The generation that's remaking China: TED speech

[Lillee]

Hi all,

Yang Lan, a Chinese TV host (the "Oprah of China" apparently), gave a speech at a TED about the concerns of the younger generation in China: Guo Mei Mei, "ant tribes" and "naked marriages", to name a few. I was very impressed with her speech - I think it's a great overview, especially insightful for those living outside of China, and well worth watching.

http://v.youku.com/v...A5Njc1MTA0.html

It's in English, btw.

Enjoy!

[paperbagprince23]

I didn't watch it, yet, but I hate Yang Lan.

[feihong]

I thought 鲁豫 was the Oprah of China. At least, that's what the Oprah of America says.

[imron]

When people start describing Oprah as "the <insert name of Chinese talk show host here> of America", then you'll know that person is the Oprah of China. Until then, it's just empty words.

[feihong]

I think people in the US should go to the original link, it ought to load much more quickly.

Also, that page contains a transcript of the talk, which is useful because her English isn't perfect. I don't mean her accent, which is not that bad, but some of her phrasing is weird.

I thought it was an interesting talk. She spends a long time introducing herself and giving background information, but this is justified, given the audience she's speaking to. I find myself not agreeing with her opinions. I think she vastly overemphasizes the role of microblogging in advancing social change. And she uses some gross oversimplifications to support her points. For example, that dog truck incident was quite a bit more complicated than she let on.

There is one point at which she sets up a joke and it totally bombs. Which ends up being inadvertently hilarious. I guess she failed to rehearse her talk in front of a Western audience, or she was just too stubborn to take it out. From this talk, I cannot imagine her as a successful talk show host, but I know that people can have different personalities in different languages, so she could be much more charismatic when speaking in Chinese.