Her graduation speech drew over 30 million views, shared by CCTV News and Xinhua. A sign language user, a bridge connecting Chinese Sign Language and American Sign Language, and a Gallaudet grad chasing a stand-up dream — meet Yuye Gao .
Ten years ago, 30 million people watched her speech. Ten years later, she spent five hours laughing in a 16-year-old girl's living room.
Victoria's Parlor - Special Guest of International Deaf Week
It was June 2017 at the graduation ceremony of East China University of Science and Technology. A Deaf graduate stepped onto the stage, and with spoken Mandarin she had practiced for 20 years, moved the entire audience to tears.
The speech gained 30 million views in just four days, and was shared by CCTV News, Xinhua News Agency and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.
Ten years later, she is back — not on a formal stage, but in the home of a 16-year-old girl.
Her name is Yuye Gao , and her friends call her "Spark".
Chinese. English. Chinese Sign Language. American Sign Language.
Yuye Gao : a bridge between CSL and ASL, with a master's from Gallaudet —the world's leading university for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing . Both sign languages are her areas of expertise.
Host Victoria Qu: Learning CSL and ASL.
We got five hours of footage. Who was the most exhausted person on the team? It was the subtitler — which is also Victoria.
We had three questions, and none of the answers were what I expected.
"If you woke up tomorrow with the ability to hear — would you be happy?"
"If you could redo that 2017 speech — would you still deliver it orally?"
"Do you have Hearing friends?"
【In this episode】
She flew across the Pacific to learn a "new language" from scratch and got into "the Harvard of the Deaf." Why did she leave?
There are 300+ sign languages on Earth, and CSL and ASL aren't mutually intelligible. Could a "universal sign language translator app" ever work?
Sign language covers online look prettier than ever — and less and less like actual sign language. What does Spark think?
By day, she's a counselor. Off the clock, her joy is stand-up. The two comedians she watches most — I actually know one of them.
And the moment nobody saw coming: a 30-second stand-up challenge in sign language. Subtitles off, guessing the jokes from her face and hands alone. (Did I get them? Let's just say we couldn't stop laughing.)
【Three lines from her】
I don't want to laugh from the audience. I want to make you laugh from the stage.
The best translation isn't turning speech into sign. It's turning laughter into something shared.
We each prepared half of the stage.
【About Victoria’s Parlor】
Host Victoria Qu, 16, a Hearing high school student.
Three years ago, from a Broadway seat, she noticed four Deaf audience members "talking" with their hands. That night planted a question she's been chasing ever since: if sound isn't the only bridge, how do Deaf and Hearing people actually meet? This interview is the first place she went looking for an answer.
【Beyond the interview】
An original MV.
《I Have A Friend》MV, the single created together by them, will be released on September 23 — International Day of Sign Languages.
We could not find any Chinese MV where a Deaf artist and a Hearing artist share the screen as equal collaborators, and this may be the first one of its kind.
She sings in sign language, and I sing in voice.
Each of us takes half the performance.
September 23 — International Day of Sign Languages.
Full interview + 《I Have A Friend》MV. Same day.
By the end of it, you'll have unlocked a new skill: listening with your eyes. 🎧👁️
