Empoli is really good at chatting, and he spent a long time chatting with the audience on stage alone.
However, Empoli speaks humorously and is the principal, so everyone is willing to listen to him.
In the end, he probably realized that he had said too much, so he smiled and said, "Next, let's invite our first speaker—Zhuang Yu."
The order of appearance was arranged by Adrian and Zhang Zhong after discussion. The reason why Zhuang Yu was given the go-ahead was because besides Zhang Zhong, Zhuang Yu was the most famous in France.
Let him come up first and start things off, so that the place can be warmed up first.
Zhuang Yu knew that he was the first one to get on it, but as soon as his butt was warmed up, he wanted to get on it, so he couldn't help but curl his lips.
Zhang Zhong, who was sitting next to him, saw him like this and pushed him with his hand, telling him to stay quiet.
Zhuang Yu felt the heavy hand pushing him from behind, and his lips curled even more.
But he still had to go on stage. Amidst warm applause, Zhuang Yu stood up and walked onto the stage.
"Good evening everyone."
After Zhuang Yu came on stage, he started with a not-so-standard French sentence and said hello to everyone.
The audience was naturally happy to hear that he could speak French, but the accent was really funny, and many people couldn't help laughing.
But that’s where the French ended. Zhuang Yu took out the manuscript he had prepared in advance from his pocket and said in Chinese, “In order to prevent me from speaking too garbled in a moment, I prepared a little in advance. Compared with my companions from other exchange groups
Generally speaking, I have come to France quite often, but this is the first time to give a lecture at the Fourth University. It is not only the first time for me, but also for everyone else in the group. Because it is the first time, it is inevitable that I will feel uncomfortable in my heart.
We were worried, so after Mr. Empoli and Mr. Adrian invited us, we got together and had a small discussion. As for the content of the discussion, it was very simple, what were we going to say today. We also asked Adrian
Mr. An, what do the students at your school want to hear?"
"We wanted to use this question to determine what we would say, but Mr. Adrian told us not to think about what the students like to hear, but to think about what we want to say?"
"What do we want to say about ourselves? This is also a difficult problem, because it is just as difficult to look directly into our own hearts as it is to look directly into the hearts of others."
"I have been very curious about knowledge since I was a child. When I encounter something I don't understand, I will definitely ask it and ask it to the end. Later, as I got older, I asked less about others and more about myself, because I asked
It is easy to ask yourself when others are troublesome. But it is easy to get the answer when you ask others, but it is difficult to get the answer when you ask yourself."
"Zengzi said: I have to examine myself three times every day. Have I been unfaithful in my plans for others? Have I not trusted my friends in my dealings? Have I not learned to pass them on?"
"Zengzi asked himself three questions every day. I am even better. I ask myself countless questions every day, but my questions are much simpler. Should I have more lunch today? The weather is nice today. Should I go out for a walk? Today
Should I write something? Do I want to read for a while today? Wait..."
Zhuang Yu stood on the stage and talked eloquently. Although he never named the theme of his speech, he already named the theme in his words, which was "asking yourself."
Zhuang Yu cited Zengzi's quotations and mentioned introspection.
But there are some differences between self-questioning and self-examination. Self-examination is a good way to flog yourself, while self-questioning is a way to touch your heart.
Zhang Zhong sat in the audience and was deeply moved by Zhuang Yu's words.
It is important for people to have self-knowledge. How to have self-knowledge lies in asking yourself.
Find yourself through self-questioning and answering again and again, peel off the clutter in your heart, and return to a clear self.
Because everyone in the Chinese exchange group had to go on stage to give a speech, there were a lot of people, so the time allocated to each person was not long.
Although Empoli and Adrian had not mentioned the incident before, they all consciously controlled the length when preparing the manuscript to prevent their own articles from being too long and occupying other people's time.
Besides, today’s speech is different from the speeches in China.
When speaking in China, the audience below are all Chinese. They speak on the stage and the people below listen.
But it's different here. When Zhuang Yu speaks a sentence, he has to pause and wait until the translator has translated what he just said to the audience before saying the next sentence.
And in order to take care of the translation, Zhuang Yu also deliberately slowed down his speaking speed.
Adding up many factors, a ten-minute speech may take twenty or thirty minutes.
Zhuang Yu's speech took about twenty minutes.
After Zhuang Yu finished speaking, Empoli immediately went over, the two shook hands, Zhuang Yu walked off the stage, and Empoli walked to the microphone.
He also knew that he could not waste any more time, so he did not say anything else and directly introduced the next speaker: "The next person to speak on the stage is Feng He, the Nebula Award winner. Please invite me."
Feng He may be the Chinese writer who is most familiar to the students of Fourth University, besides Zhang Zhong and Zhuang Yu, because he has won the Nebula Award.
Even if some people have never heard of Fenghe, they will take a high look when they hear the name of Nebula Award winner. After all, the Nebula Award has a good value.
Moreover, most of the Nebula Awards in recent years have gone to Zhang Zhong. To win the Nebula Award during this period of time is more difficult than in previous years.
After Feng He took the stage, he did not exchange pleasantries, but went straight to the topic.
The theme of his speech today is slightly different from that of other group members. As a science fiction novelist, what he talks about is more relevant to young people.
"Our Sky and Our Feet"
This topic is somewhat related to the work "Backside of the Center of the Earth" that won the Nebula Award that year.
Zhang Zhong sat in the audience and looked at Feng He. In just a few years, Feng He was already very different.
Feng He has always been a very talented science fiction novelist, but his works are mainly short stories.
It’s not that Zhang Zhong looks down on short stories, but short stories have their shortcomings.
Many writers may be famous for a novel, but few writers are famous for a short story.
Even those short story giants only gained fame after writing several short stories.
And throughout the past and present, there are only a few famous short story writers, but there are countless novelists.
The short stories Feng He wrote earned him some fame, but it was difficult for him to move to a larger stage.
Take Liu Cixin for example. He has many excellent short stories, such as "The Wandering Earth", "Country Teacher", "Bring Her Eyes", etc. But without novels such as "The Three-Body Problem", his reputation would definitely be worse.
A big chunk.
Many people have read a novel with thousands of words, just like reading a story. They will not pay attention to who the author is. Even if they read the author, they probably won't take it too seriously.
This is the disadvantage of short stories. It is difficult to accumulate high popularity for the writer himself.
Feng He's current reputation is still not very high. Even if he won the Nebula Award, he still can't really enter the foreign market.
However, Feng He is currently writing a novel. When the two were chatting before, Feng He told Zhang Zhong that the story had actually been conceived for five or six years, but it had never been written.
He himself lacked experience in writing long novels, so he was inevitably a little cautious.
Zhang Zhong encouraged him and told him not to worry and just write. In Zhang Zhong’s view, the fact that he had not started writing after five or six years of conception was not because the plot was stuck, but because he was not confident enough in his ability to write novels.
But it doesn't matter, just try to write it again. Even if you are not satisfied with what you write, it doesn't matter. It's not like the exam won't ask you to correct it.
Just write. Only after you write will you know where your problems are. If you don't write, you will keep worrying. The longer you put it off, the harder it will be to start writing.