This year’s 6th annual TEDxNYUShanghai conference at NYU Shanghai’s New Bund Campus marked a comeback of the event in person with seven talks on the theme of “Flux.” Speakers spanning the industries of education, media, graphic design, fashion, management and consulting, and linguistics shared their personal stories of self-discovery.
If
NYU Shanghai Dean of Students David Pe presented a medley of life stories including the time a high school teacher ripped up his college application essay and told him to write about who he really was, saying: “Be proud of your history. Tell it to the world.” Pe described his own family’s journey as refugees who fled Cambodia and started anew in Los Angeles, California. According to Pe, navigating this flux of new environments– spending time in textile factories, donut shops, and Chinese fast food restaurants where his family worked, provided him with a “blank canvas” from which he learned to be creative and resilient. He then described the disastrous start of his college career and being put on academic probation, to later flying to New York as a twenty-three-year old to follow his calling as a global educator, and eventually starting another chapter of his life in China with NYU Shanghai.
“If I don’t have the capacity to change the events that have happened in my life or my environment, how then do I create the capacity to be resilient when challenges present themselves?” he asked the audience. “How do I move in flux? Only through reflection with self-compassion are you able to genuinely grow.”
Who Am I? Finding my Voice Through Fear, Confidence, and Humility
In his talk Paul Chu, manager of Shanghai’s immersive and imaginative Museum of Ice Cream, described struggling with speech delays as a child and envying friends. Only later did he realize his own strength and passion for learning. “Focus on honing your strengths,” Chu said. “My top strength is that I am a learner. Learners tend to be open to change, and value the process over end results, and they are often natural teachers helping others learn as well.”
Chu talked about his professional evolution gained from working around the world before changing directions and moving to Shanghai at the peak of his career. “The world is constantly in flux and beyond our control, but who you are and what you hold onto will become the critical anchors to navigate the inevitable changes that come your way,” he said.
Global Impact: Building Bridges Across Cultures and Mindsets
Creating Somewhere Out of Nowhere
Dr. Linjing Jiang, associate professor of German Language and Literature at Fudan University, recited and then analyzed how the theme of flux is present in the poem “Bohemia lies by the sea,” by Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachmann.
Jiang points out that the poet calls upon all who are frustrated, lost, and perishing, to gather together united by the search for a common home. She asserts that the idea of ‘Bohemia’ is then not defined solely by its geographical features, but represents a borderless haven for “all the hopeless and homeless to gather…[and] renew their faith in the sea and hope in the land.”
“Writers and readers can reconstruct themselves, rediscover themselves, and shift themselves…to regain our internal hope even in a hopeless external world,” she said. “What unites people is not their nation but the spirit they share.”
Traveling, Creating, Adapting
Mexican graphic designer and travel content creator Cynthia Corona described pushing herself out of her comfort zone and finding her purpose by documenting her world travels on social media. “Some people dream of having a house, a car, a big family, but me? I dream of traveling to different countries and meeting people of different cultures,” Corona said. “I’m lucky to say that the life I was dreaming of as a teenager is the life that I’m living now.”
Having lived in Spain, Belgium, England, and now China, Corona says she uses her social media influence to spread positivity, share her experiences, and be present for her online community, however she maintains that when it comes to Instagram versus reality, not everything that shines is gold.
“Creating content requires years of practice, failing multiple times, learning how to be relevant, and never giving up,” she said. “I always try to be real and show the ups and downs, but if used correctly, social media can be a place not only to show beauty but to connect and create emotions.” She advised the audience that wherever they go, to not forget their roots.
Breaking the Mold: Choosing a Profession Through Sustainability
International fashion designer and founder of the upcycle brand UseDem Xenia Sidorenko spoke about her journey as a sustainable designer and her transformed understanding of sustainable fashion after working with local denim factories in China.
At 14, she turned an adult jacket into a children’s coat for a neighbor. Ten years later, she returned to the same sustainable business model, this time upcycling denim. “My dream was to travel to China and see how fabric was made–the whole process,” Sidorenko said. When she realized the damaging impact that mass production in the textile industry had on the environment, she founded the upcycle brand UseDem, transforming jeans and denim waste into functional, trendy, and useful pieces that get to experience a second life in a new form, like a backpack.
“I promised myself to be who I wanted to be, creating beauty and creating happiness for people, not destroying lives and nature,” she said. “I promised to myself forever to be creative, to creatively connect people, and to protect life for as long as I can.”
“Be confident in your knowledge of sustainability,” she advised the audience. “Find your crowd and try first to change people around you.”
Flux
He (Kloss) Bailiangge, a popular contestant on the Jiangsu television show program “Shining You,” took the stage and talked about persistence, courage to leave one’s comfort zone, and embracing “flux” by adapting to the changing circumstances of life.
She talked about the challenges of navigating work experiences at consulting firms, internet companies, private equity firms and investment banks. “Everybody’s capability is not the same, so I can’t always do as well as them, but I can get many skills and good methods from others,” she said. “I see myself more as a student learning all of the meaningful ideas from these outstanding speakers about the theme ‘Flux’ and their rich experience.”
