2024年6月2日，在北京大学燕京学堂举办的 “从静园走向世界舞台”校友论坛中，2015级美国校友Cody Abbey发表了主旨演讲。Cody分享了自己作为学堂第一届学生，从如何知悉燕京学堂、到成为燕京学堂的学生，以及毕业后在世界各地与燕京学堂的校友相遇的经历。Cody表示，2017年毕业时，他作为毕业生代表站在北京大学毕业典礼上，与来自五湖四海的同学们分享孔子的“谦谦君子，和而不同”，而现在他想以墨子的箴言“诸侯相爱则不野战，家主相爱则不相篡，人与人相爱则不相贼”作为寄语，希望在座的校友与在校生们共同努力，促进全球和平与发展。
Hello Yenching Family!
To our deans, faculty, administration, staff, current students, fellow alumni, and friends from near and afar — thank you. It’s an honor to be here with you today on the tenth anniversary of this extraordinary program, to commemorate our past, anticipate our future, and — maybe most importantly — be here in the present moment together.
Although I didn’t plan to include this in my speech, I have to also thank the two alumni performers just now, who played a song that — since I first started learning Chinese many years ago — has been my favorite song of all time: 稻香, the Fragrance of Rice. In fact, I listen to it almost every day. If you’re not familiar, the song is all about “home”. One of the lines of the chorus goes “还记得你说家是唯一的城堡：I still remember you said that home is the only fortress”. So I want to thank you both for, after nearly five years away from the Yenching Academy and from China, really making me feel at home with 稻香。
Ten years. It’s amazing to think how it was almost a decade ago when I randomly bumped into an undergrad classmate from Poland named Mike, who gave me an extra card from some info session he’d just attended that had the words “Yenching Academy of Peking University”. Can you remember when you first saw or heard those words?
It's also amazing to realize that most of the first cohort and I are in a sense a full generation older than many of the current scholars here. Apparently many of us are Generation Y (in China we’re roughly the equivalent of “90后”). Meanwhile, it seems like many current scholars are Generation Z (or “00后”). How many of you are current scholars? If anyone has trouble understanding a reference I make today, please forgive me and find me afterward to remind me of how old I am.
Speaking of outdated references, there might still be a few people in the audience (though definitely not the Gen Z or 00后) who remember that, a few centuries ago, I gave a speech at the university graduation ceremony inspired by a Confucian saying “谦谦君子，和而不同”, about the importance of cultivating harmony with others despite our differences.
Today, a different ancient Chinese concept comes to mind. It’s from the philosopher Mozi, who lived during a period of great conflict called the Warring States period. It’s called “兼爱”, which basically means love for all — for all people, for all beings, regardless of who they are, where they’re from, what they believe, or what generation they’re a part of. I’m going to share two stories related to 兼爱; and what it means for us here at Yenching.
Now, the first story. Since graduation, I’ve realized that one of the perks of being a Yenching alum is that it’s basically like having a travel rewards card — no matter where you go, there’s a good chance that another alum will be there and offer you a couch to sleep on or treat you to a meal. From the U.K. to Jordan to Singapore, I’ve been fortunate to meet hospitable alumni who are happy to connect and play host, and it’s been heartwarming to hear stories about their Yenching experience.
Last month, back in the U.S., I serendipitously met a recent Yenching alum who graduated in 2022, during the pandemic. In many ways, our Yenching experiences could not have been more different: while I spent my program moving between Shaoyuan, Erti, Weiming Hu, and beyond, his was spent jumping from breakout room to breakout room on Zoom. And so I asked him “what was that experience like?”, and he surprised me when he said this: “Yenching built a community for us when we had none. It’s like…we were each other’s few regular connections during each day, and it’s crazy because we were in different parts of the world, but it felt like we were a family.” He even shared with me that, once the pandemic subsided, many of his cohort mates met in person and even lived together for several months.
