As Chinese Harvard Student Says ‘Humanity Rises, Falls As One'. Two Men Fight In Background

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3 days ago

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In her speech, Yurong 'Luanna' Jiang talked about how international students help build a world connected through diversity and shared progress.
Yurong 'Luanna" Jiang, the first Chinese woman chosen as Harvard's student speaker, caught the world's attention with her emotional graduation speech. She spoke about the importance of 'shared humanity" and called for global unity. Her message struck a chord, especially amid growing tensions around international students from China following the Trump administration's tough visa policies.
After delivering her speech, Jiang gave an interview to the Associated Press (AP) where she expressed her thoughts more deeply.
'The message itself, if I have to put it into one sentence, will be that humanity rises and falls as one. We are living in a very difficult time. There are a lot of divisions in terms of ideas, ethnicities, and identities. This is a time where we can use a little bit more moral imagination and imagine ourselves being connected with one another," Jiang told AP.
But what happened during that interview unexpectedly stole the show. While Jiang was giving her interview, two men were seen fighting in the background. Just as she said, 'Humanity rises and falls as one," the men behind her suddenly fell to the ground fighting. After they got up, they continued their argument.
The video clip of this strange scene sparked interest across social media with many seeing it as a powerful metaphor for the divisions Jiang spoke about.
One user sharing the video on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, 'During an interview with the 25-year-old Chinese student who was Harvard's valedictorian, two old American men were fighting behind her – it was like some kind of metaphor. You cannot make satirical sitcoms in the US these days because real life can look like this."
In the comments, social media users shared their reactions to the unexpected fight happening during such a serious interview.
One user commented, 'Priceless!! It's just like an old Charlie Chaplin movie!!!"
Another added, 'That hardcut from the wrestling match to the clapping has me dead."
'Hilarious. She said 'humanity rises and falls as one' and down the guys behind her went…" while another added, 'Oh boy, this is so well timed," someone else said.
An individual called it 'simultaneously hilarious and depressing."
Other remarks included, 'My first belly laugh of the day," 'Absolute cinema" and 'America in a nutshell."
In her speech, Jiang talked about how international students help build a world connected through diversity and shared progress. But she warned that this connected world was now being replaced by fear, division and conflict.
'Humanity rises and falls as one. But today … we're starting to believe that people who think differently, vote differently, or pray differently – whether they're across the ocean or sitting right next to us – are not just wrong. We mistakenly see them as evil. But it doesn't have to be this way," she said.
'If we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget: those we label as enemies – they, too, are human. In seeing their humanity, we find our own. In the end, we don't rise by proving each other wrong. We rise by refusing to let one another go. We are bound by something deeper than belief: our shared humanity," she added.
Even though Jiang didn't mention the Trump administration's immigration policies in her speech, she told AP that the recent threats to arrest or send international students back home have made her and her classmates feel worried and unsure about their future in the US.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Harvard has over 10,000 international students right now. That's about 30% of all students with roughly 2,000 coming from China.
This week, the Trump administration asked government agencies to cancel contracts worth around $100 million with Harvard. Before that, it had already stopped more than $2.6 billion in research funding, tried to block Harvard from accepting international students and even threatened to take away the university's tax-exempt status. The government also widened its efforts by pausing visa applications worldwide and warning that thousands of Chinese students could lose their US visas.
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tags :
Harvard student viral news
Location :
Delhi, India, India
First Published:
June 02, 2025, 15:16 IST
News viral As Chinese Harvard Student Says 'Humanity Rises, Falls As One'. Two Men Fight In Background