On the evening of December 14th, the TEDxCUMT co-organized by the International Office and the Youth League Committee was held in the Lecture Hall of the School of Humanities and Arts. With the theme of “Multi-culture of CUMT”, the TEDxCUMT invites five Chinese and foreign teachers and students to talk about the cultural phenomena and their perception of these phenomena.
The event began at 7 p.m. Zhai Shilei,associate professor of the School of Foreign Studies, was the first to give a speech. He discussed the influence of dialect on modern life through his own experience as a visiting scholar in the UK and interesting things that happened in his personal life. He believes that dialect, as a kind of identity symbol, can enhance people’s cultural identity and promote the development of cultural diversity. He is so glad to see that young people are protecting and passing on dialects in their own way. Craig Mcgeady, a New Zealand teacher of the School of Foreign Studies, explained how he understood poetry by introducing four famous poets in the history and sharing his own experience in creating poems. According to Craig Mcgeady, poetry is not an obscure and esoteric style of writing. It is a way of expressing one’s emotions and people can get from poetry the inspiration and energy. Craig’s eloquent recitation also won the applause from the audience.
Zheng Hao, a student of the School of Foreign Studies, shared his experience of losing weight. He warned everyone not to fall into the trap of “weight-loss” advertisement and not to be troubled mentally because of failure in losing weight. He also said that the same principle applies to life as it is important for everyone to keep a healthy and optimistic attitude towards life even in cases of occasional failures. Liu Qi, from Sun Yueqi Honoes College, shared his experience of studying in the United States. The difficulty of being alone did not hinder his determination and courage to overcome difficulties. His short stay in New York enabled him to understand life abroad from a more comprehensive perspective. He feels much proud of China for our strong measures in fighting against COVID-19. Iyona, an international student from Kazakhstan, talked about her life and study in our university, which represents an epitome of international students in CUMT. She said that communication barriers caused by cultural differences have posed many difficulties to overseas students in their study and life, but as long as people have the courage to take off their “masks” and sincerely communicate with each other, respect and understand each other, all difficulties will be solved. She also believes that in the era of globalization, solidarity, exchanges, dialogue and cooperation are required to jointly combat the difficulties and challenges facing whole human society.
Speakers presented their own unique viewpoints and insights from different perspectives, communicated with the audience and provoked their thinking, bringing a nutritious “spiritual feast”. At the same time, all talks were presented in English in either a serious, humorous, profound, or relaxing way, which became an auditory and visual “feast” and generated wide resonation among the audience.
TEDxCUMT is the first talk organized by our university after obtaining the official authorization of TED. TEDxCUMT aims to show the unique experience of speakers in their study, work and life to all the teachers and students of the university with an attempt to extract the enlighting spiritual essence tso as to show the“ideas of CUMTers”. TEDxCUMT will have a positive impact on the development of campus culture and international education environment in our university.
TED is the abbreviation of the three words Technology, Entertainment and Design. The TED conference is organised by a private non-profit institution in the US with the aim of “spreading ideas worth spreading”. Every March, the TED conference brings together prominent figures in science, design, literature, music and other fields in the United States to share their thoughts and explorations on technology, society and humanity. TEDx was proposed following TED. "X" represents an independent TED talk event organized by an organization or group authorized by TED. TEDx makes it possible for TED enthusiasts around the world to participate in this event.
