In this world, on this planet, stands China, a great nation of We the Chinese, a great people of Chineseness, and great stories of Eastern wisdom.

在广袤世界里，在浩瀚星河中，屹立着一个伟大的国家，中国；一个伟大的民族，蕴含东方智慧的中华民族。

外国友人眼中的中国故事有何独特魅力？本周送上2021“外研社·国才杯”演讲大赛全国亚军墨西哥在华留学生Arriaga Gomez Francisco的精彩演讲，且看外籍选手如何理解“Chineseness”！

2021“外研社·国才杯”全国英语演讲大赛全国亚军

Arriaga Gomez Francisco

深圳大学

指导教师：胡亦杰

赛题回顾

2021“外研社·国才杯”全国英语演讲大赛决赛第四阶段赛题

选手破题思路

关键词：An Ambassador of Chineseness

After receiving the topic for the speech, the first step we would take, as per our habit, is to watch the video again once or twice in case we miss important information or we could find more clues that would help us to better shape the speech. After that, we would do a brainstorm to collect ideas and then do an elimination process from the less ideal to the best. In the case of the topic "Chineseness", we went through a lot of important characters in Chinese history such as Confucius, Mengzi, Zhuangzi, Laozi, and other relevant characters such as Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang all the way to modern writers such as Lu Xun or Xu Zhimo, we reviewed some of their accounts.

But when examining those stories under the light of Chineseness there was a value that always stood out to me, and that is humility. I wanted to use as a primary story in my speech the account about Confucius being corrected by a fisherman and he humbly accepting the correction. However, that is when I thought of President Xi, he has always shown humility, and I remembered a special occasion when for the international public that was evident, the visit he did to the Zamora family in Costa Rica. Having that story as a frame then we proceeded to give stricture to the speech and also look for other instances where humility was portrayed or was highlighted in Chinese history or wisdom, and we agreed to use the famous quote "keep your eyes on the stars, but your feet on the ground". With all of those elements in mind I proceeded to structure my speech around the concept of humility and at the same time looking for a way to say something meaningful taking into account the importance of the platform I was going to speak on, so I worked on the introduction and conclusion so both could be meaningful, particularly, when one of the requirements was to talk about wisdom. The story was the main part but I also made sure I could make clear the two requirements in the question so I numbered them, number one the value indicating Chineseness and number two the wisdom that comes from the story.

Finally, I was ready to give the speech of my life.

选手视频

墨西哥小哥哥的演讲有没有打动你？他讲述的故事有何亮眼之处？小编力邀中南大学傅春晖副教授带来精彩点评。

专家点评

傅春晖副教授

中南大学外国语学院副教授，主持湖南省社科基金1项，作为主要完成人员参加湖南省教育厅教改项目3项；曾获湖南省青年教学能手，中南大学师德先进个人，中南大学教学质量优秀奖；指导学生获“外研社·国才杯”全国英语演讲大赛全国亚军、最佳语音奖。

用一个故事展现中国几千年来形成的Chineseness, 这对来自墨西哥的33号选手Arriaga Gomez Francisco来说无疑是个挑战，但他做到了，而且还是当之无愧的“good storyteller”，其演讲特色明显：  

诗意开篇 

“仰望星空，脚踏实地”这样富有诗意、耳熟能详的开篇，让听众顿时饶有兴趣，随即用提问的方式引导听众进行思考，使演讲更具交流感，再抛出主题词“humility”，从而引出故事。

巧妙立意 

中国自古有云：“吾有知乎哉？无知也”“谦谦君子，卑以自牧也”“生而不有，为而不恃，功成而弗居”。作为一个外国人，他敏锐地感知到中国人历经数千年形成的谦逊品质，让人不禁为其主题词叫绝。故事的选取也很有意思，人物极具代表性，符合前文两个问题的设定，学识渊博且居高不傲。通过习主席在国内外践行谦逊的故事，体现了中国人的“Chineseness”，指出这包含了中国哲学思想与智慧，展现了以习主席为代表的中国人所具有的谦逊品质。

讲述得当 

故事讲述自然，观点输出合理。选手自信、幽默，在讲故事和说道理之间衔接流畅，比赛全程将“言之有物，言之有理”结合得恰到好处，使得这个故事既有温度也有价值高度。

当然，这篇演讲在深度上还有挖掘空间：

进一步阐释“humility”

humility作为shared quality as humans，演讲者也可从深度上进一步挖掘，如通过比较和对比来解释说明其特有的“中国属性”。

升华“ambassador”的含义

当看到其演讲关键词“An ambassador of Chinesesness”时，听众对“ambassador”一词是有认知期待和听众思维的。当听到ambassador指的是习主席时，听众更期待演讲者能进一步解释习主席作为ambassador的作用，以及是如何让全世界对中国的humility有更深刻的了解。这样可能会进一步升华关键词的含义，同时满足听众的期待。

作为一个来华留学生，能够用评委和观众们喜欢的方式讲好中国故事，33号选手是成功的！希望未来的岁月里，能够有更多选手向中国讲述世界故事，向世界讲述中国故事！