白岩松耶鲁大学演讲稿翻译稿

2024年2月17日发(作者：侯永)

My Story and the Chine Dream Behind It

In the past twenty years, China has faced three American presidents, but till coming to Yale today,

I never realized that China really just faced one university. Although, through the three

presidents, I understand that the quality of Yale graduates is not so even.

Let me begin my main subject and let me give it a title, called “My Story and the Chine Dream

Behind It”. I want to talk about five particular years. The first is 1968. That year I was born. But it

was also a chaotic year for the world. In France, there was this huge street disturbance, and in

America, too. Then President Kennedy was assassinated. However, I really did not cau all of

the! But that year what •we remember more was the assassination of Mr. Martin Luther King.

Although he fell that year, his words “I have a dream” stood up, not only stood up in America, but

across the whole world.

But sadly, not only for me, but for almost all Chine, we did not know such a dream. It was hard

to describe each Chine as having his or her own dream. China and America were so far apart, no

less far apart than the Moon and the Earth. But I didn’t care about any of that. All I cared about

was could I have a full meal. Clearly, I was born at a very inconvenient time, not only for China,

but even for the world, there were problems.

In 1978, ten years later, I was 10. I still lived in the very little city that had only 200 thousand

people at the time I was born. It was 2000 km from Beijing. If you wanted to read the newspaper

from Beijing, you waited three days. So for us, there was no such thing as news. That year my

grandfather pasd away. Two years before that my father pasd away. So there was just my

mother left to take care of me and my brother. Her monthly salary was not even ten dollars. As a

result, even though I was 10, the word “dream” was still not in my vocabulary, and I would never

think of it. I could not e hope in this family, but only felt bitter cold every winter. Where we

lived was clo to the Soviet Union. Yet the 1978 in which I could not e hope was also the year

that a huge change took place, whether for China or for the relationship between China and

America. That is a date that everybody here today should remember.

December 16, 1978, China and America officially established diplomatic relations. That was a big

event. And two days after that, December 18 was when China opened the 3rd Plenary Session of

the Eleventh CPC Central Committee. That was the beginning of thirty-one years of Reform and

Opening. History, two great nations, and a very pitiful family all became intertwined in a

theatrical way. Truthfully, from the small personal family, to the big family of the country,

nobody then had any idea what the future would be like.

In 1988, I was 20. At this time I had already come out of the little border town to Beijing as a

university student. Although we have many people in China today criticizing China’s university

entrance exams and e many many deficiencies in it, it must be said that it is such a system that

allowed very ordinary people like me to have the opportunity to change our lives. Of cour, at

that time, America was no longer a very distant country. It became very specific. It was no longer

the “Imperialist America” of the past slogans, but it became the many details in our lives. This

was the first time that I tasted Coca-Cola. When I finished drinking it I believed China and

America were truly so clo, becau it tasted just like Chine medicine.

That was a time when I took a crazy liking to rock’n'roll. That was a time when Michael Jackson

still looked relatively handsome. More importantly, that was a time when China experienced very

big transformations, as Reform and Opening had already gone on for ten years. That year, China

began experimenting with market pricing for many goods. It may feel like something totally

incomprehensible to you, but it was a big deal in China, a huge step, becau before that the prices

were decided by the government. But in that year, becau price controls were relaxed, the whole

country went on a crazy shopping spree. Everybody all thought, how long could this last, so they

had to get a whole life’s worth of food and goods to bring home. That year symbolized that China

marched clor and clor to a market economy.

Of cour back then nobody knew that market economy could also have a subprime crisis.

Anyway, I know that 1988 was an extra important year for Yale, becau a Yale alum once again

became an American President.

In 1998, I was 30. I had already become a news anchor at CCTV. More importantly, I had become

the father of a one-year-old child. That year a very important thing happened between China and

America, and the protagonist was Clinton. Perhaps you remember his xual scandal in America,

but in China what we remember is his visit to China that year. In June, when he visited China, he

and President Jiang Zemin held an open press conference in the Great Hall of the People. Then he

gave an open lecture at Peking University. The live anchor for both events was me.

During Clinton’s lecture at Peking University, becau he ud his own translator the whole time,

I guesd that many Chine viewers only knew that Clinton was definitely saying something, but

what he said wasn’t all that clear. So near the end of my live broadcast, I remarked that it looked

like for America to learn more about China, sometimes it needed to start with language, though for

our two countries, face-to-face was always better than back-to-back. It was also at the beginning

of that year that I drove the first car in my life. For me this was unimaginable before, that Chine

people one day would also drive their own cars. A personal delight can also make a lasting

impression, becau sometimes the first time is the most unforgettable.

In 2008, I was 40. The words “I have a dream” that haven’t been discusd for many years now

were heard among so many Americans. It emed like Obama really did not want to accept Yale’s

20-year occupation of America. Using words like “change” and “dream”, he even convinced Yale

teachers and students to parade and celebrate his election to the Presidency, according to what I’ve

heard.

