Commencement speech cultural minefield
Acommencement speech at the University of Maryland ( UMD) on Sunday has caused uproar among Chinese netizens after video of the speech was made public. The speaker, Yang Shuping, a student from China, touched a nerve when she recalled being intoxicated by the fresh and sweet air of the US upon first landing there, and how she learned the meaning of freedom and democracy in the UMD campus.
Angry Chinese netizens accused Yang of insulting her home country. A minority of people tried to defend her as the issues she raised, such as pollution and lack of public participation in politics, exist in China. But Yang offended many as she was from Kunming in Southwest China, a city blessed with clean air and a pleasant ecological environment. In her speech, Yang described how she had to wear a mask everyday to avoid being sick, something far from the truth.
As the commencement speaker, she naturally needed to stress the importance of education, and in her case, the merit of receiving an education in the US. However, unfairly defaming one’s home country in order to flatter the host is not a good idea, intentionally or not. Yang later issued an apology, but it seems too late to undo the damage and she was deemed unpatriotic by cyber public opinion.
As Yang faces online censure, other Chinese students at UMD are distancing themselves from her, making videos claiming they are proud of where they come from. However, it’s easy to make a patriotic statement under these circumstances, particularly when your audiences are compatriots. Under the pressure of political correctness, expressions of patriotic sentiment are tricky in front of a foreign audience, particularly when the host country is ideologically different from and often at odds with your home country.
As both China and the US are divided in public opinion and are regarded as competitors with each other, there are perhaps few topics that can accord with the politically correct standard of both sides. It is probably worth asking whether a fair description of China can be shared at a commencement ceremony in a US university, a highly symbolic event.
When a stereotyped viewpoint is formed and linked with certain political correctness, it’s difficult to break away from it.
Yang caused public uproar as she disregarded facts at a high profile event. Subtly, many people have bowed to political correctness consciously. For example, there are Chinese students who deliberately por- trayed themselves as victims of human rights violation in China to boost their chance of being accepted by American college.
Americans could be bound by the same tacit rules. One American scholar has more than once published soft- toned articles in Chinese publication ( as it targets a Chinese audience) but requested a more critical version in the English edition ( because his American peers would be able to read it.)
Defending freedom of speech is a lofty goal. However, tolerance of different opinions is becoming increasingly difficult. As Western media outlets picked up the story of Yang’s speech, she was painted as a brave speaker overwhelmed by Chinese nationalists. Yang’s speech unfortunately reinforced the already outdated perception of the American public toward China, and the following media reports only made it worse.
Last year, He Jiang had the honor to be the first Chinese student to speak at the commencement of Harvard University. His personal story, about how the treatment of a spider bite inspired him to pursue better medical knowledge and spread it to remote places, was warmly received by both the university and his compatriots. That’s a wise and innocuous choice of topic to connect both sides.