Researcher from Beijing-Based Think Tank Explores “New Colours of Africa” in Cape Town, South Africa
I did my internship in South African!
Call for African Art Gallery Collaboration: Bring “New Colours of Africa” to China
Career empowerment for Hong Kong students
Career Empowerment for Hong Kong Students
吾步徒助力香港学生职业赋能
What is it like being in a minority group, and what does it offer to your career development? In collaboration with Caritas Hong Kong, Wubuntu hosted two groups of non-Chinese speaking secondary school students.
We are helping their career development by organising a job shadowing day and an intercultural engagement with our team and partners!
Caritas Youth and Community Service has been commissioned by the HKSAR Education Bureau to launch a service named "Provision of Services on Providing Life Planning Education Activities for Non-Chinese Speaking Students in Secondary Schools"(2021 - 2023) (The Service).
We had three students joining the Wubuntu team on the job shadowing day. They participated in team meetings and engaged our members in ongoing Africa-Asia project preparation.
‘It is an eye-opening experience to be with a company operated online, and what Wubuntu is doing is meaningful and fun.’
At the end of the shadowing day at Wubuntu, one participate shared in the intercultural party organised for our virtual internship programme participants.
The second part of the career workshop includes an organisation visit to our office space in Hong Kong and meeting our Cape Town co-founder Dr Tian in an early South African morning. Our co-founders engaged students with interesting intercultural, entrepreneurship, social innovation and career development discussions.
Best wishes to our students! May your cultural identity gives you strength and inspiration in every aspect of life.:)
Celebrate your Africa work experience!
Wubuntu Virtual Internship Programme
吾步徒暑假远程实习项目
After a long hot summer in Asia and cold winter in South Africa, its harvest time!
Over the past 3 months, Wubuntu has offered virtual internship experience for more than 50 university students in Hong Kong, in collaboration with more than 20 South Africa-based organizations from different business fields.
On the 4th of August, we have invited all our South Africa business collaborators and students from the internship program to join our celebration, to share their joy and interesting experiences from their internship.
‘My supervisor is very nice and helpful, knowing I may not have much field knowledge he taught me many new technical skills to help me understand the work. I asked to extend my internship voluntarily because I wanted to learn more from him.’
—— Kwok Wing Tung
Current studying at Hong Kong Baptist University
‘I have no prior knowledge of South Africa before joining (this programme), it surprised me how kind the people are, and I enjoyed working with South African people. I would participate again next year.’
—— Tho Phan
Current studying at City University of Hong Kong
‘During my internship with Anthropology Southern Africa Association (ASnA), I received a warm welcome from my supervisor and fellow council members. I was offered the internship position in marketing and social media content. It was a very valuable experience for me since this present me with the opportunity to apply what I have studied to practical use.
On top of that, participating in the ASnA’s internship program also make me realize that there are so many things to learn from them. Before joining ASnA, I never knew about the concept of Anthropology and that made me very nervous. However, the ASnA kindly accommodated me and ensured that I feel comfortable during my stay.
I would like to thank all the council members for supervising and equipping me with actual experience in the working field. I am grateful for all the amazing people I have met at Anthropology Southern Africa Association such as Gcobani, Tian, Shabnam, Helen, and many more including my fellow intern, Sam. Stay Awesome!’
—— Poompong Junhom
Current studying at City University of Hong Kong
Summarizing from all those overwhelmingly positive feedbacks from our participants and our business collaborators, intercultural communication brought us closer through collaborative works and it inspires us to bring it further.
We will continue to offer many more intercultural engagements for empowering youth development in the forthcoming months, stay tuned!
