My Speech Festival Speech (and it's translation)

爱是什么？我常常跟我自己讨论这个问题。为什么这个抽象的概念对大部分的人有意义？大部分的人包括我，可是我还不太明白这个概念。我感觉我只要有爱情，我就会是一个开心的人。我真的不知道那个感觉从哪儿来，因为不是父母对孩子的爱，是一种让我要跟一个人共度一生的感情。有的时候我觉得我生活的目的是我得找到这个人。我得找到这个我爱的人。可是我的问题是如果没有一个很容易解释的定义，你怎么知道那种感情是爱？我搜索了很想找一个清楚的定义，可是找不到。只找到了很多人不同的看法。也许没有一个清楚的定义，是个人有个的解释。可是我觉得我自己的问题是我开始把中国和美国的对爱的看法混起来。现在我真的糊涂了。我还听了我的以前的女朋友对爱的定义。我想一想他们的话让我更糊涂了。任贤齐曾经说原来每个女孩都不简单。我完全同意。。。
自从我来中国以后，我发现了中国人和美国人对爱情的想法是大同小异。他们都有一个比较浪漫的角度。他们都希望一个完美的人要成为他们的伴侣。和我讨论爱的中国人说爱和工作差不多一样。如果你和谁结婚，一个爱人死的时候才是那个婚姻的结束。离婚是一个不能说的事情。你得坚持，反而美国人怕这个。他们怕失去他们的独立或者选一个不太好的爱人。美国人常常把欲望成为爱所以他们怕他们的爱不是真爱。我在中国的时候我也怕这个。可是我觉得我解决了我的问题。我要跟着我的心去做。我还不知道爱的真的定义，可是没办法。我要先找到爱情，然后给爱他的定义。可能已经发生了。

爱真奇怪。

(Note: this is really corny)

What is Love? I often contemplate the question with myself. Why does this abstract concept have meaning to the majority of people? Well... the majority of People includes me, but I still don't understand this concept. I feel that as long as I have love, I can be a happy person. I don't know where this feeling comes from, because it's not like parents towards their children, that type of love. It's a type of feeling that makes me want to spend my whole life with someone. Sometimes I feel that the purpose of my life is I have to find this person. I have to find this person I love. But I have one small problem, if "love" doesn't have an easy to explain definition, how do you know that feeling you're feeling is love? I searched intent on finding a clear definition, but I failed. All I found were different people's differing viewpoints. Perhaps "love" doesn't have a clear definition, maybe every person has their own explanation of this word, but I feel my problem is that I began to mix Chinese and American notions of love together. Now I'm really confused. I also have listened to previous girlfriends viewpoints on love. Their words made me even more confused. Richie Ren once said, "As it turns out, women aren't all that simple." I completely agree...
Since coming to China, I have discovered that Chinese people and Americans viewpoint on love is largely similar with small differences. They both have a relatively romantic point of view. They both wish a perfect person will become their companion or partner. Chinese people that have discussed "love" with me have said that love and work are more or less the same. If you get married to someone, the only way out is when someone dies. Divorce is something you can't talk about. You have to carry on, on the contrary though, Americans fear this. They fear carrying on, because they don't want to lose their independence or choose a not so good lover. Americans often take lust and think of it as love, so they're afraid that their love isn't really genuine love. When I came to China I was also this way, I feared this, but I feel like I've solved my problem. I'll follow my heart where it takes me and do what it tells me to. I still don't know the meaning of love, or how to define it, but it doesn't really matter. I plan on giving love it's definition after I've already found it. Who knows, maybe I've already found it.

Love is really strange.