Leehom Wang Oxford Union Speech

I never thought I would be addressing you, the esteemed members of the Oxford Union, without a guitar
or an erhu, without my crazy stage hair and costumes, but I did perform in the O2 Arena in London last
week. Im not sure if any of you [x]

But in many ways that is similar to what Im talking about today, that is, introducing Chinese pop music.
See, Im actually an ambassador for Chinese pop, whether I like it or not, for both music and movies, and
today Im here to give you a State of Union address. Its not the Oxford Union, its the union of East and
West.

I want to frankly and openly and honestly talk about how weve done a good job, or how weve done a
bad job, of bringing Chinese pop to the West. And I also want to impress upon all of you here today the
workings of that soft power exchange and how each of us is involved in that exchange.

Soft power, a term Im sure youre all familiar with, coined by Rhodes Scholar and Oxford alumnus
Joseph Nye, is defined as the ability to attract and persuade. Shashi Tharoor called it, in a recent TEDTalk,
the ability of a culture to tell a compelling story and influence others to fall in love with them. I like that
definition. But I want to put it in collegiate term for you students in the audience. The way I see it, East
and West, are kinda like freshmen roommates. You dont know a lot about each other aside that youre
living with each other in the same room. And each one is scared the others gonna steal his shower time
or wants to party when the other wants to study. It has the potential to be absolute hell. We all have horror
stories of that roommate, we all heard about those stories. I know a lot of students here in Oxford have
their own separate bedrooms.

But when I was a freshman at Williams College [crowd interjects] Youre kidding! Woohoo! Well I had a
roommate. And he was that roommate. Lets just call him Frank. So Frank was my roommate and Frank
liked nothing more than to smoke weed. [laughter] And he did it every day. And Frank had a 2-foot long
bong under his bed that was constantly being fired up. For those Chinese speakers in the audience, Frank
would on that bong. So I guess I was kinda the opposite of Bill Clinton, who tried marijuana
but didnt inhale: I didnt try marijuana but I did inhale. Every single day. Second hand. And strangely
enough, every time I go into our bedroom, I mysteriously end up being late for class. I was like, dude is it
already 10 oclock?

So, how many of you have lived with that Frank, or be a Frank? Having a roommate can be a recipe for
disaster, but it also can have the potential of being the greatest friendship youve ever had. See, Frank, he
didnt make it to second year. And I got two new roommates instead: Stephan and Jason, and these days
the three of us are the best of friends. So going back to my analogy, East and West, as roommates, do we
want to be Frank, or do we want to be Steph and Jason, and I think in this day and age, in 2013, we
should all be striving for the latter. Im assuming we all agree that this is the goal that we all strive for.

Now, lets look at where we are in reality, in recent headlines, in the media include, Foreign policy
[maybe?], Chinas victim complex, Why are Chinese leaders so paranoid about the United States or the
[AP, the Associated Press?], Human rights in China worse than US. Bloomberg says, on the cover of this
magazine, Yes, the Chinese army is spying on you [laughter] And its such a great one that I want to show
you the cover of the magazine [laughter][Ed:check out the photo on the right!] Yes, be very afraid!
[laughter]

Theres actually an extremely high amount of negativity and fear and anxiety about China, Sinophobia,
that I think is not just misinformed and misleading and ultimately dangerous. Very dangerous. And what
about how Westerners are viewed by Chinese? Well, we have terms for Westerners. The most common of
which are gwailo, in Cantonese which means the old devil, laowai, meaning the old outsider in
Mandarin, ang moh, which means the red hairy one in Taiwanese, and the list goes on and on. So are
these roommates heading for a best friend relationship? I think we need a little help. And as China rise to
power, I think it is more important than ever for us to more discerning about what we believe because
after all, I think, thats the purpose of higher education, and thats why we are all here, to be able to think
for ourselves and make our own decisions.

Chinas not just those headlines. The burgeoning economy with unique politics. It is not just the worlds
factory or the next big superpower, its so much more, a billion people with rich culture, amazing stories,
and as a product of both of those cultures, I want to help foster an understanding between the two. And [x]
that incredible relationship, because knowing both sides of the coin, I really think that there is a love story
waiting to be told, ready to unfold. And Im only half joking when I said love story because I believe it is
the stories that will save us and bring us closer together.