Despite our different experiences in the program, I’d also say that the emotional bonds that I formed during Yenching were the most meaningful part of my experience, more so than any of the classes I took, the activities I did, or thesis I wrote. The author Maya Angelou once wrote, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”
Yenching is perhaps one of the few times in our lives when we can live in the same dorm and attend classes with people from across the world; it’s one of the few places where a student from China, Russia, Israel, Iran, India, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Brazil, and the U.S. can all eat a meal together, plan a conference together, or run a student government together; and it’s perhaps one of the best opportunities to not only understand and appreciate the differences between us, but also to realize how much we have in common and learn to love each other like a family.
And that brings me to my second story.
Over the last several years I have been working to develop and evaluate programs for students in both the U.S. and China that help cultivate social and emotional skills, and mental health. Recently, a professor asked me how these kinds of curriculum are different for students in China and the U.S.
To be honest, I think my answer disappointed him: I told him that, at their core, the aims of these curricula are quite similar. The lessons all aim to help students deal with common challenges that they face (and I still face) in their everyday lives, such as how to deal with difficult emotions, create meaningful connections with others, resolve interpersonal conflicts, and make responsible decisions. It’s true: the methods used to achieve these objectives sometimes depends on the context. However, what I find remarkable is how much there is in common. And that’s because our developmental needs as humans — our needs to feel safe, peaceful, and loved — are by and large the same.
It's my hypothesis that, it’s primarily by cultivating our ability to love in educational institutions like Yenching Academy — instead of simply relying on A.I. and tech — that we’ll be able to start addressing some of the global challenges we face, like the strife between our nation’s governments and between identity groups, the wounds that we’ve caused each other, and the damage we’ve caused the planet. The responsibility for making progress in these areas ultimately comes down to us, and it starts from each of us approaching each other from a standpoint of love.
诸侯相爱则不野战，家主相爱则不相篡，人与人相爱则不相贼。“If the princes love each other, there’ll be no wars; if the heads of families love each other, there’ll be no plundering; if people love each other, they’ll not do each other harm.” —Mozi
