我在美国研究生院毕业仪式上的演讲

这两天马里兰大学一名中国留学生的毕业致辞引起热议。在汹涌而来的网络暴力面前，这名中国留学生先是在微博上道歉，但道歉也止不住谩骂和人身攻击，她只好注销了微博。

我个人觉得“辱华”这个民族主义标签在这个事件中起了推波助澜的作用。也摧毁了一个人。

每个人都有解读、质疑、批评的权利，但随意贴标签和人身攻击却不是。这名中国留学生的毕业演讲中可能有不恰当的设计，比如演讲开头提到的空气质量问题是为下文的“民主和言论自由就像新鲜空气”做铺垫，但感觉有点过（如果演讲人的呼吸道系统非常脆弱，或当时昆明的空气确实非常糟糕，那么开头的描述可能就不会被认为是迎合美国人）。当然，你也可以说这篇演讲立意不高，认识不深，缺乏新意，天真幼稚，如此种种，但无论如何不至于上纲上线到“辱华”的程度。

推荐对这个事件感兴趣的读者阅读公众号“世界说”提供的演讲英文原文和中文译文（http://urlc.cn/OideW2）。也可以点击文末“阅读原文”，读读前《南方周末》报社驻京记者、宾夕法尼亚大学传播学博士候选人方可成的《“辱华演讲”背后的社交媒体民族主义生意》一文。

文中提到：

我想，如果大家都可以试着写写毕业典礼致辞，或许也是一件很有意思的事情。马里兰大学这位同学的致辞当然不尽如人意，如果我们真的觉得“她代表不了我”，那就多做一些向西方人讲述中国的尝试。我们一起来让这幅画面更完整、更多元、更丰富。

这让我我想起了自己14年在马里兰州安纳波利斯圣约翰学院（St. John's College）研究生院毕业仪式上代表毕业生做的祝酒演讲。我想每一个被赋予这种荣幸的毕业生都很珍惜这个机会，借此表达身份认同或求学经历中最深的感受，希望自己的演讲能被一部分人记住，多年之后还会来一句，“他当年的毕业演讲很有意思。”

我的演讲不关于宏大的问题，只是我作为一名求知者、圣约翰的一分子，回顾自己在圣约翰两年的学习，表达对学校的热爱和对老师同学的感谢。我想让我的演讲简单，有幽默感，有意思，让听众感同身受。

在思考了几天反复写了几稿之后，我把祝酒演讲稿发给了研究生院院长 Jeff Black 先生。

Thank you, Mr. Black! 

At St. John’s, we love questions and love asking questions. One question many of us here, students and tutors* alike, get asked often is: how did you hear St. John’s College? 

For me, I read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, and learned of Great Books Program, which until not long ago, was completely unheard of in China, my native country. 

I fell in love with the idea and started to explore Great Books programs. I found St. John’s College. Pretty soon, I knew that I had two more reasons to apply to St. John’s: like-minded peers and dedicated tutors, who make this community of learning a Mecca for people from Boise and Burma.    

St. John’s is really about great books, students and tutors. My experience confirmed my intuition. Classmates and tutors are two great sources of my inspiration. I remember Mr. Grenke’s signature question, “What does that word mean?” Some of us were petrified and stupefied by that question; others embraced the challenge. 

While some questions scrutinize the clarity of our thought, other questions can be profoundly large. In at least two seminars, we spent a long time focusing on Mr. Sinnett’s opening question, in what way are Darwin’s research and Jung’s theories scientific? 

Besides asking good and timely questions, tutors never hesitate to share with us their thoughts and knowledge, whenever they feel there is a need. Sometimes tutors’ erudition can be more than admirable. One student remarked, “Oh man, I wish Mr. Black were less bright.” I won’t tell you who said it. 

Tutorial guidance spills out of class too: on paper and in the coffee shop and offices. I cannot stress enough how much I learned from writing papers and reading comments by tutors, just as much as in class discussions. When I had a hard time making sense of Leo Strauss, or found Lobachevski intellectually inaccessible, I turned to Mr. Grenke and Mr. Smith for help.    

In this age of big data, many things seem to be quantifiable. Readily quantifiable. Not our experience here. I mean, how can we even attempt to quantify Aristotle, Austen, and Aeschylus? But how should we put our experience into perspective, if not numbers or words? Maya Angelou once said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I remember how I felt in many class discussions and after-class mingling. And I remember Mr. Magnette’s childlike radiant ecstasy when he talked about how Maths tutorial opened up a new world for him. It is our tutors who have made this possible. 

Thank you, our tutors! 

To our experience here, to what we wholeheartedly feel, let us raise our glasses and toast. 

To our tutors. Cheers.   

*圣约翰称呼老师“tutors”，而不是“professors”。

从大家的几次笑声中，我知道两处头韵发挥了作用，增强了表达效果；从两处大笑中，我知道大家一下子就明白了我的两个梗；从观众多次点头中，我知道我的分享引起了大家的共鸣。演讲结束后，也有同学亲口告诉我，“Mr. Meng, very funny speech. I could totally relate to it.”

演讲和写作是一件事，只是媒介不同而已。William Zinsser 先生倡导的写作四大原则在演讲中也完全适用：clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity. 

You are what you write. You are what you speak. 

Be yourself and make your voice heard. 

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题图：圣约翰学院。 

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