On May 21, 2007, Professor Chen Pingyuan from Peking University gave a speech at IAHS entitled Voiced China: Speech and the Changes in Writing in Modern China, in which he discussed SPEECH, an unusual form of expression that had influenced the daily life and literary writing of Chinese people for almost a century. Attention was given in particular to how SPEECH, in which occasion modern Chinese scholars stepped out of study to address to the mass, had induced transformation in the style of writing.

"Once speech sets its foot in, writing in modern China tended to be better arranged and prone to peaked emotions. The previously elegant and profound articles yielded to a frank and common way of expression, described by some as 'humble and modest with few brilliant views'. What's more, pressure certainly existed during the face-to-face interactivity with the audience, and it probably stretched through the studies and right into their thinking and writing."