Yang Lan: The generation that's remaking China
杨澜：重塑中国的一代
The night before I was heading for Scotland, I was invited to host the final of "China's Got Talent" show in Shanghai with the 80,000 live audience in the stadium. Guess who was the performing guest? Susan Boyle. And I told her, "I'm going to Scotland the next day." She sang beautifully, and she even managed to say a few words in Chinese. [Chinese:送你葱] So it's not like "hello" or "thank you," that ordinary stuff. It means "green onion for free." Why 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 "green onion for free." So [as] Susan Boyle was saying that, 80,000 live audience sang together. That was hilarious.
道特别嘉宾是谁吗？苏珊大妈.我告诉她，“我明天要去苏格兰."她不但歌声非常动听，还学会了说几句中文.她说:“送你葱”这句话的意思不是“你好,”“谢谢,”那类的话."送你葱"意思是“免费的大葱.”她为什么要说这句话呢?因为“送你葱”是来自有着"中国苏珊大妈"之称的一位五十多岁在上海卖菜的女摊贩,她非常喜欢西方歌剧,但她不懂歌词的意思也不会说英语,法语,或是意大利语,所以她以独特的方式来记歌词将歌词全部换成蔬菜名.（笑声）意大利歌剧公主彻夜未眠的最后一句她当时就是以"送你葱"来演唱的.当苏珊大妈说了这句话的时候,现场的八万名观众一起跟着唱了起来.当时的场面十分有趣.
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.
我想苏珊大妈还有那位上海的卖菜大婶都有她们的独特之处.大家通常会觉得她们无法在娱乐圈这个行业里闯出天下,但是才能和勇气让她们得到了肯定.一场秀和一个平台让她们有了一个可以圆梦的舞台.其实要与众不同不是什么难事.我们都有独特之处从不同的角度来看.但我觉得与众不同其实很好,因为你有不同的想法.你也许可以在某一方面有影响.
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, "So, Miss Yang, do you have any questions to ask me?" I summoned my courage and poise and said, "Yes, but could you let me know, what actually do you sell?" I 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.
我这个年代的人是幸运的我们目睹并参与了中国历史性的变化.在过去的二，三十年里中国发
生了很多变化.我还记得1990年的时候.我刚好读完大学,我当时申请了一个营销的工作地点是北京的一个五星级宾馆,这个宾馆现在还有,叫喜来登长城饭店.在被一位日本经理询问了半小时之后,他在面试要结束时说,"杨小，你有问题要问我吗?"我鼓起了勇气，镇定地问，"你能不能告诉我,你们卖什么的?"因为我当时完全不知道一个五星级饭店的销售部要做什么.那是我第一次走进一家五星级饭店.
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, "Why [do] women's personalities on television always have to be 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. 杨澜的前夫
与此同时,我参加了由中国国家电台举办的试听会这是第一个向大众开放的试听会现场还有上千名的女大生.制作人告诉我们他们在甜美，单纯和漂亮的新面孔.当轮到我的时候,我起身问道,"为什么在电视上的女人一定要长得漂亮，甜美，单纯还要配合度高?为什么她们不能有自己的想法说自己的话?"我以为我的话可能有点冒犯了评委.但我的话反而得到了他们的认同.因此我进入了第二回合,然后第三，第四.在第七回合比赛结束后,我战胜了所有的选手.我也因此在加入了黄金档的一个节目.你也许不敢相信,这个节目是中国第一个允许主持人表达他们自己的想法他们不需要念之前写好的稿.（掌声）我当时每周的观众人数达到2-3亿.
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, "Lan, you changed my life," and I feel proud of that. But then we are also so fortunate t
o 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?
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