Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen!

    When I was a child, I enjoyed watching Disney Cartoons, which made my childhood colorful and full of happiness. Then I was fond of listening to my father to tell history stories, feeling proud of my country which has a very brilliant civilization. As I grow up ,I begin to be absorbed in English literature, such as Pride and Prejudice, from which I can learn the reality of society and shape my personality, So how deeply I am influenced by different cultures! How beautiful our life could be if we share a variety of understanding together!With the development of economy and society, Cultural diversity plays a more and more important role in our daily life, and becomes a mainstream of the international society.

    However, there are still a tough battle between cultural diversity and cultural integration. Which one will become the winner in the future? Obviously, we should never choose the latter.

    The right attitude towards this topic is that we need both domestic culture and foreign culture. We should learn from other countries’ culture, gain the marrow of their civilization, understand their values and still keep our own cultural features at the same time. We should never forget that cultural exchange does not mean cultural integration.

    So why? First of all, the culture is just like a identification of a country. Our world is very colorful only because we’re different. Considering that if there was only one language, one type of literature, one kind of food, clothing and buildings, how dull our life could be!

    Secondly, culture is the reflection of national spirits. As the saying goes that politics is the skeleton, economy the flesh, and culture the soul, how can a country survive without its own culture? How can a nation develop without promoting its own spirits? History proves that the culture is so important for a country to be independent, and those countries which lose their own culture, can be easily controlled by others. Colonialism sets a good example for us. Behind cultural integration is actually, I think, cultural hegemony. The developed countries may sometimes force the developing countries to accept their values, their thoughts, their culture, so that they can get the right to lead the world, which tense up the international situation.

    Thirdly, our culture is diverse because we have different politics, economy, history and geography. So, what we ought to do is to choose the beneficial part of the foreign culture according to our own background. Learning from whatever we acquire regardless of the reality, can not only eclipsed our own features but also risk our country's bright future.

    Ladies and gentlemen, we are supposed to believe that cultural diversity is a great power to maintain the world peace as many conflicts exist just because of cultural misunderstanding. Seeking common ground is the golden law of international communication. So it's necessary for all of us to have a broad mind, to tolerate differences between varieties of culture and to be warned of cultural integration. Rome wasn't built in a day so there's still a long way to go to explore the right approaches to the development of culture.

   Thank you for your listening.