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1 It was one of those all-night gabfests when graduating students, in boozy camaraderie, bare their deepest feelings. Only this was more serious: the 11 classmates who gathered at an apartment on the Harvard Business School campus in May 1999 were wrestling with the fate of China. Surrounded by empty beer bottles and bags of potato chips, the friends—all from mainland China—were discussing whether to go home or not. Each of them had received lucrative offers from America's top companies. Still, China had changed dramatically in the decade since most of them had left. The nation now offered more personal freedoms and economic opportunities than ever before. And it desperately needed elite managers like them. Zhang Wei, a buoyant 29-year-old woman whose dream was to become China's answer to 1 American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey 2 , implored her classmates to follow their hearts back home. "We can't sacrifice the present for the sake of tomorrow," she said. "We should start doing right now what we really want to do."
2 The words were pure Oprah, but they proved prophetic. In a matter of weeks, the youngest man in the room—a 26-year-old former national math champion named Shao Yibo—scribbled down a business proposal, sold his belongings and left for Shanghai, where he launched a Chinese version of the Internet auction giant, eBay. On the way, he stopped off for a day in Silicon Valley 3 and persuaded investors to give him $400,000. Weeks later classmate Tan Haiying returned to Shanghai to visit friends before starting an investment-banking job in New York. She never used her return ticket to the United States: Shao persuaded her to join his firm as chief operating officer 4 . Within a year three other members of the clique—Huan Yiming, Renee Chen and Herbert Wang—also returned to launch start-up companies. And Zhang? She landed a business-development job at Rupert Murdoch's 5 News Corp. in Beijing. She also works overtime pursuing her Oprah dream. Once a week she hosts a popular talk show on Beijing TV that takes on such daring topics as AIDS, drug abuse and—yes—Internet dating.
3 By the time the Chinese students converged on HBS, they were not looking for an escape, but an edge for their eventual return to China. After years of working for consulting firms, multinationals or start-ups, all of them felt the need to deepen their understanding of Western business culture. At HBS, the Chinese students quickly gravitated together. The old hands helped the newcomers learn how to drive, shop for food, ride the subway. Three of them shared a flat, and because they cooked Chinese food, it soon became a hangout. The group vacationed together, snorkeling in Puerto Rico, skiing in Vermont, relaxing on Cape Cod. They bonded so well that they even wrote a book, in Chinese, about their HBS experience.
4 But the dilemma about the future always loomed large 6 . When Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji spoke at nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology in April 1999, shortly after graduation, he invited business-school graduates to return home, stressing that China's greatest need was management expertise. "We were all struggling with the choices," says Eric Xin, a 30-year-old management consultant who has decided, for the moment, to stay and work for McKinsey &. Co. "We have deep roots in China, but we're also flying high in the Western world." Now with a 1-year-old son and another on the way—"I can have more than one child here," Xin says, only half-joking—Xin and his lawyer wife plan to stay in Washington a few more years, gaining experience abroad before going back to China. "I want to test myself to see if I can survive in a pure American environment," he says. Still, he admits, "sometimes I stop in the street and wonder, 'What am I doing here?'"
5 For some of the Harvard grads, China is still too underdeveloped, especially in the financial sector, to lure them back. "There's a lot of thunder, but not much rain," says Peter Chen, a debt specialist 7 with GE Capital 8 in Tokyo. But for others, it is simply that family comes first. Huang Jingsheng, who at 43 is the oldest of the group, is worried about subjecting his wife and two young boys to Beijing's pollution. For the time being, Huang is living in clear-aired Sacramento, California, where he works as a venture capitalist for Intel Capital, handling occasional China deals. "There are different ways of helping China," he says. "My classmates have found one way. I'm still figuring out how to do the same thing—and making the right choice for my family."
6 The Class of '99 grads 9 are a new breed of returnee. Except for Zhang, they are not working for law firms or multinationals, but building their own companies. And that makes their impact on China even greater. It's not just the millions of dollars in foreign capital they are bringing in. (Shao and Tan have raised more than $25 million for their online auction house, Eachnet.) They are shaping a whole new industry. After graduation, Herbert Wang worked for six months at Nortel in Toronto, but he quickly returned to Beijing to found Prient, a start-up that helps old-line companies go online 10 . "I felt that I could add more value to my country by running my own company," he says. "I couldn't do that in the U. S."
7 But returnees are forced to adjust to local practice, too. In China, business is not simply about profits, but relationships. Huan Yiming came back to China earlier this year after working at Sun Microsystems. In Shanghai, where she set up her wireless-applications company, Etonenet, she says she "had to relearn China. I tried to structure this like a Silicon Valley company, but I quickly realized this wasn't the U. S." Her employees didn't know what stock options were, and she didn't know how to navigate the local bureaucracy. So she hired an old friend to be her local partner. "We have to be modest to learn how local business works," Huan says.
