Name: 好萊塢導演朱浩偉，三代擁抱美國夢。終於，內心深處，我知道我到家了 | 勇敢面對，【擔憂是對想像力的濫用】| 南加大 2025畢業典禮演講 | 長文、註解、大字版、中英對照
Uploaded: 2025-06-15T12:56:34.000Z
Duration: 24 min 39 s
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By the authority vested in me by the USC Board of Trustees, I hereby confer upon John M.

Chu the degree Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa.

Now it's my honor to invite Dr. Chu to deliver the commencement address for the class of 2025.

How many Dr. Chus are there in this stadium right now?

It feels good to be back at the Coliseum.

I'd walk here for games every Saturday kicking that flagpole on the way, but I also have a complicated relationship with this place.

So you see, my high school girlfriend at the time got into a year after I did and I was so psyched.

I mean, this was gonna be our school to rule, and then on the first day she dumped me.

And then she started dating the star football player here.

I know it's conflicting because it's like, oh he's so handsome, but also, ah.

Suddenly I couldn't walk to class without the fear I'd run into them together, so cute on their bikes, and I, so I had to take alternative routes to class and I stopped coming to games.

And then one Saturday, USC was playing a big rival school, which I will not name.

It was the final seconds, down to a few points.

They throw the ball to this guy for the game-winning touchdown, and he misses the ball.

The whole campus was devastated, and as I, as a 18-year-old immature boy, I had the best week of my life, so I mean it when I say it's good to be back in the Coliseum.

Now, now, I have the most extraordinary wife, Kristen, who's over there tonight, and lucky, she almost nixed that joke for me, but it's okay, and she said, lucky for me, she is not into athletes.

She's more into middle-aged Asian guys with dad bods, so, and now she's married to a doctor, so you're welcome, babe.

We've got five kids, a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, a three-year-old, a two-year-old, and a six-month-old, so she deserves all the applause, yes, and I am excited to have my family here at USC because this place means so much to me.

Every inch of the campus holds a memory or three chapters of my time here that built the pieces of who I am today.

Like my freshman year, I lived over at Mark's Tower.

Yeah, there's Mark's Tower people here, that's great.

I'd spend Thursday nights at Tratty's, where I learned I was allergic to alcohol.

Tuesday nights at the Astaroma, where I learned I love carbs.

It's the beginning of my dad bod, and I even snuck into the Oscars when they had them at the Shrine.

I made a fake pass, Kinkos, laminated, they can't take this away from me, right?

The cinematographer of my student film, Alice Brooks, just shot my latest film, Wicked, 22 plus years, yes, 22 plus years from when we had our first coffee at Starbucks, right across the street.

And I know you're eager to get out into this world, but this campus will always feel like home to you when you return.

So take it in tonight, look at how beautiful you are, you made it.

Look at all your loved ones around you or texting you, they made it too.

And they know all your flaws, they know everything you did, and they still like you, that's pretty good.

In fact, they love you, and one day you'll need to remember that.

In prepping for today, I have to admit, I've been thinking about you a lot, like a lot, a lot, about what you've been through, COVID, oh thank you, COVID, financial crisis, environmental catastrophes, and yet you made it through.

You've managed to stay the course and get it done.

We're proud of you, we're all proud of you, and now you have a bigger task ahead.

Tasks that I, as a storyteller, have no idea how to give you advice on.

I kept thinking, why am I the commencement speaker this year?

They should get a world leader, an inventor, get Will Ferrell back.

Well, you're stuck with the guy who directed Step Up to the Streets, so and the more I thought about you, the more I think, that's great, there's some Moose fans out there, okay, the more I think some of the lessons in my life may actually help you on your journey, because our worlds are colliding, no matter what industry or discipline you're in.

Our futures are linked, and there's an urgency to be really real with you, so that you are prepared, because I believe your generation faces a task more profound than perhaps any generation before.

I know you feel it, and I want to acknowledge that this is not normal.

It is not just you being paranoid, it's true.

You are being asked not just to navigate a changing world, but to fundamentally define who we will become in the face of unprecedented technological, cultural, and political shifts.

Your job is not simply to inherit a world, but to reimagine it and set the foundation for who we are moving forward, because we're living in a moment when those old stories of who we are and what we stand for are breaking down.

It feels like fear, blame, and division dominate our airwaves, overwhelming the space where our dreams used to live, surviving instead of thriving.

But here's the thing, this isn't necessarily cause for despair.

In fact, it's a moment of profound opportunity, because when the old stories fall apart, it means it's time to write a new one.

My story starts at a little Chinese restaurant in Los Altos, California called Chef Chews.

Oh, some of you have eaten there, I see, yes.

My parents started, who are here tonight, they're over there.

My parents started in 1969, and it's still open today, 56 years later.

My dad, who's 82, still works there every day, and they are living the embodiment of the American dream.

They moved here from Taiwan, and to them, America is the greatest story of the world.

Their English was limited when they arrived, but they loved Elvis, and the Beatles, and Dean Martin.

And they had five kids, I'm the youngest, and they wanted us to be like the Kennedys, so they dressed us alike, and even would call me John John.

And they loved, they loved movies, like movies on all the time at the house.

For context, this was a Reagan's 80s America, where Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were filling us with wonder.

Michael Jackson made us believe we could float, Michael Jordan was proving we could actually fly, and Steve Jobs was my hometown hero.

But the timeless American fairy tale that played in our household was Wizard of Oz, and my parents instilled in us that if we just follow the yellow brick road, faith, discipline, hard work, and loved what we did, then the American dream would lead us to the wizard who would grant us our heart's desire.

And as the ultimate hosts at their restaurant, my parents loved being part of the American fabric.

John John, we might be the first Chinese family these customers have ever met.

We must not just fill their bellies, but fill their hearts, so that the next time they meet a Chinese family, they will give them more respect.

The pinnacle of the year would be when we'd gather around the TV and watch the Academy Awards, the Oscars.

These Hollywood people were beautiful, cultural leaders, fashion icons, untouchable to normal human beings.

And when they spoke, the world stood in applause.

Oftentimes my parents would actually applaud right in the living room as well.

But to actually get to Hollywood, that was a far, far cry from the restaurant booth I do my homework in.

We had zero connections into this world, and to me the gates were so high it didn't look like they let anyone in, let alone anyone who looked like my family.

And then one day, I found the lens in the form of a little Sony camcorder, and it changed me.

The moment I looked into the viewfinder, that little tubular eyepiece you put your eye against to see what the lens sees, everything around my vision dimmed to darkness, and only a small frame of light appeared.

Time slowed down, a surrender to the present.

And through this little frame of light, I found moments, moments that I couldn't see otherwise.

Details about life, my dad grabbing the hand of my mother, my brother's long legs leaping from the stairs, a close-up of my sister's eyes opening wide while she watched my other sister open a birthday gift.

But when I would play back on the TV, it felt like I could share my secret, as if they were right there within my own eyes.

And they would actually yell at the screen at me as if they were right there.

They'd say, move the camera down, John, stop moving, you're giving us a headache.

I had never experienced a tool as powerful as this.

It just kept making me more curious at what else I could do.

So I edited a family vacation video together with music and sat my parents down in the living room to watch.

The moment they saw us on the bright screen, their eyes locked in.

They saw our family as the American dream fulfilled.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

好萊塢導演朱浩偉，三代擁抱美國夢。終於，內心深處，我知道我到家了 | 勇敢面對，【擔憂是對想像力的濫用】| 南加大 2025畢業典禮演講 | 長文、註解、大字版、中英對照

discipline

extraordinary

present

empathy