第十屆“21世紀杯”全國英語演講比賽季軍——張阿旭　香港理工大學

演講稿：Two-Way Traffic

Seven centuries ago, Marco Polo, after staying in our country for almost twenty years, brought the secrets of spaghetti and ice-cream with him back to Italy. More than seven hundred years later, with the prevalence of globalization, our people, our food, our products and many other items, have traveled to many other places beyond Italy. No matter where these Chinese people, Chinese food, Chinese products and many other Chinese items are, they carry with them qualities that are unique to our very own Chinese culture - our traditional values.

In the whole process of globalization that the world is integrating politically, economically and culturally, into one, we do witness in our country a great influx of western culture and values - McDonald's, KFCs, soccer players and NBA players. And we are even having this prestigious national speaking competition in a language that does not belong to us. In the midst of western products pouring in China as a result of globalization, sometimes we do wonder, where does our own culture belong? When we see our younger generations going away from traditional values such as contextual and role-based ethics, ideal of community, hierarchy, paternalism and non-litigious nature of society, we may even think our traditional values are challenged and even threatened. But, are we really losing our values?

Ladies and gentlemen, we must remember, the traffic of globalization is two-way. Yes, films from Hollywood, soccer from the United Kingdom and restaurants from America, do have an impact on our values. But, if we see globalization in China a synonymous term with western economic cultural hegemony, we are underestimating the impact of not only globalization but also our values.

Have a look at languages. Yes, it is the desire and dream of every single Chinese to speak fluent English, including every single one of us here. But, have you ever wondered how many non-Chinese are learning Chinese? Let me tell you, by the end of 2002, nearly 30 million people from 85 countries and regions were learning standard Chinese, Putonghua. And who knows about the number of people learning regional dialects such as Shanghainese and Cantonese. In these two years, I am sure none of us here will be surprised that the number is skyrocketing.

Have a look at Feng Shui, within 0.21 seconds Google brings you 1,270,000 websites about Feng Shui, not in Chinese, not from all over the world, but in English, just within the United States. And I guess some of you still remember, when the previous American president, Bill Clinton, first became president. He actually had the furniture of his office rearranged according to feng shui ideas.

Have a look at traditional Chinese medicine. Four years ago, in 2001, there were already more than 120 000 traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, researchers and related business trading companies in Europe, just Europe. Our holistic approach of taking care of a person's health has been proven popular in the world.

Our values, language, our Feng Shui, our traditional medicine and also Kung Fu that I have not really talked about, are all parts and messengers of our culture and values. What does their success in the west tell us? Their popularity tells us that, alongside cheap consumer products, we are exporting to the west, Chinese beliefs and, values.

Ladies and gentlemen, globalization, yes it has its impacts on our values. It is sending our values overseas and bringing in new ones. Let's not see the bringing in of new ones a threat to our own culture. As a matter of fact, the bringing in is a very good opportunity and time to rethink and reflect who we are and what we want to be. It is upon us whether globalization has a positive or negative impact on our traditional values. Ladies and gentlemen, I see this positively, I know even if our traditional values are changing or to change, the change is for better, not for worse.

Thank you very much.

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