8 That cultural understanding is precisely what Zhang is trying to promote on her TV show, "Common Ground." The program's slogan: "Building a bridge between China and the world." Each week the show takes advantage of her experience in the United States to look at sensitive issues from local and foreign perspectives, in English and Mandarin. This month, in a segment on Internet dating, Zhang presided over a marriage proposal between an American man and the Chinese girlfriend he met on the Internet. Oprah, indeed! Back in her office at News Corp., under a poster for her favorite TV show, "Friends," Zhang fiddles with 11 the Snoopy chain 12 on her cellular phone. "Things are changing so fast here," she says. "The whole point is to show that people have different values, that not everybody thinks the same about every issue. And that may be new for China."
9 Still, change is not always comfortable. Zhang left behind a group of close friends in the United States and returned to a world that was virtually foreign to her. She has few friends in Beijing, and she still feels a need to tread lightly on the set 13 . "The producers are taking a real risk to have me host the show," she says. "I've gotten a lot of my values from abroad, and the show has no script 14 ." When she chose to do her first program on AIDs, the producers seemed more concerned about her young, casual appearance than the delicate subject matter 15 . They dressed her up in a prim gray suit. "I told them: 'Please let me be me!'" says Zhang. "Now they realize that the host needs to have his or her own personality."
10 It's been more than a year since the Chinese members of the class of '99 gathered for their soul-searching discussion over beer and potato chips. Today they are too busy—and live too far apart—to get together much. In August the U. S. contingent 16 will have a mini-reunion at Zhang's wedding, which is being held in Los Angeles because "more of our friends are there," she says. When Zhang and Peter Chen visited Shanghai a few months ago, they managed to meet Shao, Tan and Huan for a cup of coffee. But the group couldn't meet until after midnight. And even then, they were just taking a break from the hardest—and most exhilarating—work of their lives. (From Newsweek, July 31, 2000)
New Words
boozy /ˈbuːzi/ adj. intoxicated; addicted to drink 酩酊的，嗜酒的
Cape Cod a peninsula of SE Massachusetts, extending 65 miles E and N into the Atlantic（位于美国马萨诸塞州南部的）科德角
camaraderie /ˌkæməˈrɑːdəri/ n. friendliness between people who like each other or work together as part of a group 同志之爱，友情
converge /kənˈvəːdʒ/ v. to come together from different directions; meet
edge n. keenness, as of desire or enjoyment; zest 渴望
exhilarate /iɡˈziləreit/ v. to make lively or glad
gabfest /ˈɡæbfest/ n. an informal gathering or session for the exchange of news, opinions, and gossip 非正式的聚会
gravitate /ˈɡræviteit/ v. to feel attracted to sth or sb
hangout /ˈhæŋaut/ n. a place where people gather informally to talk, drink, and eat
lucrative /ˈluːkrətiv/ adj. (esp. of a business, job or activity) producing a lot of money; making a large profit; profitable
perspective /pəˈspektiv/ n. 角度；观点，看法
prim /prim/adj. formal
prophetic /prəˈfetik/ adj. accurately describing or predicting what will happen in the future
segment /ˈseɡmənt/ n. division or section
Snoopy n. a TV cartoon character: Snoopy chain（key chain史努比钥匙链）
snorkel /ˈsnɔːkəl/ v. to swim using a snorkel 戴呼吸管潜泳
version /ˈvəːʃən/ n. a copy of sth that has been changed slightly
wrestle /ˈresəl/ v. to try very hard to deal with (sth) which is difficult, such as trying to solve a problem or make a decision
Notes
1．sb's answer to—sb or sth that is considered to be just as good as a more famous person or thing
2．Oprah Winfrey—(1954- )American television talk-show host（名人访谈节目黑人女主持人）and actress, whose nationally syndicated talk show became one of the most popular programs on television. Born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to unmarried parents who separated after her birth, Winfrey had a troubled childhood, experiencing neglect and sexual abuse. At the age of 13 she went to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. There she became an excellent student, winning a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. While in college Winfrey became the first black woman to anchor the news on the local Nashville television station. After graduating in 1976, she worked as a television newscaster and later as a television talkshow host in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1984 she became the host of the television talk show "A. M. Chicago." In 1985 the show was renamed "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Dealing openly with controversial subjects, it achieved national syndication in 1986. A major factor in the show's popularity was Winfrey's ability to connect emotionally with her guests. In 1986 she formed HARPO Productions to produce her show and other projects. Winfrey's role as Sofia in the film The Color Purple (1985) won her a 1986 Academy Award（美国电影艺术科学院颁发的年奖，即奥斯卡金像奖）nomination as best supporting actress. She also appeared in Native Son (1986) and produced and costarred in the television miniseries The Women of Brewster Place (1989). Her exclusive interview with the reclusive American pop music superstar Michael Jackson was aired on television in 1993 and highly publicized.（奥普拉·温弗里是美国家喻户晓的名人，有的新词语就与其名Oprah有关。）
3．Silicon Valley—in west-central California, U. S. It occupies the San Jose and Santa Clara valleys and also includes the communities of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Los Altos, and also Mountain View. It derived its name from the dense concentration of electronics and computer corporations and their factories that sprang up there in the 1970s and '80s (silicon is the basic material of the semiconductor elements in computer circuits). By the early 1990s the economic emphasis in Silicon Valley had partly switched from computer manufacturing to research, development, and marketing of computer products and software.（硅谷）
4．chief operating officer—运营主管，负责运营的行政副总管（cf. CEO：行政总管）（不宜译成“官”，因为他既非官员，也非军人）
5．Murdoch, Rupert—(1931- ) Australian-born media magnate whose business holdings include newspapers, magazines, television stations, and news services. Current holdings include the Fox Broadcasting Company, TV Guide magazine and the London Times. He boosted the circulation of many of his newspapers by creating a tabloid mix of sex, crime, and sports stories topped with giant sensationalized headlines. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, and educated at the University of Oxford. He became a United States citizen in 1985.
