At 7:00 on April 11th, and after a grand introduction by hosts, Ryan Pyle began telling Wuhan University students about his legendary journey in a performance entitled “The Middle Kingdom Ride".
At the outset, Ryan played a television trailer about his journey on motorcycles crisscrossing China, giving a sense of some of the visual splendor he encountered. Afterwards, he spoke of his own career choices: choosing international politics as major in University of Toronto, he took up cameras to support his life by working for New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes and Der Spiegel. In 2009, he was named as one of 30 emerging photographers. With fame brought on by his eye-catching pictures, he was a success by any measure.
However, the financial crisis crushed his career. Still he managed to recover with a humorously construed counter clockwise motorcycle adventure around China, where he and his brother, Colin, became hairy men for 65 days when they biked through 18,000 kilometers in China. On his journey he took breath-taking pictures of natural beauty which he showed to the audience, and told of funny encounters. He discussed the countless obstacles along the way such as, extreme heat, sand storms, hail storms, and mechanical trouble. His hardship paid off however when he was awarded the Guinness World Record for the longest journey in a single country.
In a light tone, he conveyed the message that the audience could glean from his tale “If you want to go somewhere really beautiful, you have to go for something really hard. Surely there is no easy life and nobody is an expert at everything, yet you’ll learn as you go. Don’t be fearful of challenges, otherwise, you will not grow. Nothing can stop you from chasing after your dream. Just enjoy it.” His profound speech conclusion brought a standing ovation.
In the interview after his excellent lecture, he told the student journalist: I’m deeply infatuated with China, its food, culture and diversity, which is why I chose China as my destination. And Chinese people are all friendly to me. When asked about his impression on this journey to Wuhan University, he smiled and replied “the passion of the students and the beautiful environment impress me the most”.
(edited by Sijia Hu & Yoni)
