Youth Development and Youth Leadership
LOS ANGELES, June 21 (Zizhi Education) –The 14th Educational and Cultural Salon of Zizhi Education under the theme “Youth Development and Youth Leadership” concluded on June 20. This event brought together renowned international filmmakers, Hollywood writer and screenwriter, bilingual television host, educational leaders, media experts, and corporate executives from Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Beijing and Paris, to discuss the historical mission of our young generation of this new era. Guest speakers and participatant guests shared and discussed their responsibilities and career achievements in building cross-cultural bridges between China and the US in the film industry.
Ruobin Sun, the first guest speaker, is the member of the Chinese Writers Association of America, and also a writer, filmmaker, and gourmet. This year Sun just published his first novel Penguins Can Fly in both San Francisco and Shanghai. Sun introduced during the event that this book describes the life experiences of early Chinese students and immigrants in San Francisco in the years around the 1990s. Sun illustrated how he successfully integrated into the American society and merged eastern culture with western culture through the power of food. Sun’s experience of friendly cultural exchanges between the Chinese and American people set an example for the young generation of this new era. In his novel Penguins Can Fly, Sun exquisitely portrays the importance of life by depicting the living conditions of the first generation of Chinese immigrants as well as the Chinese students’ noble character, which Sun further explains that one’s body may be destroyed but not one’s spirit. Sun also discusses in his book about how intellectuals were treated back then and his imagination and expectation for the future of mankind. Sun questions in his book that if human will have to leave our mother earth and migrate to other planets just like penguins left their familiar living environment and chose to adapt to their new home. Penguins can fly, but it was their choice to dive in the sea for a living. Sun questions whether human will choose to give up some characters and evolve to adapt to the changing environment, or to stay as distinguished as who we are now and bravely face all the uncertainties.
Brandon Easton, the second guest speaker, is a professional writer, screenwriter, and educator based in Los Angeles. He’s mainly known for his work on the ThunderCats series, Transformers series, Agent Carter, Spider-man as well as critical acclaim for his work in the comic book industry. Besides, as a dedicator of bridging cultural gap between China and the US, Easton was invited to a live interview by Baidu to share what’s happening now in the western world and his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement with the Chinese audiences. Easton delivered a very important point during the event that the best solution to fight discrimination is education. “Americans in general are not very familiar with their history”, he commented, “education is the key. If you are a member of a group that is being discriminated against, the only thing you can do is to educate yourself, set a goal for yourself and achieve that goal” because “nobody can take away your dream after you achieved it and no one can take away your education after you graduated”. Easton also shared his different experiences working with Chinese and American production teams. “I had a better working experience with Chinese production teams” he said, “Chinese teams are more concerned about the actual story. They don’t judge people’s work based on their skin color, only the quality of their work.” He also talked about his unpleasant experience working with an American production team that “a lot of people bring their biases and fear to production. You never know if their critique of you is based on true critique of the story or if they are bringing their fear and biases to the analysis.” Easton reiterated at the end of the event that he thinks African American people should “never give up and never surrender” to discrimination, yet “violence is not the resolution”.
Coca Xie, graduated from USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, is a bilingual television personality, host, and producer in Hollywood. As the host of this event, Xie shared her experience in cultural bridging between China and the US and identified herself as a practitioner in cultural bridging. Xie mentioned during conversation that adhering to the mission “to bridge the gap between China and America through the power of entertainment,” she had brought Chinese culture and talent on American TV show stage including: “Shaolin Kungfu, traditional acrobatic performance, and Tongxiang Sugar painting, which is a Chinese intangible cultural heritage”. As Xie forged ahead on her mission to introduce Chinese culture to the western world, she founded her own company China Entertainment Group to better “produce high quality content that immerses audiences into the outstanding aspects of Chinese culture”. Xie also mentioned that she would see herself as the disseminator of Chinese culture rather than being labeled as a bilingual host or producer. “It has been an honor shedding some light on the wonderful talent from China”, Xie concluded, “I have found this journey greatly satisfying – being able to see the eastern culture blooming on a Hollywood stage. This is just the beginning.”
