Theme: Landing from Paradox

Have you ever been inspired, touched, or challenged by a TED talk? On April 2nd, 2023, our school, Wuxi Dipont School of Arts and Sciences cordially invites you to our own TEDx event, where you can witness passionate speeches, listen to original ideas, and engage in a conversation with wonderful speakers from our community and beyond.

The central theme of this year's event is “Landing from Paradox”.

Paradox is a proposition in which two opposing conclusions can be derived according to the accepted logic. Now, we can not only interpret the “paradox” by its original meaning, but also extend its meaning to everything that creates a dilemma in our lives.
A decision about a daily task, a life-changing situation, a philosophical question, an artistic representation, a scientific statement, and infinitely more... All of these can be examples of paradoxes that we could encounter.

However, the paradoxes are only our starting point: we seek to find the meaning, the balance, the way towards the solution to these paradoxes.;

Thus, our “landing”.

By landing from these paradoxes, we learn to comprehend some of the nature of our lives and make progress.
Our presenters will invite us through their journeys and experiences to explore their unique paradoxes and enlighten us with their way to “landing” instead of floating upwards in the paradox. “How do we break through the dilemmas of life to bring ideas to fruition?” “How do we achieve the unity and land in real life amidst the paradoxes of our thoughts?” These are some of the questions we will explore through our theme.

Wuxi DSAS Auditorium
Address: No.188 Qingyuan Road, Binhu District, Wuxi, China
Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214000
China

Constance Elizabeth Hu

Grade 10 Student of Dipont School of Arts and Science

Constance, a tenth-grade student at DSAS, was born and raised in Beijing as a biracial girl. Being biracial, she has encountered challenges with finding her identity. Is she British? Chinese? From a third culture? Or is she just a global citizen?

Jang Lee

Kindergarten Teacher at Dipont School of Arts and Science

Jang is an early year’s teacher who strongly believes that striving for perfection will lead to excellence. He is constantly seeking new ways to learn and grow as an educator and a father. Jang’s life journey has been a diverse one: he was born in South Korea, grew up in New Zealand, worked in Australia and now resides in China. He was a soldier, a radio DJ, a producer, a salesperson, a barrister, a server and many more before discovering his passion of teaching. He understands the challenges and struggle many young people face when growing up in an international environment.

Kenneth Taylor

Music Teacher at Dipont School of Arts and Science

Kenneth graduated from East Carolina University in 2006 with his BS and in 2012 with his MPA. In 2006, after teaching for many years, Kenneth moved to China. As an accomplished vocalist and pianist his skills have been showcased on numerous stages in the United States and China. He strives to connect music to daily concepts and encourages students to learn how to express themselves freely.

Mandy Wang

Pastoral Assistant Head for the Upper Secondary School

For Mandy, “school” is a crucial keyword in her life story. It goes beyond being a place where students learn from their teachers; it is an opportunity to encounter individuals from diverse backgrounds. Outside of school, we tend to only see ourselves looking into a mirror, but in school, we learn to observe the world outside and understand its diversity.

Qiurui Du

Chinese Artist Parsons School of Design and Pratt's Institute's Alumni

Qiurui Du was born in Beijing, China. He graduated from the Department of Illustration of Parsons School of Design in 2018 where he received his bachelor's degree; and went to Pratt Institute for MFA painting and drawing. As the founder of E.E Art Group, he is dedicated to curating exhibitions for young artists. He currently works and lives in Shanghai, Beijing as well as New York, and has held many solo exhibitions and participated in many important exhibitions all around the world. His works are in a rich, bright, and fashionable style, but they also reflect the cold, empty and alienated feelings of people in the highly developed commercial civilization of our time.

Summer Li

Trainer of the Center of Nonviolent Communication

Summer Li, a Certified Trainer of the Center of Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) and the Head Coach of No-Fault Zone Game in China, specializes in the training and consulting of nonviolent communication and no-fault zone game. To share the art of nonviolent communication, she founded NVC Learning Center, providing nonviolent communication-related training and consulting services to parents, children, teachers, administrative staff and people in other industries. She is skillful in training and one-on-one counseling on communication, interpersonal relations, psychological counseling, emotional management, emotional trauma, etc. To serve people more deeply and widely, Summer’s purpose in life is to raise CNVC to be the designated training center for Nonviolent Communication Certified in China. Summer serves as the Program Director and trainer; under her leadership, NVC Learning Center has also introduced many books to raise people’s awareness of Nonviolent Communication.

Susie Xu

Grade 10 Student of Dipont School of Arts and Science

Susie is a grade 10 student at Wuxi Dipont School of Arts and Science. She is a communicative, optimistic and outgoing student with excellent academic performance. Her outstanding speaking and presentation skills earned her a half scholarship for 2022. However, before coming to this school, she was an introvert and closed-minded person. Her transformation began in her first drama class four years ago when she discovered her passion for the art form. In grade 7 she won the individual award in the National EdTA Drama Festival and held down lead roles in the school play for two years.

Xianya Xu

Associate Professor in School of Design of East China Normal University

Xianya Xu obtained both a PhD and master's degree in Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Xu’s research field is related to Museum Study and Space Architecture Design with publications on several international journals and conferences. She has been a member of the "Space Design Joint Laboratory" since 2021, a group of experts in design, aerospace, materials, psychology, and other fields dedicated to exploring and researching the design and construction of extraterrestrial human settlements.