And my thesis statement for todays talk is that the relationship between East and West needs to be and
can be fixed via pop culture, and Im going to try and back it up. Now, the UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki Moon
said, There are no languages required in the musical world. That is the power of music. That is the power
of heart. Through this promotion of arts we can better understand the culture and civilisation of other
people. And in this era of instability and intolerance, we need to promote better understanding through the
power of music. The UN Sec-Gen thinks that we need more music, and I think that he is right. Music and
arts have always played a key role in my life, in building relationships, replacing what once were
ignorance, fear and hatred, with acceptance, friendship and even love.

So I have a strong case for promoting music between cultures because it happened to me early in my life.
I was born in Rochester, New York, I barely spoke a word of Chinese. I didn't know the difference
between Taiwan or Thailand. [laughter] I was as American as apple pie, until one day on the 3rd grade
playground, the inevitable finally happened: I got teased for being Chinese. Now every kid gets teased or
being made fun of in the playground, but this was fundamentally different and I knew right then and there.
So this kid lets call him Brian [x]. He started making fun of me, saying Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees,
look at these! [laughing] Were laughing now but it hurt!

I could still remember how I felt, I felt ashamed, I felt embarrassed. But I laughed along with everyone.
And I didn't know what else to do. It was like having an out of body experience. As if I could laugh at that
Chinese kid on the playground with all the other Americans because I was one of them, right? Wrong, on
many levels. And I was facing the first and definitely not the last time the harsh reality was that I was
minority in Rochester, which in those days had an Asian population of 1%. And I was confused. I wanted
to punch Brian. I wanted to hurt him for putting me in that situation but he was faster than me, and he was
stronger than me, and he would kick my butt and we both knew that, so I just took it in. I didn't tell
anyone or share with anyone these feelings, I just held them in and I let them fester. And those feelings
would surface in a strangely therapeutic way for me through music, and it was no coincidence that around
at that time I started getting good with the violin, and the guitar and the drums. And Id soon discovered
that by playing music or singing that the other kids would for a brief moment forget about my race or
color and accept me and then be able to see me for who I truly am: a human being who is emotional,
spiritual, curious about the world, and has a need for love just like everyone else.

And by the sixth grade, guess who asked me if I would the drummer of their band? Brian. And I said yes.
And thats when we together formed an elementary school rock band called Nirvana. Im not kidding, I
was in a rock band called Nirvana before Kurt Cobain's Nirvana was ever known So when Nirvana
came out, Brian and I were like, hey hes stealing our name! But really what attracted me to music at this
young age was just that, and still is what I love about music, is that it breaks down the walls between us
and shows us so quickly the truth that we are much more alike than we [think?].

And then in high school, I learned that music wasnt just about connecting with others, like Brian and I
were connected through music. It was a powerful tool of influence and inspiration. Sam [Nguyen?] was
my high school janitor. He was an immigrant from Vietnam who barely spoke a word of English. Sam
scrubbed the floors and cleaned the bathrooms of our school for twenty years. He never talked to the kids,
and the kids never talked to Sam. But one day before the opening night of our schools annual musical, he
walked up to me holding a letter, and I was taken aback and I was thinking, why is Sam the janitor
approaching me? And he gave me this letter that Ive kept it to this day, it was scrawled in shaky hand
written in all capitals and it read, in my all years working as a janitor at Sutherland, you were the first
Asian boy to play the lead role. Im going to bring my 6-year-old daughter to watch you perform tonight
because I want her to see that Asians can be inspiring.

And that letter just floored me. I was 15 years old and I was absolutely stunned. That was the first time I
realized how music was so important. With Brian, it helped two kids who were initially enemies to
become friends, but with Sam, music went beyond the one-on-one. It was an even higher level; it
influenced others I didnt even know, in ways I could never imagine. I cant tell you how grateful I am to
Sam to this day, he really is one of the people who helped me discover my lifes purpose, and I had no
idea that something I did could mean more than ever imagined to an immigrant from Vietnam who barely
even spoke English. Pop culture, music, and the other methods of storytelling, movies, TV dramas, they
are so key, and they do connect us, like me and Brian, and do influence us, and inspire us.