6．loom large—be important, have great influence
7．a debt specialist—处理债务问题的专家。注意名词作定语时在意义和功能上与用相应的形容词作定语的差别。
8．GE Capital—［abbrev. General Electric (Capital)］通用电气公司投资部门：通用是美国和全球最大的工业公司。本课还有Intel Capital，指英特尔公司的投资部门。
9．The Class of '99 grads—指（19）99届毕业生
10．help old-line companies go online—help traditional companies advertise or do business through the Internet
11．fiddle with—keep moving or touching sth with one's fingers, esp. when you are bored or nervous
12．Snoopy chain—the chain which holds keys together, with the figure of Snoopy on it
13．tread lightly on the set—take care in the place or setting while TV programs and films are directed and produced
14．the show has no script—指这个节目没写好或没有现成的稿子
15．the delicate subject matter—很微妙的题材，即前面提到的sensitive issue（敏感的问题）
16．the U. S. contingent—here the U. S. graduates from Harvard Business School
Questions
1．Why did some of the HBS grads choose to come back to China although they had received lucrative offers from America's top companies?
2．What profession do they usually like to go in for?
3．Why did most of them choose to take up IT industry?
4．Why did some of them decide to stay in the U. S. while some chose to come back?
5．What do you think is the biggest obstacle preventing the elite from coming back home?
6．What does the title of this article "Home at Last" mean?
新闻（news）的定义有广义和狭义两种。广义的新闻泛指在媒体上出现的所有文章。狭义的新闻即“消息”，它单指对最新发生的事件的客观报道，而不表达报道者的意见。世界各国对广义新闻的功能的解释各异，不存在被全球媒体普遍接受的定义或规定。在我国，政府要求新闻界起宣传、教育和激励群众的作用。在美国等西方国家，没有任何机构或个人指定它应担任何种角色。尽管如此，其特性是共同的，即都是向公众报道新的事实，传递各种消息。这样，美英等国媒体就自我选择担负起提供信息、教育、改革、娱乐、激励等部分或所有角色，但都要服从眼球经济效应，这是硬道理。
西方媒体普遍认为具有新闻价值的消息包括：达官贵人和知名人士的活动；任何类型的政府活动；新的稀奇古怪的事件（例如罪行和灾害）；披露令人兴奋或令人震惊的真相（涉及性和丑闻）；新的社会潮流。
众所周知，重要性、时效性、新鲜感、趣味性等是构成新闻的要素。舍此则不成为新闻。有人根据时效性的强弱及表现手法运用的不同而将新闻分为硬性、软性、中间层三个层次。硬新闻不但新鲜，而且题材较严肃，事实报道客观；软新闻则为轻松的社会新闻，具人情味（human interest）；中间层新闻则介于前两者之间。
美国报刊新闻尤其强调猎奇和非同凡响，这被认为是现代新闻的支柱，这正如一句俗话所说：“狗咬人不是新闻，人咬狗才是新闻”（It is not news when a dog bites a man, but absolutely news when you find a man bites a dog.）。为了加深对这句话的理解，不妨来看看下页这幅美国政治性讽刺漫画。
［漫画说明：瞧，媒体是如何剧烈争抢这种庸俗的猎奇式“人咬狗”的新闻的。图中英文为“LOCAL NEWS”（当地新闻）。］
事实上，不仅美英报刊，中国的也有此倾向。从西方新闻理论来看，关于好事的正面新闻不是新闻，只有“坏”消息才是“好”新闻，如天灾人祸、负面的社会问题、与主流社会不相符合的现象、突发的悲剧性事件等，其中尤其是战争，它是“坏”新闻中最典型的事件。所以我们在看西方媒体报道的时候，总是看到“好”的新闻少，“坏”的新闻多，包括对中国的报道也是负面内容多，正面内容少，这与西方新闻的理念是完全分不开的，可这与我国新闻界要求报道正面消息为主、负面消息为辅的原则相反。
还有人认为，所谓新闻，无非是天南海北之事，你看NEWS不就是north，east，west和south的首字母缩略词吗！此说是否有道理，也只能“见仁见智”了。