The title is inspired by a Taiwanese band, Modern Cinema Master. Though it may appear confusing as what society lacks today is not vulgarity and egoism but instead romance and poetry, but it is not Wildean romance or Yesenin-like poetry that should be killed. It is instead superficial romance and vulgar poetry’s existence becomes far worse than the absence of romance and poetry.
Rock and roll has a famous saying, “O ever youthful, O ever weeping”. Rebellion and independence are important ideologies in Rock and Roll that often move and inspire many who follow. One could say that such rebellion originates from the public’s numb mindsets which neglect and abandon any pursuit or realization of self-worth. Therefore to escape from such mental torture, people create a lot of superficial romance and poetry, relying on the daily clamor of "beach", "sunset" and "love" to paralyze their minds. Yet these types of poetry have no value, and thus should be killed. In Western mythology, when Phineas burns himself, new life is born, and death always points to new creation.
Kill the false romance that intoxicates one's self with selfishness and utilitarianism, and bring alive the cold waves of life.
Kill all the vulgarity in the skin of poetry or other arts, and let independent aesthetic thinking be reborn.
Kill romance to kill poetry, and let poetry and romance be reborn.
The four keynote speakers we invited on April, 9 come from different fields, yet all practice their faith and pursue their hearts in their respective fields. Everyone here is living their lives authentically and realizing their self-worth. Their stories are the romance and poetry of the newborn, the romance and poetry that should be read today.
To have a harder and more disdainful expression, to have an absolutely sharper voice.
To refuse to be calm and tell them who has to live like you.
To be forever questioning, questioning all sorrows.
To be eternally proud, young, to be eternally pursued.
The above four lyrics apply coincidentally to our four keynote speakers today:
1. Xiong Xianjun
To have a harder and more disdainful expression, to have an absolutely sharper voice.
For most people, daily exercise is difficult enough,
Can you imagine a person running around China?
He ran with a tough, harder, more disdainful expression, day after day, and the thought that came with running gave him a sharper voice.
He is Xiong Xianjun, a runner, a man who is always on the road, a man who measures the breadth of China with his steps, a thinker, and a man who tries to illuminate others.
In 15 years, he has transformed from a student confused who has just arrived to Shanghai with no idea of marathons, to a runner who has run 26,438 kilometers around the border roads of China.
At 26,438 kilometers, many cars are at the end of their lives and in urgent need of replacement. Can you imagine a person, with their own feet, running to this distance? And he did.
When it comes to runners, many people think of Forrest Gump, but that's just a fictional character, Yet Xiong Xianjun, who is standing in front of us right now, uses running to give meaning to his life and uses running to write poems for his life.
He was not only a runner but also a thinker. During his years of running, he was often accompanied by the books and thoughts of countless philosophers. He liked a quote from Nietzsche: "When you find the direction of your life, you can withstand whatever life throws at you." When you find your own romance and poetry, all obstacles seem to disappear.
He was not only a runner but a light giver to others. He hopes to use his story to help more people figure out how to live their lives.
In this series of the Starry Night Conversation, Xiong Hyun-jun shares his story of how to kill the confused and ordinary, and bring new life to love and thinking.
2. Su Xiaotang
Refuse peace and tell them, who wants to live like you?
Would you dare to give up your already gifted and successful career just because of your ideals to completely change your life?
Most people wouldn’t and would even discourage it. But our keynote speaker uses her story to tell us to refuse peace, to tell them, “who will even want to live like you?”
Twelve years ago, Su Xiaotang began her involvement in photography, mainly engaging in three categories: portrait photography, still life photography, and space photography. Six years ago, she transformed her passion for photograph into a Taobao store.
Su says she is a photographer who fears repetition.
In the past, she would prepare new clothes, new props, and new scenes for each guest. For her, there is no way to shoot every guest in the same way. The arrival of each new guest is a precious encounter, so she sees it as her perfect creative opportunity.
When she first stepped into the manufacturing industry as an aesthetic practitioner, the onslaught of difficulties overwhelmed her, and the new industry forced her to start all over again. But she understands that challenges and opportunities coexist, and she cherishes them both.