Wubuntu@Milan Design Week 吾步徒@米兰设计周
Wubuntu@Milan Design Week 2022
吾步徒@2022年米兰设计周
The Concept:Open 打开
The design work OPEN, is a part of NexLab’s Tableless Ware Experimental Project in innovating the concept of ‘table’, and is exhibited in 5Vie.it of Milan Design Week, joining the 1001-Nights Collection of Co-Creando Milano (Dr. Fatina Saikaly). By making this OPEN tea-set, an intercultural team is trying to explore the dynamics of culture (especially between China and South Africa) in a fixed setting (tea time), which promotes an OPEN gesture—it is a embracement about the diversity of how we do the same craft in different ways, how we enjoy tea-time with different approaches, how we balance the private and social, and how we communicate our stories with others, in all, it’s about lifestyles. So, the tea-set consists of six sets of cups, each set is a combination of: an African calabash (carrying the gesture for sharing) and Chinese cup (carrying the gesture for personal use); the low-temperature ceramic craft from South African and the high-temperature ceramic craft from China; the white and blue color characterizing both the starlight of The Southern Cross and the classical Chinese porcelain pattern; and 3 pairs of AR smart installations representing cultural icons from both countries are attached in creating a cultural exchange conversation and entertainment among users when enjoying the tea-time together. What is more fascinating is that the design in whole is a story of 1001-Nights, as it is co-designed by a team led by Lisa (Sinethemba and Brandon) from South Africa focusing on the craft part, a team led by Han (Baofeng, Chenxiao, Kai, Linlin, Jingbin) from China focusing on the interaction part, and a team of Chinese anthropologists in South Africa (Tian & Pengfei) focusing on the intercultural facilitation, which makes the whole work as an open dialogue from the journey of creating to the final design output.
经历了一百天跨越中国深圳,南非开普敦以及意大利米兰三地的联手设计及精心制作,2022年6月,由深圳大学NexLab未来生活方式设计中心,开普敦Lisa Linnow画廊,以及专注中非跨文化交流的吾步徒公司共同创作的“中国-南非”跨文化交流的茶具“打开”(Open)在2022年米兰设计周的《一千零一夜》展览一鸣惊人。
“打开”通过“无界设计”针对“以茶会友”的交流形式进行创新和探索 。它结合了非洲熏烧,中国陶瓷,以及AR技术,把中国和南非的故事精心呈现。故事从夜空中的星星开始讲起:主体容器像一个天体,通过烟熏自然上色,展现深邃的星空和星云,代表宇宙、地球,任何人类共享之物。 小容器选取了南非传统部落生活中的Calabash(葫芦,也就是瓢)和中式茶杯,分别代表了原始生活方式中的共享文化和现代生活中的个体化。六个茶杯上的六幅图案紧密联结中国和南非文化:北半球的北斗七星对应南半球的南十字星;中国的荷花对应南非的帝王花;中国的熊猫对应南非的跳羚…… 鲜活的AR形象会在用指定app扫描茶杯上的图案后跃然屏上,带用户踏上中国和南非跨文化交流的奇幻旅程。
北斗七星和南十字星是人们在北半球和南半球的天然导航坐标,所以AR呈现出一个中国女孩和非洲男孩分别穿着具有他们各自文化特色的传统服装仰望星空,探寻人类命运共同的方向。荷花所代表的温和气质以及纯洁内涵代表了中国人做追求的品格;而帝王花作为南非的国花,表达了“彩虹之国”的变革与勇气。可爱的熊猫是中国的国宝,身上黑白相间的颜色搭配,与中国传统文化和谐的太极图相呼应,传递和谐相生的文化价值;而活泼的跳羚是南非橄榄球国家队的吉祥物,展现了多元文化社会的能量与活力。
这六个图案和AR技术让来自中国和非洲的文化概念相互对话,传统的陶瓷工艺和现代的AR技术呼应,将中国和南非文化之间的桥梁建立起来。一套小小的茶具可以把来自不同文化背景的人们联结在一起,共饮交流,讲述各自不同却又彼此相通的故事。在故事里,我们可以找到自然与文化之间的联系密码,南北半球可以相遇,友谊之花可以长开,传统与现代可以和谐。让我们一起”打开”自己,让生活更美好,让世界更多彩!
