It came as she waited last summer for the five other candidates to finish their speeches before 400 delegates to New Jersey Girls State, the American Legion's annual exercise in governance education.
The platforms of the parties, the Nationalists and the Federalists, were similar: education, environment, crime.
But Yang said that as she listened to the other candidates' speeches, all sounded the same.
The speeches were about how qualified the candidates were, how each speaker would be a better governor, but there was little difference, she said.
So in that moment when madness strikes and leaders emerge, she stepped to the podium and ripped her prepared speech in half.
It was the floor-opening-below-her- moment, jumping without a net, she said.
She won the election in a landslide.
"I realized that I could not do it," she said. "I could not deliver that speech."
While the Nationalist Party platform meant well, she said, it was not about the people in front of her.
A N.J. priority
That also was her answer when asked what her first act would be if she were elected governor of New Jersey.
After a long moment of thought, she said she would tackle crime first.
"Improving crime prevention would have an
effect on the other parts of the platform, especially education," Yang said. "The environment is important, but dealing with the people comes first. Safer is better. Cooperation works for everything else."
Asked how she would pay for these crime-fighting efforts, Yang showed that she also learned that favorite politician's trick -- the sidestep.
"I was asked that question during the campaign," she said, laughing. "I didn't have an answer, so I said I had to go. Actually, I was at the end of my time because we were given just six minutes to speak."
If she had to implement a program of environmental improvements as a real governor, Yang said, she would use tax credits to help businesses purchase solar panels so they could stop using oil or electricity.
If that seems like a thoughtful answer, it is, because Yang, 17, a senior at Parsippany Hills High School, is a thoughtful person.
She answers questions in complete sentences that begin the thought, define it and end it. She gives serious consideration to each question as if answering questions before a college administrator or writing an essay. Each is an important action, a polished moment.
But then she laughs, and smiles at an answer, because, well, she is 17.
Beijing to Morris
Yang was born in Beijing, and after living with her grandmother for six years she joined her parents in the United States. They had come here to complete their graduate studies. Both now work in computers, she said.
Yang said that Girls State was a great experience because she learned so much about the political process, and how hard it is to organize a campaign.
While the candidate gets all the attention, the people in the background are doing most of the work and get little credit for it, she said.
She also learned how fragile the process can be. Following the primary, the Federalist Party fractured, she said. A large minority of the party members did not like the candidate who won, she said.
"They were knocking on my door asking, 'Can we make signs for you?'" she said. "I was amazed."
The experience also helped her form a definition for leadership.
"It is about motivation and cooperation," she said. "Leaders need the cooperation of the people. They have to connect."
Being a truly symbolic governor, Yang said, her duties so far have consisted of attending some meetings like the one in October when the Morris County freeholders presented her with a congratulatory resolution.
Next summer she will attend Girls State as a counselor and hand the governor's trophy to next summer's winner, Yang said. Something like Miss America without the travel.
She plans to seek early decision from Columbia University, where she plans to study pre-med, with a goal of becoming "some kind of doctor."
It was a late career choice, she said, after taking chemistry in 10th grade. She said it opened her eyes to science and led to her choice of study. Yang said she wants to be a doctor rather than a researcher "and work with lab rats" because she wants to connect with people, especially children.
She said she learned to play violin at age 7 from her father, who learned the instrument from his father.
"It is our family connection," she said. She also sings in choirs.
Music, she said, is a release. "It can be a public, social thing, but also can be introspective."
She said she is old enough to remember China before the economic explosion that has led it to become America's leading trading partner.
Her family lived outside Beijing in an area that was not cosmopolitan, she said.
"Children could run in the street, play in the mud, and run to the corner store," Yang said.
Rapid growth is changing that. When she visits her grandmother, they visit historic sites, places that represent to the woman the China that she grew up in, Yang said.
Yang said that she understands that feeling.
"There are parts of China that are like no place else in the world. The culture is slipping, slipping away. What you could only see in China is slipping away replaced by what you can see in Chicago or London," she said. "McDonald and Wal-Mart are part of the everyday shopping and eating."
Yang does not think China can go backward again, back to the days of repression, even though it remains a Communist nation.
"The people are enjoying the greater degree of freedom," she said.
Michael Daigle can be reached at (973) 267-7947 or mdaigle@gannett.com.
