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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Li Songhua
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Mediatheque
Li Songhua 李頌華
Keynote Speech 講話
2005
In Keynote Speech, Li Songhua’s four-year-old son, Ruirui, recites a speech given by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the 2005 Fortune Global Forum. Tightly framed against a blue background, Ruirui speaks into a microphone. He casts his eyes downward to read from pieces of paper, which sometimes rise to cover his face.
The theme of the 2005 event was ‘China and the New Asian Century’, and the speech positions China as an ascending economic power to an audience of ‘important corporate leaders’. Ruirui delivers its proclamations in a straightforward way. His reading is mostly fluid, even when he cites abstract economic measures, like the country’s increased foreign exchange reserves. But his appearance and childish mannerisms—at one point, he emits a tiny burp—add a layer of adorable absurdity to the speech’s dryness and sweeping scope.
Keynote Speech recalls the rote memorisation often required of children, but substitutes an economic message for a work of culture, for a statement of political allegiance. In doing so, it comments on the narratives surrounding China’s growth in the early twenty-first century.
The theme of the 2005 event was ‘China and the New Asian Century’, and the speech positions China as an ascending economic power to an audience of ‘important corporate leaders’. Ruirui delivers its proclamations in a straightforward way. His reading is mostly fluid, even when he cites abstract economic measures, like the country’s increased foreign exchange reserves. But his appearance and childish mannerisms—at one point, he emits a tiny burp—add a layer of adorable absurdity to the speech’s dryness and sweeping scope.
Keynote Speech recalls the rote memorisation often required of children, but substitutes an economic message for a work of culture, for a statement of political allegiance. In doing so, it comments on the narratives surrounding China’s growth in the early twenty-first century.
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