[英文]2003-12-10 温家宝总理在美国哈佛大学的演讲-口译网
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地心游记好词好句-大姑子
Turning Your Eyes to China
--Remarks of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Harvard University
Harvard University, Boston
Dec 10, 2003
DEAN KIM CLARK:
It's a great pleasure and a privilege to welcome you here today to this historic occasion. On behalf of the faculty and the staff and the students of the Harvard Business School I welcome all of you to our campus. We're certainly pleased to have Premier Wen here today on this great occasion. It's my good fortune to be able to introduce to you today my good friend, Bill Kirby, who is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Bill.
DEAN KIRBY:
Thank you very much, Kim. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard joins in welcoming all of you and our distinguished guests from the People's Republic of China. Today is a very important occasion, an opportunity for dialogue between members of the Harvard community and the leader of one of the most rapidly transforming and transformative countries in the world, whose future is closely intertwined with our own. And in this global era, universities serve an increasingly important function. We are points of connection and communication between citizens of different regions of the world. Harvard is honored to welcome Premier Wen and his delegation. As the first line of "The Analects" tells us, "How very glad we are to welcome friends from afar." Our guest speaker today is, as you know, the Premier of the People's Republic of China, Premier Wen Jiabao.
PRESIDENT SUMMERS:
On a day like this I am particularly glad to have a distinguished scholar of Chinese history as the Dean of our Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Premier Wen, we are honored to have you here today. On behalf of the entire Harvard community and especially the 350 Chinese students at Harvard, and the nearly 500 scholars, teachers and professors at Harvard, I am delighted to welcome you to our university.
When the history of our era is written a century or two from now I suspect that the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, may be the second story in that history. The first story in that history may be the dramatic developments on the Asian continent over the last quarter century and the next, and at the center of that story is your country, China. This is surely a moment of promise, of risk, and of opportunity in China.
And our distinguished speaker, Wen Jiabao, is poised to lead China into a new era with great potential for growth and prosperity. A geologist by training and an experienced public servant over more than three decades, Premier Wen has the very well-established reputation of being a very able and very well-trusted statesman. He and I had a chance to meet, it was my very great privilege to meet with him, when I traveled to China several years ago on behalf of the U.S. government, and I am now delighted to welcome to Harvard University Premier Wen. Premier Wen, we look for
ward to your remarks.
PREMIER WEN:
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to begin by sincerely thanking President Summers for his kind invitation. Harvard is a world famous institution of higher learning, attracting the best minds and bringing them up generation after generation. In its 367 years of history, Harvard has produced seven American presidents and more than 40 Nobel Laureates. You have reason to be proud of your university. It is my great pleasure today to stand on your rostrum and have this face-to-face exchange with you.
I like young people very much. Because young people are always so energetic and they have the least conservative ideas, and they represent the future of our world. And this year during the outbreak of the SARS epidemic, I thought about the students. I cared a lot for them, and I wanted to gain strength from them. So that was why I went to our Tsinghua University to have lunch with them. And also I went to Beijing University and I had a chat with the students in the library. At that time probably you could not have imagined what an atmosphere we were in, but I felt that the young people were as hopeful as ever. They always dream about a beautiful future. They pointed to the trees outside the window and said to me, "People like to say that when all the leaves grow, when the tree becomes green all over, this crisis will be over. And they also said that they would all rather be the green leaves themselves, and they asked me, Premier, in this big tree, which part of the tree are you? I immediately replied, "I'm also one of the leaves like you."
As the speaker today, of course I think I need to explain myself a little bit to my audience, and I owe you this because in this way we can have a heart-to-heart discussion.
As you know, as you probably know, I'm the son of a schoolteacher. I spent my childhood mostly in the smoke and fire of war. I was not as fortunate as you as a child. When Japanese aggressors drove all the people in my place to the Central Plaza, I had to huddle closely against my mother. Later on, my whole family and house were all burned up, and even the primary school that my grandpa built himself all went up in flames. In my work life, most of the time I worked in areas under the most harsh conditions in China.
Therefore I know my country and my people quite well and I love them so deeply.
The title of my speech today is "Turning Your Eyes To China." China and the United States are far apart, and they differ, they differ greatly in the level of economic development and culture.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm deeply convinced that the 300 million American people do have friendly feelings towards the Chinese people. And I'm deeply convinced the development and improvement of China-U.S. relations will not only serve the interests of our two peoples but is also conducive to peace and stability of the whole world.