She says that one of the greatest blessings in life is to have the privilege of being a friend to her child as he grows up. She is down to earth when it comes to parenting, and she restrains her parenting desire to tell her son what to do and what not to do. Instead, she observes her child more often. She feels that she should influence her child with self-disciplined behavior around him, rather than just telling him "you should do" or "you go do".
She says that having a small world of her own and enjoying a moment of quiet in a state like the epidemic is precious to her. The rare term "mining label" is a big part of her life. Interested in niche designer designs, she couldn't help herself when she first saw them. The magic of nature is a kind of ghostly beauty. So, she collected abundant ores to show her family. Everyone of their amazed reactions always gave her a sense of accomplishment and pride.
In this Starry Night Conversation, Su Xiaotang shares her story of how to kill vulgar success and give independent aesthetics a new lease of life.
3. Dou Lu
To forever question all the sorrow
Pneumoconiosis is a disease that afflicted many “underclass” workers. If you could, would you do anything to fix this?
Many may say that such sorrow is already personally irrevocable. But our speaker says NO as she chooses to question eternally and question all sorrows.
She is Dou Lu, who has devoted herself to helping pneumoconiosis patients for 7 years and is now the Secretary General of “Love Save Pneumoconiosis". On the road of doing public service, Dou Lu's perseverance and her strong sense of social responsibility are touching.
Inspired by the establishment of a protection system for pneumoconiosis patients that she saw when she was studying in Hong Kong, Dou Lu decided to move from working behind the scenes in a drama group to promoting the establishment of a special fund committee for pneumoconiosis patients after two years of work.
In the course of her public service career, Dou Lu has adopted a strategy of balancing, regulating and resolving difficulties, understanding the difficulties from the government's perspective, conducting in-depth research to obtain enough data on the patients, and gaining a deep understanding of the patients' needs in order to help the pneumoconiosis patients in a practical way. She said: "The essence of public welfare is in fact to solve social problems and to help improve the system of pneumoconiosis patients to not only help this group but also to solve the hidden set of medical security system behind it all, reflecting the nature of the law for ordinary workers, which also affects everyone living in this society. " Dou Lu's concern for the problems arising from the specific context of society and his determination to take the world into his own hands inspires each and every one of us.
In today’s Starry Night Conversation, Doulu shares her story of how to kill the impotent insensitivity of individuals and reinvigorate hope.
4. Jasmine
“To always be proud, young, and pursuing.”
How many people can go through life with their childhood dreams? How many of those will not be defeated by merit? Very few.
Our speaker is one of those who successfully followed her love, stayed proud, and made what was once a dream, a reality.
Jasmine, now living in Suzhou, is the founder of "Blossom" women's clothing. She loves to travel and have visited France, Spain, New Zealand, Cuba and many other countries.
Inspired by online bloggers and her travel experiences, Jasmine decided to implement the concept of "women's travel clothing". For her recently launched outdoor collection, Jasmine created clothing with elements of mint and ice, incorporating what she saw and heard during her visits to Hemingway's nickel-and-dime bars.
But the name "Bloom" is a domain name that Jasmine has chosen since college. She believes that blossoming is a graceful and characteristic gesture for women. Whether a flower is in full bloom or just starting to sprout, they are both considered as a kind of blooming. Therefore, Jasmine hopes that "bloom" can accompany all women to complete their blossoming in real life.
At the same time, Jasmine has established a community for customers in different cities and named it "Bloom Garden". This community connected and acquainted many of her customers, from strangers to intimate friends, sharing their own life insights with each other.
Jasmine is also a veteran writer. In her second book "Dear Life", Jasmine presents the warmth of her life. For Jasmine, love is an energetic thing. So she wants to use her love-filled experiences to spread love and to bring some good changes to the world.
Whether in Jasmine's literary works or brand philosophy, what Jasmine wants to convey is not only a positive attitude towards life, but also gratitude for all the encounters in life. She hopes that all people can turn their experiences into experiences and treat everything as a gift and harvest.
Tonight, listen to Jasmine’s story of how to kill the shackles of meritocracy and give new life to dreams and pride.