The nightbefore I was headin g for Scotla nd, I was invite d to host the finalof“China’sGotTalent”showinShangh ai with the 80,000 live audien ce in the stadiu m. Guesswho was the perfor mingguest? SusanBoyle. And I told her, “I’mgoingto Scotla nd the next day.”Shesang beauti fully, and she even manage d to say a few wordsin Chines e. [Chines e] Soit’snotlike“hello”or“thankyou,”thatordina ry stuff. It means“greenonionfor free.”Whydidshe say that? Becaus e it was a line from our Chines e parall el SusanBoyle— a 50-some year-old woman, a vegeta ble vendor in Shangh ai, who lovessingin g Wester n opera, but shedidn’tunders tandany Englis h or French or Italia n, so she manage d to fill in the lyrics with vegeta ble namesin Chines e. (Laught er) And the last senten ce of Nessun Dormathat she was singin g in the stadiu mwas“greenonionfor free.”So[as] SusanBoylewas saying that, 80,000 live audien ce sang togeth er. That was hilari ous.
来苏格兰（做TED讲演）的前夜，我被邀请去上海做”中国达人秀“决赛的评委。在装有八万现场观众的演播厅里，在台上的表演嘉宾居然是（来自苏格兰的，因参加英国达人秀走红的）苏珊大妈（SusanBoyle)。我告诉她，“我明天就要启程去苏格兰。”她唱得很动听，还对观众说了几句中文，她并没有说简单的”你好“或者”谢谢“，她说的是——“送你葱”（Song Ni Cong)。为什么？这句话其实来源于中国版的“苏珊大妈”——一位五十岁的以卖菜为生，却对西方歌剧有出奇爱好的上海中年妇女（蔡洪平）。这位中国的苏珊大妈并不懂英文，法语或意大利文，所以她将歌剧中的词汇都换做中文中的蔬菜名，并且演
唱出来。在她口中，歌剧《图兰朵》的最后一句便是“SongNiCong”。当真正的英国苏珊大妈唱出这一句“中文的”《图兰朵》时，全场的八万观众也一起高声歌唱，场面的确有些滑稽（hilari ous)。
So I guessboth SusanBoyleand this vegeta ble vendor in Shangh ai belong ed to othern ess. They were the leastexpect ed to be succes sfulin the busine ss called entert ainme nt, yet theircourag e and talent brough t them throug h. And a show and a platfo rm gave them the stageto realiz e theirdreams. Well, beingdiffer ent is not that diffic ult. We are all differ ent from differ ent perspe ctive s. But I thinkbeingdiffer ent is good, becaus e you presen t a differ ent pointof view. You may have the chance to make a differ ence.
我想Susa n Boyle和这位上海的买菜农妇的确属于人中的少数。她们是最不可能在演艺界成功的，而她们的勇气和才华让她们成功了，这个节目和舞台给予了她们一个实现个人梦想
的机会。这样看来，与众不同好像没有那么难。从不同的方面审视，我们每个人都是不同的。但是我想，与众不同是一件好事，因为你代表了不一样的观点，你拥有了做改变的机会。
My genera tionhas been very fortun ate to witnes s and partic ipate in the histor ic
transf ormat ion of Chinathat has made so many change s in the past 20, 30 years. I rememb er that in
the year of 1990, when I was gradua tingfrom colleg e, I was applyi ng for a job in the salesdepart mentof the firstfive-star hotelin Beijin g, GreatWall Sherat on —it’sstillthere. So afterbeinginterr ogate d by this Japane se manage r for a half an hour, he finall y said, “So, Miss Yang, do you have any questi ons to ask me?”Isummon ed my courag e and poiseandsaid,“Yes,butcoul dyou let me know, what actual ly do you sell?”Ididn’thaveacluewhatasalesdepart mentwas aboutin a five-star hotel. That was the firstday I set my foot in a five-star hotel.
