laughter] i was as american as apple pie, until one day on the 3rd grade playground, the inevitable
finally happened: i got teased for being chinese. now every kid gets teased or being made fun of in the playground, but this was fundamentally different and i knew right then and there. so this kid let’s call him brian [x]. he started making fun of me, saying “chinese, japanese, dirty knees, look at these!” [laughing] we’re laughing now but it hurt!
i could still remember how i felt, i felt ashamed, i felt embarrassed. but i laughed along with everyone. and i didn't know what else to do. it was like having an out of body experience. as if i could laugh at that chinese kid on the playground with all the other americans because i was one of them, rightwrong, on many levels. and i was facing the first and definitely not the last time the harsh reality was that i was minority in rochester, which in those days had an asian population of 1%. and i was confused. i wanted to punch brian. i wanted 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. 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 it was no coincidence that around at that time i started getting good with the violin, and the guitar and the drums. and i’d soon discovered that by playing music or singing that the other kids would for a brief moment forget about my race or color and accept me and then be able to see me for who i truly am: a human being who is emotional, spiritual, curious about the world, and has a need for love just like everyone else.
and by the sixth grade, guess who asked me if i would the drummer of their bandbrian. and i said yes. and that’s when we together formed an elementary school rock band called… nirvana. i’m not kidding, i was in a rock band called nirvana before kurt cobain's nirvana was ever known… so when nirvana came out, brian and i were like, hey he’s stealing our name! but really what attracted me to music at this young age was just that, and still is what i love about music, is that it breaks down the walls between us and shows us so quickly the truth that we are much more alike than we
[think].
and then in high school, i learned that music wasn’t just about connecting with others, 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 scrubbed the floors and cleaned the bathrooms of our school for twenty years. he never talked to the kids, and the kids never talked to sam. but one day before the opening night of our school’s annual musical, he walked up to me holding a letter, and i was taken aback and i was thinking, why is sam the janitor approaching meand he gave me this letter that i’ve kept it to this day, it was scrawled in shaky hand written in all capitals and it read, in my all years working as a janitor at sutherland, you were the first asian boy to play the lead role. i’m going to bring my 6-year-old daughter to watch you perform tonight because i want her to see that asians can be inspiring.
and that letter just floored me. i was 15 years old and i was absolutely stunned. that was the first time i realized how music was so important. with brian, it helped two kids who were initially enemies to become friends, but with sam, music went beyond the one-on-one. it was an even higher level; it influenced others i didn’t even know, in ways i could never imagine. i can’t tell you how grateful i am to sam 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 ever imagined to an immigrant from vietnam who barely even spoke english. pop culture, music, and the other methods of storytelling, 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 this state of union, the east and west union, with this soft power bias. how is the soft power exchange between these two roommatesare there songs in english that have become hits in chinasure. how about movieswell, there are so many that china has had to limit the number of hollywood movies imported into the country so that local films could even have a chance at success. what about [x], well, [inaudible exchange with an audience member], yeah, and movies, well there was crouching tiger [hidden dragon], that was 13 years ago. well, i think there’s a bit of an imbalance here. it’s called “soft power deficit”, that is to say the west influences the east more than vice versa. forgive me for using “east” and “west” kinda loosely, it’s a lot easier to say than “english-speaking… language” or “asian-speaking… language/chinese”, i’m making generalisation and i hope you can go with me on this.
and it’s just intrinsically a problem, this imbalance in pop culture influence. and i think so. in any healthy relationship, friendship, marriage, isn’t it important for both sides to make an effort to understand the otherand that this exchange needs to have a healthy balanceand how do we address thisas an ambassador for chinese pop music and movies, i have to ask myself a question: why does this deficit existis it because chinese music just [is lame]. do you want me to answer that[laughter] yeah i think i see some of you are like, stop complaining and write a hit song! psy did it! but there’s truth in that. the argument being that, the content that we’ve created just isn’t as internationally competitive. but why shouldn’t it
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 china, stick in territories and comfortably sustain. so when you’re that big and powerful, with over 160 cities in china with a million or more people, you tend to kinda turn inward and be complacent. so this certainly can be made an argument made for chinese pop not being marketed with international sensibilities, but the other side of the argument i think is more interesting and thought provoking and even more true, is that western ears aren’t familiar with and therefore don’t really understand how to appreciate
chinese music. ouch!
the reason i think that the argument holds water though 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. 'cos i was 17 years old when i went from being an asian kid in america to being an american kid in asia, and the entire paradigm suddenly got flipped on its head. i grew up listening to beastie boys, led zeppelin, guns and roses, and i found myself in taiwan listening to the radio and thinking, where’s the beatwhere’s the screeching guitar soloshere i am as an american kid in asia listening to chinese music for the first time and thinking that "this stuff is lame. i don’t like it!" i thought it was cheesy, production value was low, and the singers couldn’t belt like axl rose or mariah carey.
but then one day, i went to my first chinese pop concert, and it was harlem yu performing at the taipei music centre, and as he performed, i looked around the audience and i saw their faces and the looks in their eyes and their response to his music, and it was clear to me finally where the problem lay. it wasn’t that the music that was lacking, it was my ability to appreciate it and to hear it in the right way. the crowd, they would sing along and be totally immerse in his music, and i thought that it was significant, that i was missing the point and from now on, i was going to somehow learn how to get it, i was gonna learn how to hear with both ears, and i deconstructed and analysed what it was that made chinese audiences connect with certain types of melodies, and rhythms, and song structures, and lyrics, and 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 at some point, i not only began to be able to appreciate the music but i started being 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 looked at things from your perspective, you’re always go
ing to think that these people are weirdos, what’s wrong with them, why are they listening to these stuffand i’m saying that you can make the effort [x], it can be done, and i’m living proof of that. and as an ambassador of chinese pop, i’m trying to get people to open up to a sound that they may not feel is palatable on the first listen. so what else can we do to reduce this imbalance in our popular cultureswell, maybe we could talk a lot, tour more outside of chinabut seriously, actually i think the tides have already started to change, very slowly, very cautiously, almost calculatedly.
you see more cross-cultural exchange now, more interest in china, definitely a lot of joint ventures, a lot of co-productions in recent years, iron man 3, transformers,
[53][laughter], resident evil, really it’s beginning to be kinda like a world pop, and that’s what i’m looking forward to and focusing on these days. there’s j-pop, there’s k-pop, there’s c-pop, and there’s like this w-pop that’s kinda starting to emerge. it’s