Global peace starts with 兼爱. And there’s no better place to foster it than the Yenching Academy. Now to be clear, I’m not suggesting to the current scholars that you write a valentine’s day card to every person on your floor at Shaoyuan. But I do think we should all ask ourselves each day: What is our relationship with those around us? How do we make them feel, especially those who seem different from ourselves? And how can we approach them with love as if they are family, no matter what?
These are questions that we can spend another few decades trying to answer, but I think the time we spend on them could be well worth it. As a Yenching family, for the sake of humanity and the planet, let’s work on this together.
Thank you. 谢谢。
亲爱的燕京学堂的家人们，大家好！
学堂的领导、老师、同学、校友，以及远道而来的朋友们，今天能够在燕京学堂成立十周年之际，和大家共同回顾过去、展望未来，当然，最重要的是共同享受当下这一时刻，我深感荣幸。
虽然我原本没有计划在演讲中提到这一点，但我必须感谢刚才的两位校友演出。她们演奏的《稻香》，是我多年前开始学习中文以来就最喜欢的歌曲。事实上，我几乎每天都会听这首歌。这首歌讲的就是“家”。副歌中的一句歌词是“还记得你说家是唯一的城堡”。因此，离开燕京学堂和中国近五年后再次回来，我真心感谢你们通过《稻香》让我重温家的感觉。
十年光阴似箭。差不多十年前，我偶然碰到一位来自波兰的本科同学迈克，他给了我一张他刚参加过的一个宣讲会的卡片，上面写着“北京大学燕京学堂”。你还记得第一次看到或听到这个名字的时候吗？
同时，我也意识到我们第一届的许多同学在某种意义上比现在的在校生要老整整一代人。显然，我们第一届当中的许多校友是Y世代（在中国大致相当于“90后”）。同时，许多在校生似乎是Z世代（或“00后”）。在座的有多少人是目前的在校生？如果有人很难理解我今天提到的某些参考内容，请原谅我。我后续也许可以给你们翻译成“00后”流行的语言。
说到过时的参考内容，可能在座的观众中（绝对不是Z世代或‘00后’）还有几个人记得很久以前，我在北大毕业典礼上发表了一篇受孔子名言“谦谦君子，和而不同”启发的演讲，讲述了培养与他人和谐相处的重要性。
今天，我想到中国另一个古老的思想。这是来自战国时期哲学家墨子的思想，叫做“兼爱”。基本意思是爱所有的生命——无论他们是谁，来自哪里，信仰什么，或者属于哪一代人。接下来的演讲中，我会分享两个关于“兼爱”的故事，以及它对我们在燕京学堂的意义。
第一个故事。自毕业以来，我意识到作为燕京学堂校友的一个好处，基本上就像拥有了一张旅行奖励卡——无论你去哪里，都有很大的机会遇到另一个校友，他们会为你提供一张沙发让你睡觉或者请你吃饭。从英国到约旦、到新加坡，我很幸运能遇到很多好客的校友，他们热情地招待我，而且听到他们关于燕京学堂的经历让我感到温暖。
上个月在美国，我意外地遇到了一位2022年疫情期间毕业的燕京学堂校友。在很多方面，我们在北大的经历大不相同：我在读期间是在勺园、二体、未名湖之间移动，而他的经历是在不同的Zoom会议室之间跳跃。我问他：“那段经历是什么样的？”他的回答让我有些吃惊，“燕京学堂为我们营造了一种归属感。我们彼此每一天都进行常规联络，尽管我们身处世界各地，但感觉就像一个家庭。”他还告诉我，疫情缓解后，他的许多同学在现实中见了面，甚至住在一起好几个月。
尽管我们在学堂的经历不同，但在读期间我与同伴间结成的情感纽带是我经历中最有意义的部分，比我上的任何课程、参加的任何活动或写的论文都更重要。作家玛雅·安吉洛曾写道：“人们会忘记你说过的话，会忘记你做过的事，但他们永远不会忘记你给他们的感觉。”
在燕京学堂求学的日子，也许是我们人生中为数不多的时候可以与来自世界各地的人一起住在同一宿舍，并一起上课；也是为数不多的地方，我们可以与来自中国、俄罗斯、以色列、伊朗、印度、津巴布韦、乌克兰、巴西和美国的学生一起吃饭、一起筹划会议、一起运行研究生会；这也提供了最好的机会，让我们了解和欣赏彼此间的差异，并学会像家人一样相互爱护。
这引出了我的第二个故事。
在过去的几年里，我一直致力于为中美两国的学生开发和评估相关项目，旨在帮助他们提高社会和情感方面的技能，并促进心理健康发展。最近，一位教授问我，这些课程在中国和美国的学生之间有何不同。
说实话，我认为我的答案让他失望了。我告诉他，这些课程的核心目标非常相似，目的是帮助学生应对他们在日常生活中面临的共同挑战（我也仍在面对），比如如何处理复杂的情绪，建立有意义的人际关系，解决人际冲突，并做出负责任的决策。的确，实现这些目标的方法有时取决于具体的环境。然而，我发现值得注意的是，他们彼此之间有很多共同之处。这是因为我们作为人的发展需求——我们需要感到安全、平和与被爱——在很大程度上是相同的。
我的假设是，通过在像燕京学堂这样的教育项目培养我们爱的能力，而不仅仅依赖人工智能和科技，我们才能开始解决一些全球性挑战，比如我们政府之间、不同群体之间的冲突，我们对彼此造成的伤害，以及我们对地球造成的损害。这些问题的解决，最终取决于我们每一个人，并且始于我们每一个人从爱的角度来对待彼此。
“诸侯相爱则不野战，家主相爱则不相篡，人与人相爱则不相贼。”——墨子
世界和平始于兼爱。没有比燕京学堂更好的地方来培养这种精神了。我并不是建议在校生给每一个住在宿舍楼的同学写一张情人节贺卡。我认为我们每天都应该问自己：我们与周围人的关系是什么，尤其是那些显得和我们不同的人？我们给他们的感觉如何？我们如何以对待家人的爱的方式来对待他们，无论他们是谁？
这些问题我们可以再花几十年来回答，但我认为花在这些问题上的时间是非常值得的。作为燕京学堂大家庭中的一员，为了人类和地球，让我们一起努力吧。
谢谢。
