中國的少數民族之我見

05-02

這是我在美國做的一個關於中國少數民族的演講。我為什麼要做這個演講，因為我愛國，我希望我的國家能更好，我更希望將來通過我的努力，我能更好地報效祖國。

I have many ideas about what i am going to talk about for my ice-breaker speech, I have a copious amount of interests in different areas and I really want to share my first-hand story about them. I can talk about the presidential race, I can talk about the South China Sea, I can talk about the football or so-called "soccer" or I can talk about how I grow up. However, recently this one stands out because it resonates more with the situation in America. Just several weeks ago, several unarmed black men were shot or killed by the police officers and sparked a wide range of protest across US about #BLM campaign. While just several days ago, a deceased American Gold Star Family captain whose commitment to ultimate sacrifice for this countrys freedom and this countrys safety were ignored or even rebuked by presidential candidate Donald Trump because hes a muslim. So, what am I going to talk about today? I am going to talk about the minorities in China.

For most of you here, I have a good confidence to say that 99% of the Chinese you have met here are Han Chinese. Han Chinese comprised of over 90%of Chinese population and is pretty much the facade of the Chinese people. China is home to 56 ethnic groups and in order to foster peaceful cohabitation, the Chinese government has been introducing a series of policies for different ethnic minority groups, including one-extra-child for the family planning policy, preferential economic measures to help develop regions and additional points system for the national college entrance examination.

However, what they have not figured out is what they can do after they graduate. Minorities get the advantage of getting into the colleges, but some of them face severe competitions and challenges after they graduate because the business industry doesnt give them this advantage nor do they recognize their talents. They are not similar to the minorities situation in America. The black people, the Hispanic people, the Asian people may grow up speaking another language, but they all speak English at school. A lot of Chinese minorities grow up speaking their own language, Mongol, Uyghur, Kazakh, Tibetan and their college entrance exams are conducted in their own language except the subject Chinese. They still speak fluent Chinese and write Chinese without any problems, but I can speak fluent English and write English as well, I just dont have the instinct when I want to say something unprepared and I cannot be hilarious because I dont have the cultural background.

Another difficult situation is the religion. Most Han people dont have a religion just like me, I dont believe human are created by the god; I dont believe I will go to heaven or hell after I die; I only believe in those things that have been proved by the science. Many minorities, nevertheless, are very religious. I have been to Tibet and I think those people are the most devoted people. They have to 頂禮膜拜 for thousands of miles to visit the most prestigious temples. By 頂禮膜拜, they kneel down and have their heads fully touch the ground, do it 3 times, stand up, make a step, repeat it. It takes years to finish all this. And there are the muslim minorities. Some Han people just assume Islam is a bad religion and muslim minorities are terrorists, except they are not. Just to name a few, there are many fundamental differences. What we should do is to recognize the differences and embrace them!

I have many minority friends that have told me that if you are from Xinjiang, you are automatically banned from booking a hotel in Mainland. Excuse for my language, but in my opinion, that is just bullshit. There are terrorists in Xinjiang, but most people are good people that are just traveling or doing business trips, you cannot just discriminate a whole province of people just because there are a couple of bad guys. What would they feel? Simple, they will hate you back. Probably 99% of the Han people have not heard about this story, but even if they do, most of them wont give a damn. And that is why I am standing here, I want to be vocal, I want to voice my concerns. I want the equality for the minorities. I want the equality for all people.