Yunhao Zhang, one of the participant guests, graduated from Zhejiang University with Digital Media major and Ringling College of Art and Design with Computer Animation major, is a director and storyboard artist who is currently working in Alcon Entertainment that produced Blade Runner 2049. In 2013 and 2014, Zhang was fortunate enough to join Blizzard Entertainment Cinematics Team as a storyboard artist; he worked on projects including StarCraft II, World of WarCraft, Heroes of the Storm. In 2015, he directed a 3D animated short film The Hungry Buddhists, which had won many awards in film festivals in the US including The Best Short Competition. As a professional in the film industry, Zhang commented during the event that “great animation is not just a good story itself, but also an influence for the audience that can change their view towards the world.” He also pointed out that a lot of ethnic and racial minorities like him need to “work harder than everyone else” to get the same job. Zhang hopes to “create more animation to reach a wider range of audience” and “make his effort in creating a world that is more inclusive and loving”. At the end of this event, Zhang called on the society to bring more justice and opportunities to the film industry and concluded that in welcoming the tenth year in the US, he is still “making every effort to put his native culture and unique understanding of the world into every day’s creation.”
Richard Ren, board member and director of The Los Angeles Post, president of AACYF (the All American Chinese Youth Federation). As an expert in media and communication, Ren responded to the tension between China and the US during panel discussion section. Ria Wen, partner of Zizhi Education, asked that under such circumstances, “how should international students be good messengers to promote friendly cultural exchanges between people of the two countries?” Ren explained that things were quite different back in the 90s that there were not as many international students as there are now due to strict visa policy, limited language skills or economic situation back then. Chinese students in the 90s were more introverted to share their culture with the local society. Yet China is developing rapidly nowadays, which provides much better material conditions for our young generation. Ren mentioned that the US is an immigrant country where all kinds of cultures collide, so our young generation should take on the responsibility to encourage cultural exchanges between China and the US.
“Zizhi Education has always committed to reduce information asymmetry in education and the fair distribution of educational resources”, Tianci Zeng, the founder of Zizhi Education, the organizer of today’s event, concluded that “Zizhi Educational and Cultural Salon aimed to encourage communications and cultural exchanges among elites from different countries and fields”. Hatred, disease, trade war, or discrimination should not hinder our young generation’s common goal of building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind or our yearning for a better future. Almost 60 years ago, facing great difficulties, Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Today in 2020, as the young generation of this new era, we, too, still have a dream. Whether from Mississippi to Alabama, or from Los Angeles to Beijing, or from America to China, from Europe to Africa, from wherever you are to wherever I stand, we have a dream that the bonds of long-standing friendship among all nations are inseverable. We have a dream that film art can be distributed regardless of the difference of gender, race or geographical area. We have a dream that information asymmetry in education will be reduced and educational resources will be fairly distributed. “To encourage cultural exchanges between countries and their people is a long process”, Zeng said, Zizhi hopes to “become the fulcrum in building cross-cultural bridges between China and the US” and will stick to its original intention of providing a platform “by the youth, of the youth and for the youth”.
Participant guests of this event also include Golden Zhao, graduated from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He is a Sino-US Photography director and creative advertising director, who has won many national and international awards; Lewis Liu, founder and chairman of Chinese in Entertainment. He studied film and video production in the University of Iowa, and broadcast journalism in the Communication University of China; Hui Tong, graduated from Columbia Journalism School specialized in documentary, is currently a writer and documentary director in New York; Jiayun Liu, graduated from the academy of film of Hong Kong Baptist University, is the Best Documentary Short Film Winner of the 2020 Wellington Independent Film Festival; Jiayi Guo, graduated from American Film Institute, was the production coordinator of 12 Citizens, the first Chinese feature film to win the People’s Choice Award at Rome International Film Festival; Guo Hu, independent film writer, director, theatre photographer based in Paris, studied film aesthetics in Paris-Sorbonne University. He was a member of the production team of the “Zhou You Ji” in Paris, as well as the French translator of Jay Chou; Helen Yu, graduated from the University of Southern California and studied economics, is an equity research analyst. Special observation guests who also participated in today’s event include experienced professionals in educational practices, expert in media and communication, and senior educator in higher education.
Today’s event was organized by Zizhi Education, and supported by The Los Angeles Post, The All American Chinese Youth Federation, China Entertainment Group, Chinese in Entertainment, For Your Progress Only, and Ivy International Organization.
by Fan Zhang (Zizhi Education)