我这一代中国人很幸运的目睹并且参与了中国在过去二三十年中经历的巨变。我记得1990年，当我刚大学毕业时，我申请了当时北京的第一家五星级酒店——长城喜来登酒店的销售部门的工作。这家酒店现在仍在北京。当我被一位日本籍经理面试了一个半小时之后，他问到，“杨小，你有什么想问我的吗？”，我屏住呼吸，问道“是的，你能告诉我，具体我需要销售些什么吗？”当时的我，对五星级酒店的销售部门没有任何概念，事实上，那是我第一次进到一家五星级酒店。
Around the same time, I was goingthroug h an auditi on — the firstever open auditi on by nation al televi sionin China— with anothe r thousa nd colleg e girls. The produc er told us they were lookin g for some sweet, innoce nt and beauti ful freshface. So when it was my turn, I stoodup and said, “Why[do] women’s person aliti es on televi sionalways have to be beauti ful, sweet, innoce nt and, you know, suppor tive?Whycan’ttheyhavetheirown ideasand theirown voice?”Ithough t I kind of offend ed them. B
ut actual ly, they were impres sed by my words. And so I was in the second roundof compet ition, and then the thirdand the fourth. Aftersevenrounds of compet ition, I was the last one to surviv e it. So I was on a nation al televi sionprime-time show. And believ e it or not, that was the firstshow on Chines e televi sionthat allowe d its hoststo speakout of theirown mindswithou t readin g
an approv ed script. (Applau se) And my weekly audien ce at that time was betwee n 200 to 300 millio n people.
我当时也在参加另一场“面试”，中国国家电视台的首次公开试镜，与我一起参与选拔的还有另外1000名大学女毕业生。节目制作人说，他们希望到一位甜美，无辜（LOL），漂亮的新鲜面孔。轮到我的时候，我问道“为什么在电视屏幕上，女性总应该表现出甜美漂亮，甚至是服从性的一面？为什么她们不能有她们自己的想法和声音？“我觉得我的问题甚至有点冒犯到了他。但实际上，他们对我的表现印象深刻。我进入了第二轮选拔，第三轮，第四轮，直至最后的第七场选拔，我是唯一一个走到最后的试镜者。我从此走上了国家电视台黄金时段的荧幕。你可能不相信，但在当时，我所主持的电视节目是中国第一个，不让主持人念已经审核过的稿件的节目（掌声）。我每周需要面对两亿到三亿左右的电视观众。
Well aftera few years, I decide d to go to the U.S. and Columb ia Univer sityto pursue my postgr aduat
e studie s, and then starte d my own mediacompan y, whichwas unthou ght of during the yearsthat I starte d my career. So we do a lot of things. I’veinterv iewed more than a thousa nd people in the past. And someti mes I have youngpeople approa ching me say, “Lan, you change dmylife,”andIfeelpr oudof that. But then we are also so fortun ate to witnes s the transf ormat ion of the wholecountr y. I was in Beijin g’sbiddin g for the Olympi c Games. I was repres entin g the Shangh ai Expo. I saw Chinaembrac ing the worldand vice versa. But then someti mesI’mthinki ng, what are today’syounggenera tionup to? How are they differ ent, and what are the differ ences they are goingto make to shapethe future of China, or at large, the world?
几年以后，我决定来美国哥伦比亚大学继续深造，之后也开始运营自己的媒体公司，这也是我在职业生涯初始时所没有预料到的。我的公司做很多不同的业务，在过去这些年里，我访谈过一千多人。经常有年轻人对我说，“杨澜，你改变了我的人生”，我对此感到非常自豪。我也幸运的目睹了整个国家的转变：我参与了北京申奥和上海世博会。我看到中国在拥抱这个世界，而世界也进一步的接受中国。但有时我也在想，今天的年轻人的生活是什么样的？他们（与我们相比）有什么不同？他们将带给中国，甚至整个世界的未来一些怎样的变化？
So todayI want to talk aboutyoungpeople throug h the platfo rm of social media. Firstof all, who are they? [What] do they look like? Well this is a girl called Guo Meimei— 20 yearsold, beauti ful. She sho
杨澜的前夫wed off her expens ive bags, clothe s and car on her microb log, whichis the Chines e versio n of Twitte r. And she claime d to be the genera l manage r of Red Crossat the Chambe r of Commer ce. Shedidn’trealiz e that she steppe d on a sensit ive nerveand arouse d nation al questi oning, almost a turmoi l, agains t the credib ility of Red Cross. The contro versy was so heated that the Red Crosshad to open a pressconfer enceto clarif y it, and the invest igati on is goingon.
