TEDxXiguan: Exploration of Indefinite Future

22/08/2016

The 2016 TEDxXiguan annual conference was held on August 13th, where Barry Wilson and other 12 speakers shared their great ideas around the theme of "constructive disruption" which expresses an intention to think outside of the box and to break routines. The conference was divided into four sessions: Future, A whole new take, Perspective and A way forward. Each session was aimed at inspiring audience to spark ideas and explore infinite possibilities.

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Speaker list:

• ​​Metro Vocal Group
• Barry Wilson
• Zhiyong XI
• Benjamin T. Wood
• Tommie Varekamp
• Jun LU
• Linda TAN
• Alisa TSAN
• Jane LEE
• Tristan Roquette
• Taison CHANG
• Martin Yan
• Yanjun CAI

 

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Metro started their career in 1998 singing aboard several ships with Celebrity Cruises. After four years with the fleet, they moved to Tokyo, Japan and performed for Tokyo Disney Sea in the American Waterfront. Then they came to Hong Kong and joined Hong Kong Disneyland. After two years with the company, Metro made the decision to enter the mainstream music industry and they discovered an entirely different variety of Cantonese and Mandarin music from the last 50 years and now perform some of China’s most beloved songs as well as their own compositions.

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Wilson has designed, documented and administered a wide variety of architecture, landscape, urban planning and environmental projects, whilst specialising in sustainable design solutions with particular emphasis on socially inclusive design. In 2012 he received award from the China International Urbanization Development Strategy Research Committee for his outstanding achievements. He is devoted to bringing contemporary solutions to Clients.

​On August 13th, he presented his idea that science fiction writers and Hollywood directors have been hugely influential in envisioning the future, from robots to the mobile phone. Tomorrows' city is usually portrayed as some dark, polluted, distopian nightmare but it need not be like that. Automated vehicle technology is about to rapidly free up the reshaping of our cities from the constraints imposed by road planning and our urban spaces will become light, green, clear and inviting. Our lives are to be revolutionised and the city of tomorrow is here today.

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Zhiyong Xi is a professor at Sun Yat-sen University and Michigan State University.

Xi has led a Guangzhou- based pilot field study using mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which aims at curbing on the reproduction of mosquitoes that carry dengue and Zika virus in order to prevent dengue and Zika diseases spreading around the world.

Xi hopes that, in the future, the way to reduce the number of mosquitoes that carry virus can be developed in controlling the number of roaches, flies and other pests.

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Benjamin T. Wood works includes Shanghai's famous Xintiandi, Foshan’s Lingnantian and Hangzhou’s Xihutiandi, which perfectly incorporated local features.
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For years, Wood has been thinking about the way to reshape urban landscape, to provide a living place in rapid development still  remaining its particular icon.

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Being designed humanoid, robots are dubbed as a kind of human in Chinese. There is never a lack of innovations and changes in technology. 

However, industrial designer Tommie Varekamp believes that we should pay more attention to user experience and human-machine interface by diversifying and individualizing robotics, rather than merely focus on technology. After all it is humans, instead of robots, who bring a whole new take toward the future. 

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Jun Lu was honoured as one of the 100 creative and talented artists in Creative Genius: 100 Contemporary Artists. He won the Photography Gold medal, the Sculpture Bronze and the Digital art Silver Prize separately on the 7th, 9th and 10th X Biennale di Firenze, and also won as the outstanding photographer of Pingyao International photography.
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He is a pioneer in the development of “Digital Ink and Wash”. By capturing the moments that the colours taking changes in the water, he perfectly presents different scenarios while colours meet the water. Actually, he renovates the Chinese traditional wash paintings, and develops it into a more abstract and contemporary artistic expression.

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Linda TAN is the partner of Rice Harmony Cooperative, in charge of brand strategy, product development and farm and food education as well. She is determined to help rural areas in China after she visited more than 30 schools in rural areas where she did farming and talked to locals.

She represented her ideas on August 13 about how we can produce rice and vegetables in a more bio-friendly way; how we should guide ordinary people to a more sustainable pattern of production as well as consumption. 

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Yahan Cao is a social designer from Taiwan and who now lives in Guangzhou. She is leading a project to design a better world for the elders. Other than using her own knowledge, she asks for help and participation from the community itself as she facilitate changes to happen.

Using design thinking to address social topics, she gave up her original identity, and blended herself into a new community and its cultural context. As she was experiencing unfamiliarity and change, she realized that design for the elders is actually design for us all.

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Our common belief is that photography highly relies on vision. However, Jane Li and her team are proving the opposite, through a photography project that is not visual. Their project has proven that visually-impaired people can also take incredible photos. 
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Drawing a conclusion is not the only goal, Jane Li and her team move forward by inviting people with regular vision to take part in this project in the hope of arousing public awareness of the daily problems that visually-impaired people encounter.

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Teamacting is a consulting company, specialized in management and leadership. As the founder of Teamacting, Tristan believes that no matter how much we are used to the modern work style, there is still room for development. Tristan also provides suggestions and consulting to the European chamber and Roquette Corporate.

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Chang works for the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society. It has been 3 years since Taison started being involved in the research of Chinese white dolphins after graduating from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He fights hard for the survival of dolphins with the local research team whose aim is to help the population of Chinese white dolphins and finless porpoises to thrive within Hong Kong water. Besides, they also give a lot of importance to captive animals, making joint efforts with local and international organizations to raise awareness in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

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Martin Yan, the world’s foremost expert on Chinese cooking and the host of the famous cooking TV show. He is also the author of 6 cookbooks.

"Yan Can Cook, So Can You!" has always been the motto of Martin Yan, chef extraordinaire and popular television host recognized from Shanghai to San Francisco. Promoting Chinese cuisine, making it easy for the cook and tasty for the guests has been his life-long mission. 

Never one to rest on his laurels, Martin has remained an active international food ambassador. He roams the world representing different commercial and social concerns to entertain and educate the public, sharing with them his unique humor and strong passion for Chinese cooking.

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She is a PhD candidate of urban and regional planning at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. As a professor of the State University of New York at Albany, she focuses on studying social development in an innovative way to enhance maintenance among societies. Additionally, she also maintains the collaboration between the Asian Development Bank and The United Nations Development Program.
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She focuses on new ways and means for reconstruction after a disaster. She believes minority in our common context can demonstrate adaptation and innovation when facing disaster.









Read at: TEDxXiguan

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