Peking University, May 18, 2017: In the afternoon of May 12, 2017, the final of the 13th PKU “Top Ten Student Speakers” was held in the Peking University Hall. Altogether thirteen speakers, from PKU main campus, Health Science Center and Shenzhen Graduate School were shortlisted and competed for the honorary title “Top Ten Student Speakers” and championship via two rounds of competitions: keynote speech and impromptu speech.
The judging panel consisted of Wang Fan and Chen Geng, who were eminent speakers in TV shows, and public jurors from all faculties in PKU. After two rounds of heated competitions, Shang Junying and other nine speakers won the honorary title of “Top Ten Student Speakers”.
Live scene of the contest
The final was divided into two rounds, keynote speech and impromptu speech. During the session of keynote speech, Song Yuqi, master candidate of class of 2018 from Graduate School of Education delivered a speech entitled “the Original Intention of Life”. Starting from a bottle of yoghurt named “Original Intention”, she introduced a self-made video about the informal kindergartens in Beijing’s shantytowns, which were open to children of “Beijing drifters”. The speech revealed the social phenomenon and called for the young to undertake their social responsibilities and concern the whole society in addition to merely upholding their inner moral spirits.
The speaker was delivering a keynote speech
Li Tianjiao, from School of Foreign Languages, held opinion that “Original Intention” indicated making the world better by playing to one’s strength and she illustrated her opinion by giving examples. She talked from Yang Jiang, who translated the great novel Don Quixote, to Wang Sai, an Oxford graduate devoting himself to China’s public welfare undertakings. Enthusiastic about public welfare undertakings, Shang Junying, undergraduate student of class of 2017 from School of Government, encouraged the audience to retrieve original intentions in small things based on his experience in PKU’s populace school.
In the session of impromptu speech, speakers were only allowed to prepare for their speech topics within two minutes before they went on the stage. Speakers were surprised by the extensive coverage of speech topics: from “the spirit of Xi’s talk” to “social practice of poverty alleviation”, and from philosophical thinking to campus life. In spite of the very limited preparing time, speakers made full use of their talent and creativity, quoted copiously and vividly elucidated the focuses and solicitude of the young in PKU, showing the beauty of language and thoughts.
The speaker was making an impromptu speech
After two rounds of competition, Shang Junying, Song Yuqi and Fu Xiaodong stood out above the rest and ranked first, second and third. And the top ten speakers in total grades received the title of “Top Ten Student Speakers”. What’s more, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Law School, School of Government, School of Foreign Languages and Graduate School of Education won the Best Organization Awards.
Guests presented awards to the winners
PKU “Top Ten Student Speakers” Contest was initially launched on the eve of 1998 PKU’s Centenary and has accompanied PKUers for nearly 20 years from then on. As one of PKU’s traditional campus cultural activities, the contest became an indispensable part of the campus cultural ecology and served as a stage to hand down the glorious tradition, which contained the spirit of “Dare to be the First”. So far, there have been 130 speakers won the title on this stage, inherited and propagated the social value and historical task of PKUers after embarking on different fields in society.
Appendix: List of 13th PKU “Top Ten Student Speakers”
Shang Junying, undergraduate student from School of Government
Song Yuqi, master candidate from Graduate School of Education
Fu Xiaodong, master candidate Law School
Li Yini, undergraduate student from School of Foreign Languages
Liu Xinyu, master candidate from School of Transnational Law, PKUSZ
Pang Ning, PhD candidate from School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Science Center
Li Tianjiao, undergraduate student from School of Foreign Languages
Xiang Jiawei, undergraduate student from School of Foreign Languages
Xia Xinming, PhD candidate from College of Urban and Environmental Sciences
Fan Yueying, undergraduate student from Law School
Written by: Xu Yilun
Edited by: Li Ruiqi
