过去的二十年,中国一直在跟美国的三任总统打交道,但是今天到了耶鲁我才知道,其实他只跟一所学校打交道。但是透过这三位总统我也明白了,耶鲁大学的毕业生的水准也并不很平均。
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 these three presidents, I understand that the quality of Yale graduates is not so even.
接下来就进入我们这个主题,或许要起个题目的话应该叫《我的故事以及背后的中国梦》。我要讲五个年份,第一要讲的年份是白岩松演讲1968年。那一年我出生了。但是那一年世界非常乱,在法国有它的这个,巨大的街头的骚乱,在美国也有,然后美国的总统肯尼迪遇刺了,但是的确这一切的原因都与我无关。但是那一年我们更应该记住的是马丁路德金先生遇刺,虽然那一年他倒下了,但是我有一个梦想的这句话却真正地站了起来,不仅在美国站起来,在全世界站起来。
Let me begin my main subject and let me give it a title, called My Story and the Chinese 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 distur
bance, and in America, too. Then President Kennedy was assassinated. However, I really did not cause all of these! 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.
但是当时很遗憾,不仅仅是我,几乎很多的中国人并不知道这个梦想,因为当时中国人,每一个个人很难说拥有自己的梦想。中国与美国的距离非常遥远,不亚于月亮与地球之间的距离。但是我并不关心这一切,我只关系我是否可以吃饱。很显然,我的出生非常不是时候,不仅对于当时的中国来说,对于世界来说,似乎都有些问题。
But sadly, not only for me, but for almost all Chinese, we did not know such a dream. It was hard to describe each Chinese 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.
1978年,十年之后。我十岁,我依然生活在我出生的时候,那个只有二十万人的非常非常小
的城市里。它离北京的距离有两千公里,它要想了解北京出的报纸的话,要在三天之后才能看见,所以对于我们来说,是不存在新闻这个说法。那一年我的爷爷去世了,而在两年前的时候我的父亲去世了,所以只剩下我母亲一个人要抚养我们哥俩,她一个月的工资不到十美元。因此即使十岁了,梦想这个词对我来说,依然是一个非常陌生的词汇,我从来不会去想它。我看不到这个家庭的希望,只是会感觉,那个时候的每一个冬天都很寒冷,因为我所生活的那个城市离苏联更近。但是就在我看不到希望的1978年的时候,不管是中国这个国家,还有中国与美国这两个国家之间,发生了非常巨大的变化,那是一个我们在座的所有人,今天都该记住的年份。
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 passed away. Two years before that my father passed 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 see hope in this family, b
ut only felt bitter cold every winter. Where we lived was close to the Soviet Union. Yet the 1978 in which I could not see 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.
1978年的1216号,中国与美国正式建交,那是一个大事件。而在中美建交两天之后,1218号,中国的十一届三中全会召开了,那是中国改革开放三十一年的开始。历史,两个伟大的国家,一个非常可怜的家庭,就如此戏剧性地交织在一起,不管是小的家庭,还是大的国家,其实当时谁都没有把握知道未来是什么样的。
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.
1988年,那一年我二十岁。这个时候我已经从边疆的小城市来到了北京,成为一个大学生。虽然我们今天在中国依然有很多的人在抨击中国的高考的制度,认为它有很多很多的缺陷,但是必须承认正是高考的存在,让我们这样一个又一个非常普通的孩子,拥有了改变命运的机会。当然,这个时候美国已经不再是一个很遥远的国家,它变得很具体,它也不再是那个过去口号当中的美帝国主义,而是变成了生活中很多的细节。这个时候我已经第一次地尝试过可口可乐,而且喝完可口可乐之后会觉得中美两个国家真的是如此接近,因为它几乎就跟中国的中药是一样的。
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 see 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 course, 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 close, because it tasted just like Chinese medicine.
那个时候我已经开始非常狂热地去喜欢摇滚乐。那个时候正是迈克尔杰克逊还长得比较漂亮的时候。更重要的是,这个时候的中国,已经开始发生了非常大的变化,因为改革已经进行了十年。那一年中国开始尝试放开很多商品的价格。这在你们觉得是非常不可思议的事情,但是在中国当时是一个很大的迈进,因为过去的价格都是由政府来决定的。但是,就在那一年,因为放开了价格,引起了全国疯狂地抢购,大家都觉得这个时候会有多久,于是要把一辈子都用的食品和用品,买回到家里头。这一年也就标志之着中国离市场经济越来越近了。
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, because before that the prices were decided by the government. But in that year, because 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 closer and closer to a market economy.
当然那个时候没有人知道市场经济,也会有次贷危机。当然我知道那一年1988年对于耶鲁大学来说格外的重要,因为你们耶鲁的校友又一次成为美国的总统。
Of course 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, because a Yale alum once again became an American President.
1998年,那一年我三十岁。我已经成为中央电视台的一个新闻节目主持人。更重要的是,我已经成为一个一岁孩子的父亲。那一年在中美之间发生了一个非常重要的事件,主角就是克林顿。也许在美国你记住的是性丑闻。但是在中国记住的是他那一年访问了中国。在六月份的时候,他访问中国的时候,在人民大会堂和主席进行了一个开放的记者招待会,然后又在北京大学进行了一个开放的演讲,这两场活动的直播主持人都是我。
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 sexual 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.