Translator: Jianing Gu Reviewer: Leonard Ryunosuke
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Ruoqing Zhang,
I’m thirteen years old this year. Thirteen years old. It’s a wonderful age,
At this age,
We start to become independent, thoughtful,
and we are increasingly reluctant to be influenced by our parents’ opinions.
The atmosphere at home gets strange.
Sometimes we have no communication and it is unusually quiet,
Sometimes we persist in our views and have a heated debate.
Although everyone wears masks today,
I can’t see your smile.
But I believe that many students and parents feel the same way as me.
So how can we get through this awkward period of rebellion smoothly?
First of all, I would like to share with you a little story of my own.
I enjoy dancing Latin and often participate in competitions.
To give you a science popularization， Latin Dancing is a kind of sports dancing,
which has high physical requirements.
Once my mother and I argued over the registration for competition.
I was so confident that I wanted to sign up for all four competitions in two ages,
but my mother thought that I should only choose two of them.
She believed that I had insufficient stamina,
and my dancing level hadn’t reached that high.
Hearing this, I was so unconvinced that
I shouted at her.
How can you be so unconfident in me ?!
You know what? It is a real hurt to children’s self-confidence.
That day, it was very unpleasant between us about the matter.
Normally, parents and we always have different cognition and understandings
on many things,
which may lead to disagreement.
But this does not affect us from still being intimate and harmonious,
because we are all deeply in love with each other.
Just like the morning after I argued with my mother,
she still didn’t forget to make my favorite waffles for me,
and I offered to make coffee for her.
Both of us seemed to have forgotten the incident last night.
For we know that despite different opinions and personalities,
mutual love is the eternal commonality between us.
On the matter of love, “generality” makes “individuality” less sharp.
Incidents come and go,
fraternity and harmony are still the main themes of life.
You may ask if there is “generality”, why should there also be “individuality”?
How can we eliminate contradictions and disagreements?
Um, there is a philosophical saying that,
The only thing that we can agree with each other is we cannot agree on anything.
The parent-child relationship is indeed the most intimate in the world.
We are always together and overcome difficulties but are still hand in hand.
Howver, please don’t forget, Each of us is an independent individual.
There is such a difference between individuals.
Differences in age, psychological
maturity, life experience, personality and preferences
lead to different ideas and concepts.
It is unavoidable that we have different opinions.
Take the controversial topic of playing games as an example,
I would like to ask the parents here,
how many of you are in favor of children playing games?
Please raise your hands.
Sure enough. Fifty-fifty.
So as you can see, different opinions
are everywhere, Even on our site today.
The difference is not terrible,
It is everywhere,
But what can further makes the difference evolve into a fierce contradiction,
in addition to the love I mentioned earlier, is trust.
Back to games,
there is no more than two reasons why parents are disgusted with games:
First, they think the game itself is vulgar and inferior,
and it cannot increase our knowledge.
The second is that the game will make us addicted and lose our ambition,
taking up a lot of time we should have used to study.
But we teenagers hold different views.
First of all, many of the games today
are intelligent invigorated, complex and well designed.
For example, everyone knows the Honor of Kings, right?
In fact, this is a very strategic game,
And It’s just an example of seeking common ground while reserving differences.
Five different heroes will be matched in each game setting of Honor of Kings.
Some heroes have a strong burst output, but the defense is relatively weak.
Such as shooter heroes.
Some heroes are good at assisting but can’t fight alone.
Such as wandering heroes.
Some heroes can dominate the whole field in the early stage,
But have no advantage in the later stage.
Such as jungle heroes.
The commonality here refers to the common goal of winning the game,
And the difference is the different functions and skills of each hero.
Only when matching teammates’ lengths & weaknesses as well as attack methods,
can we ensure that everything is covered and win the competition.
So this game is not simply a matter of killing time.
Moreover, it requires participants to have the knowledge scope, a perspective on the
overall situation, judgment, and teamwork.
Secondly, regarding game addiction,
this also involves trust.
Except for a few cases of game addiction,
Most children of our age can distinguish right from wrong and self-manage.
We all have our plans, arrangements, and rhythms for studying and living.
Many excellent classmates around me play games on weekends,
including myself.
Some moms and dads will even join them.
The good relationship between learning and play
develops from the trust between parents and children.
Parents believe that we can manage time reasonably to achieve “work and rest”
while not affecting learning,
And they trust us in the screening of game content.
As children, we should always trust our parents’ ability to accept new things.
And communicate with them frankly about our hobbies
as well as trends, gossip, and novelties of our age.
Communication brings us closer to our parents
and makes us get along like friends.
On the matter of trust, “generality”
resolves the inevitable differences between us and our parents,
And it creates a balance as well as a better parent-child relationship.
I know you guys in the audience are going to say that
the truth is clear,
but it’s easier to know than to do, a child is a child after all,
playful, simple, childish, how can him/her be fully trusted?
It would be best if the children’s every move was under the eyes of their parents.
With advanced science and technology today, this is indeed possible.
However, we are in adolescence, an age full of personality and impulsiveness.
Excessive parental supervision will be interpreted by us as disrespecting our
privacy and mistrusting our abilities.
We will break the principles intentionally to appear independent
and are hostile toward our parents.
and that’s how rebellion comes about.
At such times, please think about
the “generality” and “individuality” between us.
Parents give us love, and more importantly, trust.
Your trust seems to give us freedom, but in fact, it promotes our self-discipline.
As a child, open your heart.
Communicate more with your parents, and believe that they can have a resonance,
after all, they were children once.
More importantly, please trust your parents’ advice,
which is their life experience for decades.
Do you remember the little story I mentioned at the beginning about
my sign-up for a dance competition?
The follow-up to that incident was that I stuck to my own decisions,
but the results of the competition were not ideal
and I was exhausted.
Looking back now, it was my mother who chose to trust me, but I didn’t trust her.
Finally, I want to say that, generality is like the vast night sky,
And the individuality is like sparkling stars in the night sky.
There is no contradiction between generality and individuality,
Only commonality can have people to strive for the same goal.
While inclusion and tolerance of individuality balances the pros and cons.
Just like the gears with seemingly different sizes could still fit
and provide power for each other.
This is what we said, seek common points while reserving difference.
[The stars in the night sky are shining brightly.]
[The night sky is deeper against the stars.]
Thank you.
(applause)