Xiamen to hold TEDx event
An independently organized TED event, TEDxYouth@HuizhanRd, will take place in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province on June 23.
The 5-hour event will feature nine speakers from all walks of life, all born in the 1990s and 2000s, who will share stories about themselves and their influence on society.
One of the speakers, Chen Yiwei, is a social activist. She firmly believes that charity is about "making people feel stronger, not making people feel better". She founded Project Synapses in 2016 in Singapore to provide financial and psychological help to people with cerebral palsy.
Another speaker, high-school student Zhan Haojing, was born into a hand puppet family in southern Fujian province. Zhan is a third-generation inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage. However, she differs from her family in how she thinks the age-old art form should be protected and promoted.
It is also worth mentioning that the organizer of the event, Li Shiqi, is a freshman of Fordham University. She planned to create a sharing activity for young people in her hometown Xiamen and applied to TED last year.
TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas, began in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment and design converged, and today covers almost all topics, from science to business and global issues.
TEDx is a program run by TED to help share ideas in communities around the world. In China, there are more than 150 TEDx events held every year.
Why Xiamen
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Xiamen is one of the most economically competitive cities in China and was one of the first Special Economic Zones on the Chinese mainland. As a vice-provincial city independently listed on the State development plan, it has provincial-level authority in economic administration and local legislative power. In 2010, the Xiamen SEZ was expanded to cover the entire municipality. Today, Xiamen is a modern and international port city.