“打开”的跨文化设计团队阵容强大,包括深圳大学艺术学部的韩晗博士以及设计师团队(陈保枫,高晨霄,曾恺,冯林林,席景斌),南非陶器艺术家Lisa Linnow女士及团队(Sinethemba Xola,Brandon Ambronski),以及吾步徒创意总监田辰博士和跨文化智囊朱鹏飞老师。”打开“得到了2022年米兰设计周《一千零一夜》项目总策划米兰Co-Creando事务所的大力支持。
陶瓷实验对于工艺的探索
南非的Calabash和中国茶杯的融合
互动体验开启跨文化之乐
Lotus v.s. Protea Flowers 莲花vs帝王花
The Big Dipper v.s. The South Cross 南十字星vs北斗七星
Panda v.s. Springbok 熊猫vs跳羚
represent both culture from China and South Africa
分别代表了中国和南非的不同文化
AR在功能上区分用户,让文化的对话窗口更灵活,更多元。
整个茶具的设计呈现了一个开放的姿态,正如我们倾向于为未来生活方式的动态而行动一样
Produced by:
NexLab
未来生活方式设计创新实验室
Supported by:
Shenzhen University 深圳大学
Farnova Group 法诺集团
Coordinated by:
Wubuntu 吾步徒
Lisa Linnow Gallery
Time & Location:
06.June to 12.June
1001 Nights Table, Co-Creando, Milano
5 Vie.it, 5Vie Design Week, 2022
Fuorisalone, Milano Design Week 2022
HKFYG’s award ceremony and our next step
Wubuntu story
HKFYG’s award
ceremony
and our next step
Following the good news from incubation programmes by EdUHK
Research and Development Office & UCT Graduate School of Business, we
extended our success at the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Group (HKFYG), one of
the largest non-governmental organization youth service organization, to be
proudly selected for another programme “Youth Startup Pioneer in Guangdong-Hong
Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” which supports young startups to grow and
development in the Greater Bay Area.
Today I have been invited to the business showcase cum award
ceremony for the programme to show our work and meet other entrepreneurs. The
day was filled with joy and innovative ideas, joining us with the Chairman of
the HKFYG, officials from the Home Affairs Bureau of the HKSAR and many others
honourable guests that brightens up the event.
I love being in an intellectual environment, exchanging
ideas with other visionary entrepreneurs, polishing our business model and
processes, even discussing opportunity for collaboration. I often get
inspiration from these little chats and discussions and I enjoy the sparks it
brings that helped us enhance and improve.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank HKFYG Social
Innovation and Youth Business Unit for organizing rounds of training and sharing
sessions with professionals and entrepreneurs and the seed fund for extending
business development to trying new alternatives to provide intercultural
empowerment to bring the world closer.
With the support from our valued advisors,
mentors and organizations, our next step is to build an interactive online learning
platform that serves as a hub for intercultural communication, for youth in
China and Africa to learn and exchange.
Cannot wait to write more of our latest action! Stay tuned.
Joseph Lam
Operational Chief
Wubuntu story 1: EdUHK incubation & UCT’s business acceleration programmes
Hello our dearest Wubuntu followers, this is Joseph Lam, Operational Chief of Wubuntu. I am truly honoured to be writing this passage about our progress and development in the past few months.
First thing first, (W)Ubuntu, our name, demonstrates our
team’s notion of “Unity in diversity”, is the vision we embarked to share with
everyone. I and my secondary school teacher and now my business partner, Tian
Chen, co-founded Wubuntu to drive our ambitions and was very fortunate to learn
that EdUHK Research and Development Office has organized a business incubation
programme, the EASE fund.
The EASE fund provided with progressive capacity building workshops
with guidance with countless one-on-one sessions with professionals, which
helped us build solid foundations for Wubuntu. Going through the 3-stage incubation
in a year-long intensive training, we were extremely fortunate to be selected
the one of the best six startups team in this programme.
Following the success in Hong Kong, we extended our reach to South
Africa and take part in a business acceleration programme organized by Graduate
School of Business (GSB) of the University of Cape Town (UCT) to strengthen Wubuntu by looking from different perspective. We could
not be more excited and prouder to be qualified in this 12-weeks intensive business
acceleration programme, which has been extremely useful with the help and
support given by GSB and its supporting organization, Ayoba, a subsidiary from
the Africa telecom giant, MTN Corporation. The rich resources it provides and networks
we built had been invaluable.
My heartfelt gratitude to the organizers of these wonderful programmes and all our passionate trainers who had helped us along the journey. Our next coverage will be out very soon, stay tuned!
Joseph Lam
Operational Chief