Wenzhou Innovation Network (WIN) was formed by students in Wenzhou-Kean University in 2014. Its slogan “World in Neighbor” imports a high-quality speech material from various areas and industries in China, which establishes a mixed-media brand for sharing ideas in society.

The idea of WIN came from Oliver Ding, the sponsor of the TEDtoChina organization. The purpose of WIN is to gather valued information and influential ideas to present to audiences in Wenzhou. The goal of WIN is to create more local change-makers in this city, from “content conveying” into “practice implementing”.

Ding says, “There is a lot of things needing to be explore in Wenzhou. This city played an important role in reform and openness since 1978 in China, which shaped a thought named ‘Wenzhou Model’. I am happy to see there is a new generation will develop a new Wenzhou for connecting with [the] international world.” 

“Wenzhou does not have much [of a] culture environment or meaningful activities like TEDx or others,” says co-founder of WIN, Jingyi Gu, a senior student at Wenzhou-Kean University. “The reason that I organized WIN is [to do] something special, not for [a] personal dream or scholarship.”

Why I come to China ---Gabin
Wenzhou Daily Newspaper, Wenzhou Education Magazine, Wenzhou-Kean University 

From 2014 to now, WIN has already held four sessions at Wenzhou-Kean University. WIN invites many influential people from different areas in China to attend. For the first session of the “Origin” series on November 5, 2014, Guangtao Jiang, who is a famous voice actor in China, performed the voice for Jack in movie Titanic, Sam in movie Transformers, etc. He performs the life of a character by voice and performs different races, countries, centuries and even species to touch unique emotion from each entity.

“Origin” derives from Latin and it means the beginning of everything, but full of possibilities to be everything. The definition of “origin” can be applied to WIN, unsure exploration and unlimited imagination. WIN will invite seven to eight people from different areas to one session series, and everyone will make a speech for free for 20-25 minutes at Wenzhou-Kean University.

The last session was “Artifacts,” held on Oct 10, 2015. “Artifacts” means object, a tool of human beings, but people are also artifacts, they are enriched and full of characteristics. “Artifacts” invited seven speakers:

1) Tony Yet, the united-sponsor of TEDtoChina and planer in TEDxGuangzhou, wanted to convey thoughts in depth to make the audience discover the inspiration in “imagination and positive attitudes.”

2) Liman A, the curator in Taiwan Lushan Forest Cultural Museum, says “forest in our bank and the interest concept can help us to operate it continuously.”

3) Harry, the sponsor in Eat With China, which is a program for providing special family food by native people, gave a speech on traveling.

4) Baiyou Xiao, the Chinese wolf-dad, encouraged to push children by beating them for getting better futures, whose behavior became a hot topic in society.

5) Zhenyu Hu, the sponsor in “Lingke Spaceflight,”  made the list of “40 business elites below 40 years old” in Fortune, China, 2014. He launched the first sounding rocket made by college students in Mongolia in July 2013.

6) Weijun Lin, the prize-winner in Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, has 14 years working experience in sculpture, decoration, technological artist and other crossover areas.

7) Fujun Li, independent photographer and signed photographer of CFP, focused on the subject of “Anti-War veterans.” He visited around 100 veterans to hear their stories and to draw attention to this group of people.

It was an extremely amazing speech. To think critically, creatively and globally in a leadership, entrepreneurship, collaboration and cooperation manner, it was the perfect chance, especially for students in Wenzhou-Kean University, to broaden their education and thinking habits. The speakers give newer and wider thoughts for the audience to ponder, making them explore themselves while young and energetic.

WIN is just like my baby, I contributed my time to wait [for] it [to] grow up and to be successful,” Gu says. “Of course, I felt frustrated in some moments and wanted to leave this team, but it was really hard to give WIN up. The preparation work for an event is hard and frustrating because I was refused time and time again. Especially when the announced activity time [was] closing, when we still could not give a completed speaker list, I was disappointed and felt that I would break down. However, to be honest, when the event [was] successfully organized and audiences [were] satisfied with the event, I [felt] contented and it is worthless to put so much energy and time on WIN.”

Let’s hope WIN can walk furtherer and cultivate more creative and thoughtful persons in Wenzhou. 

Interior designer & A perfectionist---Pingzhong Wang
Wenzhou Daily Newspaper, Wenzhou Education Magazine, Wenzhou-Kean University