So far, as of today, we know that she hersel f made up that title— probab ly becaus e she feelsproudto be associ atedwith charit y. All thoseexpens ive itemswere givento her as giftsby her boyfri end, who used to be a boardmember in a subdiv ision of Red Crossat Chambe r of Commer ce.It’sverycomp li cated to explai n. But anyway, the public stilldoesn’tbuyit. It is stillboilin g. It showsus a genera l mistru st of govern mentor
govern ment-backed instit ution s, whichlacked transp arenc y in the past. And also it showed us the powerand the impact of social mediaas microb log.
我想通过社交媒体来谈一谈中国的年轻人们。首先，他们是谁，他们是什么样子？这是一位叫郭美美的女孩儿，20岁，年轻漂亮。她在中国版的Twitt er上——新浪微博上，炫耀她所拥有的奢侈品，衣服，包和车。她甚至宣称她是中国红十字会的工作人员。她没有意识到她的行为触及了中国民众极为敏感的神
经，这引发了一场全民大讨论，民众开始质疑红十字会的公信力。中国红十字会为了平息这场争议甚至举办了一场记者会来澄清，直至今日，对于”郭美美事件“的调查仍在继续，但我们所知道的事实是，她谎报了她的头衔，可能是因为她的虚荣心，希望把自己和慈善机构联系起来。所有那些奢侈品都是她的男朋友给她买的，而那位”男朋友“的确曾经是红十字会的工作人员。这解释起来很复杂，总之，公众对他们的解释仍然不满意，这仍然是在风口浪尖的一件事。这件事体现出（中国社会）对长期不透明的政府机关的不信任，同时也表现出社交媒体（微博）巨大的社会影响力。
Microb log boomed in the year of 2010, with visito rs double d and time spenton it triple d. Sina, a majornews portal, alonehas more than 140 millio n microb logge rs. On Tencen t, 200 millio n. The most popula r blogge r —it’snotme—it’samovi estar, and she
has more than 9.5 millio n follow ers, or fans. About80 percen t of thosemicrob logge rs are youngpeople, under30 yearsold. And becaus e, as you know, the tradit ional mediais stillheavil y contro lledby the govern ment, social mediaoffers an openin g to let the steamout a little bit. But becaus eyoudon’thavemanyotheropenin gs, the heat coming out of this openin g is someti mes very strong, active and even violen t.
微博在2010年得到了爆炸性的增长，微博的访问用户增长了一倍，用户的访问时间是09年的三倍。新浪
（Sina)，一个最主要的微博平台，拥有1.4亿的微博用户，而腾讯拥有两亿用户。（在中国）最有名的微博主——不是我——是一位电影明星，她拥有近九百五十万”粉丝“。接近80％的微博用户是年轻人，三十岁以下。因为传统媒体还在政府的强力控制之下，社交媒体提供了一个开放的平台进行了一些（民众观点的）分流。因为这样分流的渠道并不多，从这个平台上爆发出的能量往往非常强烈，有时候甚至过于强烈。
So throug h microb loggi ng, we are able to unders tandChines e youtheven better. So how are they differ ent? Firstof all, most of them were born in the 80s and 90s, underthe one-childpolicy. And becaus e of select ed aborti on by famili es who favore d boys to girls, now we have endedup with 30 millio n more youngmen than women. That couldpose a potent ial danger to the societ y, but who knows;we’reinaglobal izedworld, so they can look for girlfr iends from othercountr ies. Most of them have fairly good educat ion. The illite racyrate in Chinaamongthis genera tionis underone percen t. In cities, 80 percen t of kids go to colleg e. But they are facing an agingChinawith a popula tionabove65 yearsold coming up with seven-point-some percen t this year, and aboutto be 15 percen t by the year of 2030. And you know we have the tradit ion that younge r genera tions suppor t the elders financ ially, and takingcareofthemwhenthey’resick. So it meansyoungcouple s will have to suppor t four parent s who have a life expect ancyof 73 yearsold.
通过微博，我们可以更好的了解到中国的年轻一代。首先，他们中的大多数都出生在八零九零年代，在独生子女的生育政策的大背景下长大。因为偏好男孩的家庭会选择性的堕胎，现在（中国）的年轻男性的数量多过年轻女性三千万，这可能带来社会的不稳定（危险），但是我们知道，在这个全球化的社会中，他们可能可以去其他国家女朋友。大多数人都拥有良好的教育。这一代中国人中的文盲率已经低于1％。在城市中，80％的孩子可以上大学，
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