For many months, I have been trying to find a reliable source of information to help me understand what is happening in China since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Alas, I finally found a YouTuber, Lei’s Real Talk, who gave me a balanced insight into what’s happening in China. She has quickly soared through the rank and become my favourite YouTuber thus far.
At age 32-year-old now, I have come to accept the claim that history is written by the victor. When you are able to control the narratives, you control the population. In a world that is filled with conflicting ideologies and competing interests, countries are lining up to form alliances to challenge the current superpower, the United State of America, to create a new world order. What is published in the traditional news media often cannot hold water because of the competing interests that the controlling owners of the media outlets face.
It becomes more difficult to find a reliable, unbiased, and intelligent source of information in the World today. I would rather rely on citizen journalism to learn more about the truth than blindly trust any news media outlet. If an individual is willing to put in so much time and energy to speak out, there must be a strong calling driving the commitment and an important message to be raised. Citizen journalism also allows us to conduct independent cross-verification of what is presented by each individual. Therefore, YouTube has risen to become my preferred source of information and I am seeing more traditional news media outlets trying to carve a fan base in this arena as well.
I deeply admire YouTubers who are coming forth to share about social injustices, scams, and misinformation to educate people. Lei is one such YouTuber whom I respect, listen intently to, and rewatch her videos to learn about her analysis and life wisdom.
In this video, she shared the guiding forces that are shaping the production of her YouTube videos. She identified kindness and courage as the two most important driving forces in her work. Lei shared that kindness is crucial to her because she finds that she is more rational, open-minded, at ease with herself, creative, and most importantly, able to discern what is not kind. Therefore, Lei cautioned us not to underestimate the power of kindness as it is the source of our wisdom. Being kind is not easy and it requires a lot of self-discipline and perseverance. Lei claimed that she is not quite there yet but she felt that she had found the way to kindness.
When she focused on altruism, she realised that it also helped her overcome her fear of speaking out her thoughts. She found that fear stems from self-consciousness. In her words, fear often is a perception based on the unsubstantiated worry about one’s self. Lei said, “the more you think about yourself, the more fear sets in. If you focus on others, you don’t have much fear. ”
Acts of selflessness are always fearless. There is a Chinese phrase for it known as 无私者无畏 which translates into selfless people have no fear. Without selfishness, one has no fear. Lei has decided to let go of the fear by not thinking too much about herself or how others think of her. She also let go of the many “wants” associated with making her videos such as the number of views, subscribers, likes, donations, and all that. She wants to focus on the videos and enjoy the process, not the results.
Like what I experienced at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022, greatness is achieved when an artiste is on a relentless pursuit to hone his or her craft. Lei also alluded that when a great artist is on stage, she can’t be worrying about how many people are in the audience and whether she would have great reviews. She would be immersed in her performance and her act only. Like many of her peers, Lei was a competitive person who took great pride in her talents and skills. Her journey to become a YouTuber for the last 2 years had taught her to go back to the basics. With many years of working and life experiences, she reflected that “What we learned when we were kids is still very applicable in our professional life. Be kind and help others. Knowledge, talents and impeccable skills could be blinding sometimes, but kindness and selflessness will always help us win.”
The message and insight that I got out of her video are encapsulated in this Chinese phrase known as 智勇双全. This is a phrase that is usually used to describe strewed strategists and war heroes such as Yue Fei 岳飞, Sun Tze 孙子, and the likes. I should probably consider naming one of my children after this phrase like how Chinese parents like to name their offsprings after virtuous phrases.
Check out her video to hear from the horse’s mouth. I will probably be making lots of references to her videos in many of my future articles.