Then lets take another look at this state of union, the East and West union, with this soft power bias.
How is the soft power exchange between these two roommates? Are there songs in English that have
become hits in China? Sure. How about movies? Well, there are so many that China has had to limit the
number of Hollywood movies imported into the country so that local films could even have a chance at
success. What about [x], well, [inaudible exchange with an audience member], yeah, and movies, well
there was Crouching Tiger [Hidden Dragon], that was 13 years ago. Well, I think theres a bit of an
imbalance here. Its called soft power deficit, that is to say the West influences the East more than vice
versa. Forgive me for using East and West kinda loosely, its a lot easier to say than English-
speaking language or Asian-speaking language/Chinese, Im making generalisation and I hope
you can go with me on this.

And its just intrinsically a problem, this imbalance in pop culture influence. And I think so. In any
healthy relationship, friendship, marriage, isnt it important for both sides to make an effort to understand
the other? And that this exchange needs to have a healthy balance? And how do we address this? As an
ambassador for Chinese pop music and movies, I have to ask myself a question: Why does this deficit
exist? Is it because Chinese music just [is lame?]. Do you want me to answer that? [laughter] Yeah I think
I see some of you are like, stop complaining and write a hit song! Psy did it! But theres truth in that. The
argument being that, the content that weve created just isnt as internationally competitive. But why
shouldnt it?

Look at Korean pop, look at K-pop for example. Korean is an export-based economy and they are
outward looking and they must be outward looking. Chinese pop on the other hand can just stay domestic,
tour all over China, stick in territories and comfortably sustain. So when youre that big and powerful,
with over 160 cities in China with a million or more people, you tend to kinda turn inward and be
complacent. So this certainly can be made an argument made for Chinese pop not being marketed with
international sensibilities, but the other side of the argument I think is more interesting and thought
provoking and even more true, is that Western ears arent familiar with and therefore dont really
understand how to appreciate Chinese music. Ouch!

The reason I think that the argument holds water though is because thats exactly what I went through, so
I happen to know a thing or two about learning to appreciate Chinese pop as a Westerner. 'Cos I was 17
years old when I went from being an Asian kid in America to being an American kid in Asia, and the
entire paradigm suddenly got flipped on its head. I grew up listening to Beastie Boys, Led Zeppelin, Guns
and Roses, and I found myself in Taiwan listening to the radio and thinking, wheres the beat? Wheres
the screeching guitar solos? Here I am as an American kid in Asia listening to Chinese music for the first
time and thinking that "this stuff is lame. I dont like it!" I thought it was cheesy, production value was
low, and the singers couldnt belt like Axl Rose or Mariah Carey.

But then one day, I went to my first Chinese pop concert, and it was Harlem Yu performing at the Taipei
Music Centre, and as he performed, I looked around the audience and I saw their faces and the looks in
their eyes and their response to his music, and it was clear to me finally where the problem lay. It wasnt
that the music that was lacking, it was my ability to appreciate it and to hear it in the right way. The
crowd, they would sing along and be totally immerse in his music, and I thought that it was significant,
that I was missing the point and from now on, I was going to somehow learn how to get it, I was gonna
learn how to hear with both ears, and I deconstructed and analysed what it was that made Chinese
audiences connect with certain types of melodies, and rhythms, and song structures, and lyrics, and thats
what Ive been doing for the past almost twenty years, and it took me a long time and I am still learning
but at some point, I not only began to be able to appreciate the music but I started being able to contribute
to it and create my own fresh spins on the tried-and-true.

And I think this happens to everyone, really, who is on the outside looking in. It always looks strange if
you looked at things from your perspective, youre always going to think that these people are weirdos,
whats wrong with them, why are they listening to these stuff? And Im saying that you can make the
effort [x], it can be done, and Im living proof of that. And as an ambassador of Chinese pop, Im trying
to get people to open up to a sound that they may not feel is palatable on the first listen. So what else can
we do to reduce this imbalance in our popular cultures? Well, maybe we could talk a lot, tour more
outside of China? But seriously, actually I think the tides have already started to change, very slowly,
very cautiously, almost calculatedly.

