Raising their voices

An international public-speaking contest gives Chinese youngsters like this year's winner Yang Kangqi a platform to tell their stories to the world, Chen Huan reports.

A Shanghai university student, Yang Kangqi, has become the third person from the Chinese mainland to win the International Public Speaking Competition organized by the English Speaking Union in London.

In her speech on May 13, Yang, an undergraduate at Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, said that, as we call mothers heroines, we are constantly asking too much of them, often without giving anything in return. She added that women need to be given space to be themselves, rather than just mothers.

"This superhero movie needs to end … they (women) win because they're finally embraced as ordinary people with their own stories, emotions and dreams. That is when our heroines reach their truly victorious' happy ever after'."

The previous Chinese mainland winners of the competition, which was held online this year because of the pandemic, were Liu Xin, a China Global Television Network presenter, in 1996, and Xia Peng, who co-founded Zhuomo Cultural Media of Beijing, which owns the English-learning app Youlinyouke, in 2005.

"We thought (Yang's) arguments had the most interesting content and created the most thought-provoking ideas … with an excellent and engaging presentation," Robert Buckland, chairman of the judges, said of her speech.

Talking to China Daily, Xia congratulated Yang and says her win demonstrated that "the world needs China, as much as China needs the world".

"I am happy to see that the world acknowledges her victory and that Yang's efforts prove that she is well worth the title."