An embroidery artist, computational biologist and ex-convict will tell their stories at the annual TEDxTaipei conference in a bid to inspire reform.
The Taipei conference is a nonprofit, independently organized event licensed by TED, which packages “ideas worth spreading” in talks up to 18 minutes long.
This year the theme is “Flip,” which is what 45 speakers will try to do to Taiwan’s fortunes by sharing ideas, according to TEDxTaipei curator Big Question.
Photo Courtesy of Big Question
“Taiwan has had a lot of bad news lately and people are getting frustrated with the way things are going. I don’t even need to go into what’s happened this morning with President Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平)],” said Michelle Lo (駱意欣), a project manager at Big Question, to the Taipei Times on Wednesday.
“We’re getting together talks that all fall under six main topics that Taiwan could use a change in, like education and our relationship with Mother Nature,” she said.
PROGRAM
The two-day TED-style conference will comprise 45 talks in Chinese or English, each with simultaneous interpretation.
Talks on day one are about using technology to enhance experiences, coexisting with the natural environment and reforming the education system.
Speakers include Taipei City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Liou Wei-gong (劉維公); Houston-based lip performer U-Learn Lee (李育倫); and Jimmy Lin (林政和), founder of the Rare Genomics Institute, an international nonprofit that helps people with rare diseases access cutting-edge biotechnology.
“Some of them are interesting speakers flown in from around the world, but there are also lesser-known speakers that we found through an open mic contest,” Lo said.
The day-two program addresses challenges for Taiwanese youth, the revitalization of traditional craft industries and innovation in other cultural sectors.
Unlike day one, which has an all-male lineup, day two features three women speakers including Xu Chen-chun (許陳春) from Changhua County. Xu, who hails from a family of artists, has made her name with detailed 3D embroidery modeled after tin art.
Other day-two speakers include Anting Liu (劉安婷), a Taipei-born Princeton graduate who founded Teach for Taiwan, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s Lin Hwai-min (林懷民); and Wang Dan (王丹), leader of the Chinese democracy movement and the first political prisoner of the Tiananmen Square protests.
New to this year’s conference are Idea Spaces, where participants can develop their own solutions to problems. Audience members can meet speakers and ask questions at the Second Stage; at another hub, speakers facilitate roundtable discussions about design problems raised during the talks.
“The main point of our program is to have more people get involved and speak out,” Lo said.
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
On May 2, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), at a meeting in support of Taipei city councilors at party headquarters, compared President William Lai (賴清德) to Hitler. Chu claimed that unlike any other democracy worldwide in history, no other leader was rooting out opposing parties like Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). That his statements are wildly inaccurate was not the point. It was a rallying cry, not a history lesson. This was intentional to provoke the international diplomatic community into a response, which was promptly provided. Both the German and Israeli offices issued statements on Facebook
May 18 to May 24 Pastor Yang Hsu’s (楊煦) congregation was shocked upon seeing the land he chose to build his orphanage. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the only way to access it was to cross a river by foot. The soil was poor due to runoff, and large rocks strewn across the plot prevented much from growing. In addition, there was no running water or electricity. But it was all Yang could afford. He and his Indigenous Atayal wife Lin Feng-ying (林鳳英) had already been caring for 24 orphans in their home, and they were in
Australia’s ABC last week published a piece on the recall campaign. The article emphasized the divisions in Taiwanese society and blamed the recall for worsening them. It quotes a supporter of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as saying “I’m 43 years old, born and raised here, and I’ve never seen the country this divided in my entire life.” Apparently, as an adult, she slept through the post-election violence in 2000 and 2004 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the veiled coup threats by the military when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president, the 2006 Red Shirt protests against him ginned up by
RSS