You see more cross-cultural exchange now, more interest in China, definitely a lot of joint ventures, a lot
of co-productions in recent years, Iron Man 3, Transformers, [53?][laughter], Resident Evil, really its
beginning to be kinda like a world pop, and thats what Im looking forward to and focusing on these
days. Theres J-pop, theres K-pop, theres C-pop, and theres like this W-pop thats kinda starting to
emerge. Its world pop, and I love that idea. Its not World Music. There used to be section in HMV
called World Music, and I was like Ethnomusicology class in college.

But world pop is more about breaking and tearing down age-old stereotypes, the artificial confines that
have kept us apart for way too long. Its a melting pot, and its mosaic, that even if we looked up close,
wed still see the colours and flavours of each culture in detail. And where can we go to listen to world
pop? I dont think theres a world pop station or magazine, unfortunately, there are none -- there should
be. There is the internet, and YouTube has proven to be a driving force for world pop. Britains Got
Talent made Susan Boyle the hottest act in the world, and she achieved that not through the record labels
or the networks, but through grassroots sharing. Gangnam Style is another great world pop, and how that
just took over became huge worldwide world pop phenomenon. So world pop as it suggests is a
worldwide pop culture is something that can be shared by all of us and gives us a lot of common ground.

So today, whats my call of action? Ive already proven multicultural exchange between the East and
West, I think I have made that clear, but how? I think you can all become pop singers, really, I think
thats the [x], unless thats what you really want to.

My call of action is this: build and protect that roommate relationship between the East and West. Value
this relationship and take ownership of it. Dont come to Oxford as an exchange student from Taiwan and
only hang out with other Chinese students. Why would you do that? You could do that in [x] or Nanjing
or wherever you came from. Dont buy into the headlines or the stereotypes or in the hypernationalism.
Think for yourselves, and this goes for the East and the West, both. Get to know one another and think for
yourselves and dont believe the hype. For just a moment, if we could just disregard the governments and
what the media are saying, just for the sake of the argument, with our own tools of critical thinking, can
we build relationships that actually see one another as individual human beings and not faces or members
of a particular ethnicity or nationality? Of course we can do that.

And thats the goal and dream, I think of the romantic artists and the musicians, I think its always been
there. And thats what I reach for, and that makes music so powerful and so true, that breaks down
instantly and disintegrates all the artificial barriers that we create between each other, government,
nationality, black, brown, yellow, white, whatever colour you are, and shows each other our hearts, our
fears, our hopes, our dreams, and it turns out in end that the East isnt that far after all, and the west, well
the west, aint so white. And through understanding each others popular cultures, we gain insight into
each others heart and true selves.

And for those of you who are just beginning that journey, the West and East, I want to invite you today on
this amazing journey with me, and I, as an experienced traveller on this road, on this West and East road,
Ive prepared a mixtape for all of you today, of ten songs that I love. There, thats a C-pop mixtape that
you can check out. I was gonna bring you all CDs but my publicist reminded me lovingly that that would
be illegal, that as a professional recording artist, I shouldnt do that. But I still think that it works out
nicely because you get to see the music videos as well on a lot of these songs. These ten songs are songs
that I love and ten different Chinese artists to start you off on getting to know and love Chinese pop and I
think these guys are awesome.

I just want to wrap up by saying that being here on the Oxford campus really makes me nostalgic for my
days at Williams. And when I look back on those four years, some of my fondest memories are spending
time with my roommates Stephan Papiano and Jason Price. In fact Jason is here in the audience today,
and made a special trip from London just to see me. And I suppose in the beginning we were strangers,
we didnt know much about each other, and sometimes we did compete for the shower and there were
times we did intrude on each other's privacy, but Ive always loved listening to Stephans stories about
growing up in a Greek family and his opinions about what Greek food really was. Or Jasons stories,
about wanting to make violins and to live in Cremona, Italy like Antonio Stradivari and he did do that,
and I will never forget many years later when I played a Jason Price handmade violin for the first time,
and how that felt. They were always attentive and respectful when I told them what it was like for me
growing up in a Chinese household with strict parents who always made me study. So we shared stories,
but the strongest bonds between us were formed just sitting around and listening to music together. And I
really do see that as a model for East and West. So I really want to share Chinese music with you today
because its the best way I know how to create a lasting friendship that transcends all barriers and allow
us to know each other truly, authentically and just as we are.