Overview

• Yurong “Luanna” Jiang made history as Harvard’s first Chinese student speaker and delivered a valedictory plea for shared humanity at commencement.
• She emphasized that “humanity rises and falls as one” and advocated moral imagination in the face of deep ideological and ethnic divides.
• Two men began fighting behind her during an Associated Press interview, creating an unscripted backdrop that viewers around the world quickly noticed.
• Social media users seized on the footage as a live metaphor for the societal fractures Jiang warned could undermine international solidarity.
• The moment comes amid the Trump administration’s cancellation of roughly $100 million in Harvard contracts, paused visa processing and threats to the university’s tax-exempt status, heightening uncertainty among its 10,000-plus international students.