韩朗参加第20届中国日报社“21世纪杯”全国英语演讲比赛总决赛演讲稿：

 

The balance of Yin and Yang from a youth’s perspective

 

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, 

 

Starting from my primary school and all the way to high school, my parents and teachers had kept telling me: To master the English language well would help me realize my dream of entering a top university. Just like many other Chinese kids, I bought it. I had a high score in my English test in Gaokao, which enabled me to get into a famous university to pursue my English dream.

 

In college, I literally mesmerized myself in learning English. I read Shakespeare and listened to BBC. But in all of this studying, I felt something was missing. I wasn’t able to tell what exactly it was until I travelled abroad last summer. 

 

It was in an exchange program in a university in New York. I was asked to share some thoughts on the famous Chinese classic, Yi Ching, which is a cosmological work with philosophical commentaries. I managed to cough up a few words, but was honestly at a complete loss as to what the book was about. For much of my life, the coolest thing is to know as much about western culture as possible, but when a question about my own culture got me underprepared, I was embarrassed. 

 

Since that day, I realized that I had to strike a balance between studying western cultures and rediscovering my own roots. So for the first time in my life, I began to read ancient Chinese works, like The History as a Mirror as well as the Records of the Grand Historian. I gradually realized the beauty that Chinese literature had to offer. 

 

After reading many Chinese works, I have discovered a beautiful thought. This thought was the traditional Chinese philosophy of Yin & Yang. In many cases, it is a perfect way to bring home the cultural differences between the East and the West. For example, there is a traditional Chinese saying, which goes like: Do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto themselves, while the western proverb is ‘Do unto others as they would do onto you.’ These two philosophies may be different in wording, but both tell the same thing. So the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang really helped me to understand the cultural differences better. Inspired by the thought, I have made a short English documentary about Beijing’s architectures. In the documentary, the buildings along the Chang’an Avenue whose architecture styles combine traditional Chinese roofs with western skyscrapers display the philosophy of balance between Yin and Yang perfectly well. Later on, I sent the link to my professor in New York. It went viral over the Internet. And I finally felt some relief for my inability to explain Yi Ching to my western friends during that summer. 

 

If that embarrassing experience last year has taught me anything, that is the choices we have made and the many life paths that we have chosen, need NOT be an either-or proposition, it can and should be a Yin-Yang balance:

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

 

We should read Shakespeare to find many beautiful depictions of human natures. We should also dive ourselves into the Analects of Confucius for its insightful thoughts on life. 

 

What I am saying is we can have the best of both Chinese and Western cultures. We just need the balance. Thank you.