智勇双全能让我们突破重围，寻求真理。
自从冠状病毒在中国大陆扩散蔓延，把中国与外界与世隔绝后，我一直在寻找可靠的信息来源，以了解中国大大小小的境况。几天前，我无意间终于找到了一个理智，真诚的新视频，雷的真实谈话。由于她精通双语，因此，她能从西方与东方媒体、书籍与网络信息中获取相关知识，并提供平衡理性的分解与资讯。 她横跨我心目中的排行榜，目前成为我最喜欢的 YouTuber。
目前三十二岁的我，相信历史是由胜利者撰写与渊源流传下来的。当领导者能够掌控媒体与外界的信息时，就能控制主权，令百姓唯命是从。 在当今世界里，各个国家意见分歧，有着利益冲突。不同国家正在结成联盟，以挑战美国现今称霸世界的主导权，建立新的世界秩序。因此，我本身认为在当下，传统新闻媒体发表的内容往往因媒体控股股东面临利益竞争而站不住脚。
在当今世界，要找到可靠、公正和理智的信息来源变得更加困难。我宁可依靠市民自愿发布的讯息，也不愿盲目相信任何新闻媒体的报道。我相信，如果个人愿意投入如此多的时间和精力来发表意见，那么背后一定有重要的信息要传达。而要严实个人的推动力与目的，要时间才能见证。依靠市民自愿发布的讯息，也允许我们对每个人所呈现的内容进行独立的交叉验证，以提高可靠度。 因此，目前YouTube 已成为我首选的信息来源，因为，从这个频台里，我可以找到世界各地的市民自愿发布的讯息。同时，我也观察到更多的传统新闻媒体也试图在这个频台里建立粉丝群。
我打从心里深深的钦佩那些勇敢的市民们，不顾个人安危，挺身而出报道社会不公正的现象、揭发诈骗集团和误导类信息的YouTube 用户者。 雷是这样一位我尊重的YouTuber。因此，我非常专心聆听与观看她的视频，以了解她所分析的新闻与生活智慧。
在这段视频中，她分享了塑造她的 YouTube 视频制作的指导力量。她认为善良和勇气是她工作中最重要的两个驱动力。雷分享说，善良对她来说很重要，因为她发现自己更理性、更开放、更自在、更有创造力，最重要的是，能够辨别什么是不善良的事物。因此，雷告诫我们不要低估善意的力量，善意是我们智慧的源泉。要行善并不容易，需要极大的自律和毅力。雷声称自己目前还没完全体现这个美德，但她觉得已经找到了善意的道路。
在投入制作视频的生涯前，雷心里有许多恐惧。在反思后，她意识到当她抱有舍己为人的想法时，她心中的恐惧烟消云散。中国有句话叫无私者无畏，意思是无私的人无所畏惧。雷决定放下恐惧，不要理会他人对她的看法。她也不盲目地追求视频的观看次数、订阅者、点赞以及捐赠等等的反馈。她想专注于创造更好的视频内容，并享受过程，而不是关注于结果。
就像我在 2022 年爱丁堡艺穗节上所经历的一样，当艺术家不断追求磨练自己的技艺时，才能达成伟大的成就。雷也相似地提到，当一个伟大的艺术家在舞台上时，她不能担心观众席是否坐满，她是否会得到好的评价。她只会沉浸在她的舞台和表演其中。和她周围的朋友们一样，雷一向对万事都全力以赴，成为领域中的佼佼者，对自己的才能和多年所累积的技能感到非常自豪。可在过去的两年里投入制作视频的生涯中，她坦诚这番经历提醒了她许多事物要从最基本开始。凭借多年的工作和生活经历，她分享了这番话：
“我们小时候学到的美德在我们的职业生涯中仍然非常适用。善待他人并帮助他人。知识、才能和技能有时会让人盲目，但善良和无私的美德总会帮助我们达成心中的目标，带给我们快乐。”
从雷的视频中，我领悟到了智勇双全的重要性。 智勇双全往往是形容伟大的战略家和战争英雄如岳飞和孙子等。或许，就像许多中华父母一贯喜欢以美德为孩子命名，我应该考虑给我未来的其中一个孩子命名为智勇。
想了解雷如何体现智勇双全，帮助我们突破重围，寻求真理，请观看她的视频。我想在接下来将创写的文章里，我将会大量引用她的视频进行独立思考与分解。