I know that China and the United States are far apart geographica
lly and they differ greatly in the level of economic development and a cultural background. I hope my speech will help increase our mutual understanding. In order to understand the true China, a changing society full of promises, it is necessary to get to know her yesterday, her today, and her tomorrow.
China yesterday was a big ancient country that created a splendid civilization.
As we all know in history of mankind there appeared the Mesopotamian civilization in West Asia, the ancient Egyptian civilization along the Nile in North Africa, the ancient Greek-Roman civilization along the northern bank of the Mediterranean, the ancient Indian civilization in the Indus River Valley in South Asia, and the Chinese civilization originating in the Yellow and Yangtze River Valleys. Owing to earthquake, flood, plague and famine, or to alien invasion or internal turmoil, some of these ancient civilizations withered away, some were destroyed and others became assimilated into other civilizations. Only the Chinese civilization, thanks to its strong cohesive power and inexhaustible appeal, has survived many vicissitudes intact. The 5,000-year-long civilization is the source of pride of every Chinese.
The traditional Chinese culture, both extensive and profound, starts far back and runs a long, long course. More than 2,000 years ago there emerged in China Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius. Taoism, represented by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, and many other theories and doctrines that figured prominently in the history of Chinese thought, all being covered by the famous term, "the masters' hundred schools."
From Confucius to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the traditional Chinese culture presents many precious ideas and qualities, which are essentially populist and democratic. For example, they lay stress on the importance of kindness and love in human relations, on the interest of the community, on seeking harmony without uniformity and on the idea that the world is for all. Especially, patriotism as embodied in the saying, "everybody is responsible for the rise or fall of the country;" the populist ideas that, people are the foundation of the country and that people are more important than the monarch; the code of conduct of, don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you; and the traditional virtues taught from generation to generation: long suffering and hard working diligence and frugality in household management, and respecting teachers and valuing education. All these have played a great role in binding and regulating the family, the country and the society.
On this year's Teacher's Day, which fell on the 10th of September, I specially went to see Professor Ji Xianlin of Peking University in his hospital ward. Professor Ji, 92 years old, is a great scholar in both Chinese and Western learning, and specializing in Oriental studies. I enjoy reading his prose. And he had a very good habit that is even in his hospital he would keep a jour
portant role to play in the new century. Different nations may speak different languages, but the people's hearts and feelings are interlinked. Different cultures may present manifold features, yet they often share the same rational core elements that can always be passed on by people. The civilizations of different nations are all fruits of human wisdom and contribution to human progress; they call for mutual respect. Conflicts triggered by ignorance or prejudice are sometimes more dreadful than those caused by contradictory interests. We propose to seek common in a spirit of equality and tolerance, and carry on extensive inter-civilization dialogue and closer cultural exchanges.
In his poem, "Malvern Hill," the famous American poet Herman Melville wrote:
Wag the world how it will.
Leaves must be green in Spring.
The youth represents the future of the nation and the world. Faced with the bright prospect of China-U.S. relations in the new century, I hope the young people of China and the young people of the United States will join their hands more closely.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Chinese forefathers formulated their goals as follows:
To ordain conscience for Heaven and Earth.
To secure life and fortune for the people.
To continue lost teachings for past sages.
To establish peace for all future generations.
Today, mankind is in the middle of a period of drastic social change. It would be a wise approach for all countries to carry forward their fine cultural heritages by tracing back their origin, passing on the essentials, learning from one another and breaking new ground. My appeal is that we work together with our wisdom and strength for the progress and development of human civilization. Our success will do credit to our forbears and bring benefit to our posterity. In this way, our children and their children will be able to live in a more peaceful, more tranquil and more prosperous world.
I am convinced that such an immensely bright and beautiful tomorrow will arrive.
Thank you for your attention.
Now I'll be happy to take questions from you. You may raise your hands.
-=Q&A=-
DEAN KIRBY:
Thank you, Premier Wen, for your wide ranging and very interesting historical perspective. And as a historian I have many questions I would like to ask you, but it's not my turn. We have several questions that have been submitted by our students, and I just have to tell you that students ask much harder questions than deans. So if I may read you one question that has been submitted by our students.
Premier Wen, what do you feel are the prospects for democracy in China? Do you envisage any changes in the role of the Communist Party? For example, do you envisage contested direct elections for township, county, and provincial governments?
PREMIER WEN:
There's no question that to develop democracy, the objective of our endeavor, all our efforts will be aimed at building China into a prosperous, democratic, civilized and mode
increase its export to China.