Op-Ed Contributors

Keep it simple, speaker

By Colin Speakman (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-15 07:27

Encouraging tolerance and operating in a less prescriptive environment plays big role in making up fluent speeches

Vice-President Xi Jinping told the CPC Central Committee Party School that there is much room for improvement in many Chinese officials' speeches, for they contain too many "jargons" and "empty words".

In the West, politicians know that a speech and its representation by the media can make or break them. What is said, how it is said and even how the presenter appears while saying it has long been a benchmark for success. Arguably, the most famous example is Richard Nixon. In 1960, he appeared on the first televised US presidential debates with a 5 o'clock shaving shadow against his rival John F Kennedy. This is believed to have cost him the election, even though he was the vice-president and more experienced candidate for the job.

Western leaders don't have to be experts. But they have to be good communicators. This is illustrated by the election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States in the 1980s. Reagan, a former actor, was not an expert on policy issues but a great communicator and presenter of ideas. In fact, Reagan didn't have to be an expert on policies because like all leaders he had many others behind the scenes to work on them.

Extended length, however, does not make a great speech. One of the most famous speeches ever delivered was Abraham Lincoln's address at Gettysburg in 1863. It lasted just 2 minutes.

In modern Western political life, speech writers are essential to elucidate an official's ideas. All leading politicians have them. Again, these writers are not experts in all subjects - there are a host of researchers to help them with that. But they know how to communicate a message, understand the importance of "sound bites" and the limitations of an audience's "attention span".

The convention is that the writer/speaker assumes that the audience consists of intelligent laypersons who are not experts but can understand a policy from its key elements, and would appreciate references to further information sources but do not need reams of information because it risks missing the wood for the trees. Of course some speeches are delivered to an audience of experts where there is even less need to show just how much the presenter knows the subject.

Although a Western official has to show respect to his/her party's policies, there is room for him/her to show individual qualities. Speeches are usually not written centrally for use by several politicians. Many may be made to carefully selected audiences in popular (town-hall-type) meetings because it allows interaction with the public. But the ability to answer well to questions from the audience is seen as a strength of a good politician. US President Barack Obama is one of the best contemporary examples of a leader who can respond well even when moving away from pre-prepared topics and has the important quality of being able to inspire and motivate an audience.

In comparison, Chinese officials' speeches are underpinned by tradition. Much of a Western politician's speech-making skills is honed in the arena of debates, where there is need to win over audiences for a policy of a party against that of another. Since Chinese officials' speeches largely present the consensus of the CPC it limits the scope of their speeches.

Encouraging tolerance and operating in a less prescriptive environment plays a big role in the making up of fluent speeches, which are seen to reflect the speaker's ideas rather than only his party's or organization's. Some use of unscripted speeches and opportunities to answer audiences' questions with substance rather than rhetoric are important factors too.

If speeches on traditional policies with few new ideas are made largely to a presumably supportive audience, the speaker doesn't face the challenge of making a case out of his presentation. Because the audience is supportive, the speaker, to a large extent, may assume that his/her speech need not have much substance. And if it is only the concept that matters, then a speech is more likely than not to contain a lot of jargons.

Chinese speakers, as a matter of tradition, have to show great depth of knowledge without necessarily questioning the information in hand, which reflects the knowledge versus creativity approach that is seen in the country's education system today. But this is changing, slowly though, as Chinese officials play increasingly important roles in international affairs.

The media today need to know what part of a speech to report. This determines the length of an important speech. Many presentations are not only very long, but also fail to identify key issues.

The old communications adage of "Tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them what you have told them" and as concisely as possible is important in modern-day communication. A famous British aristocrat once said: "If you cannot say what you have to say in 20 minutes, you should go away and write a book about it." This might be a useful benchmark for a new crop of Chinese speakers.

The author is an economist and director of China Programs at the American Institute for Foreign Study, a US-based organization that cooperates with Nanjing University and Beijing Language and Culture University.