By Ritu Bhatnagar and Jason Min
Initially, they were just rumors that club members of Saratoga High School's Amnesty International whispered among themselves, unwilling to accept the prospect of a celebrity visit. But in late January, it was confirmed: Chinese human-rights activist Harry Wu would speak at an assembly for Saratoga High on Feb. 6.
As members of Amnesty International, the club that sponsored Wu's visit, we were at first giddy with the responsibility of organizing an assembly for such an honored man. Senior Isabel Chow, head of the club, met him several times in advance to plan the assembly, and all of us eagerly asked for details. But as the final date neared, many of us became acutely aware that we were to meet a man who had risked his life several times for human rights.
On the day of Wu's visit, Amnesty members gathered expectantly around the man they had been anticipating for months--the man whose name has internationally become synonymous with human rights. After we took our seats and Wu began his speech, the rowdy teenagers quieted down to a pin-drop silence. Students remained respectful and silently listened to his stories of human suffering.
We were pleasantly surprised by his light sense of humor; he jokingly commented, "It is interesting for me to visit a school where all the students are taller than me and where the principal is taller than the buildings." Students were charmed by his jovial disposition and somewhat amazed that a man who had spent decades in prison could still smile.
Though Wu spoke of incidents far removed from the student body, we were absorbed in listening to the horrors he saw and went through, and we were stunned that one person could go through so much. From his family being tortured to being severely beaten himself, he showed us a glimpse of a society that we are unfamiliar with in Saratoga.
Despite the fact that Wu risked his life several times for human rights, he emphatically told students that he was "not a hero." Instead, he told us that the real recognition belonged to those who helped him stay alive and aided in transporting evidence. We were surprised by his gentle modesty and his constant assertion that "he was a common man, just like everyone else."
After he finished his moving speech and received a standing ovation, he lingered in the gymnasium to shake hands and sign autographs for eager students. He joked in Chinese with some students and was kind enough to pose for pictures for the school newspaper and yearbook. We greatly appreciated his graciousness and the message of hope that he wished to send to us, "the future generation."
Harry Wu is a man who is very proud of his heritage, yet he despises certain aspects of it as well. He is extremely well informed, yet his personal experiences can cause him to be biased. He is a complex, compelling man, a mirror of the world we live in today.
Ritu Bhatnagar and Jason Min are students at Saratoga High School.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, February 14, 1996.
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