Around the same time, I was going through an audition —the first ever open audition by national television in China — with another thousand college girls. The producer told us they were looking for some sweet,innocent and beautiful fresh face. So when it was my turn, I stood up and said,“Why [do] women’s personalities on television always have to be beautiful,sweet, innocent and, you know, supportive? Why can’t they have their own ideas and their own voice?” I thought I kind of offended them. But actually, they were impressed by my words. And so I was in the second round of competition,and then the third and the fourth. After seven rounds of competition, I was the last one to survive it. So I was on a national television prime-time show. And believe it or not, that was the first show on Chinese television that allowed its hosts to speak out of their own minds without reading an approved script.(Applause) And my weekly audience at that time was between 200 to 300 million people.
Well after a few years, I decided to go to the U.S. and Columbia University to pursue my postgraduate studies, and then started my ownmedia company, which was unthought of during the years that I started mycareer. So we do a lot of things. I’ve interviewed more than a thousand peoplein the past. And sometimes I have young