But this was also a year in which the Chine Dream showed clearly. After encountering many

tbacks as any grand dream in the world is destined to, it came through. Whether it was the

long-awaited Beijing Olympics, or the first spacewalk by a Chine aboard the Shenzhou 7, the

were all dreams which we have waited for a long time since a long time ago. But the sudden

Sichuan Earthquake made all this not as magnificent as we had expected. Eighty-thousand lives

departed, and made every day of 2008 em like a year. I’m guessing that on Yale’s campus, on

every web site, in front of television and newspapers, were also many people from China, and

people in all parts of the world, who shed tears for the lost lives. Just like forty years ago when

Mr. Martin Luther King fell but allowed the words “I have a dream” to stand higher, more

enduring, and em ever more valuable, more Chine people also came to understand that dreams

are important, but lives are even more so.

During the Olympics, I pasd my own fortieth birthday. That day I was full of emotional thoughts,

becau when the day of my birthday approached, I was broadcasting an exciting competition.

Twenty-four hours later, when my birthday was passing, I was still broadcasting. But that day I

felt very fortunate. Becau it was such a special fortieth birthday at the Beijng Olympics that

made me realize the Chine Dream behind my personal story.

It was in this kind of forty years that I went from a far-away border-town kid who had no

possibility of having a dream, to a newsman who could be at a big festival celebrated with all of

humanity and who could communicate and share the happiness with them. This was a life story

that took place in China. And in this year, China and America were not far apart. There was a bit

of me in you and a bit of you in me, we needed each other. It was said that President Bush spent

the longest time in any country abroad as President, and that was during the Beijing Olympics.

Phelps took eight medals there, and his family was there by his side. All Chine wished that

extraordinary family well. Of cour, every dream will pass. In such a year, China and America

almost simultaneously found their new “I have a dream” moment, and it was so coincidental, and

so derving.

America is facing a very very difficult financial crisis, and it isn’t only America, but it affects the

whole world riously. Yesterday I got to New York. As soon as I deplaned, I went to Wall Street.

There I saw the statue of President Washington. His gaze was permanently fixed on the huge

American flag on the stock exchange. Interestingly, the hall behind the statue was holding an

exhibition on “President Lincoln in New York”, so President Lincoln’s huge portrait was also on it,

and he also gazed at the flag. I felt the very solemn weight of history. When I left there, I told my

colleague this. I said, many many years ago, if something like this befell America, perhaps

Chine people would have taken pleasure, becau e, America is mirable again. But today,

Chine people would especially wish that America get better soon. Becau we have hundreds of

billions worth of money with America. We also have a huge quantity of products waiting to be put

on freighters and nt to America. If America’s economy takes a step for the better, it means

behind the products, another Chine gets a rai, it means he regains his employment and

happiness in the family.

In the past 30 years, I don’t know if you’ve noticed the Chine Dream that is relevant to more

and more ordinary Chine people. I don’t know what other country in this world, in the past 30

years, has changed the individual fates at this magnitude. A kid from a remote small city on the

periphery, a kid in despair, today has the chance to have an exchange with the Yale students.

Maybe we can change the viewpoint, and look at 1.3 billion very ordinary Chine, their

down-to-earth dreams, their impulsive drive to change their fates, their still kindhearted

temperament, and their diligent character. Today’s China is made up of the words I just spoke.

In the past many years, Chine emed to be looking at America through a telescope. So

everything good that is in America was magnified by this telescope. Frequently people mentioned

America was like this and like that, then look at us, when can we be like that. In the past many

years, Americans also emed to be looking at China through a telescope, but I am guessing they

held it backwards. Becau what they saw was a diminished, always-doing-wrong,

full-of-problems China. They overlooked 1.3 very ordinary Chine people and this impulsive

drive and urge of theirs to change their fate, which caud such huge transformations in our

country. But I also always had this dream: why do we need to u telescopes to look at each other?

Of cour I hope very many Americans have a chance to go e China, and not to look at China

through the media. You know I don’t really trust all of my colleagues. I’m just kidding. Actually I

respect my American colleagues very much. I only hope that more and more American friends go

to e a real China. Becau I can at least guarantee one thing. Even if in America you ate what is

deemed to be the best Chine food, in won’t fetch a good price in China. Just like many many

years ago, in every city of China there was this popular “California Beef Noodle” shop. Many

Chine all thought, anything from America was definitely very very tasty. So they all went to eat.

Although it was not very tasty, they didn’t complain becau they knew it was from America. This

fast-food chain existed in China for many years, until more and more Chine people came to

America, and arched every corner of California for a California Beef Noodle shop, and could

not find a single one. Only then did more and more Chine know that California doesn’t have

such beef noodle, so this chain store in China is in the process of disappearing. This is the kind of

discrepancy I am talking about. As we come and go, such misunderstandings will be fewer and

fewer.

So lastly I just want to say one thing again. Forty years ago, when Mr. Martin Luther King fell

down, his words “I have a dream” spread across the world. But, you must know that there is not

just an English version of “I have a dream.” In the distant East, in the China that has held on for

thousands of years, there is also a dream. It isn’t a grandio slogan, it doesn’t lie with the

government. It belongs to every ordinary Chine. It is “I have a dream” written in Chine.