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Lawerence Cheng Encourages Young People to Observe More and have a Bold Attempt

Invited by Macao Polytechnic Institute's School of Arts, Lawrence Cheng, one of Hong Kong's major media personalities, chaired a cross-media seminar entitled “Inventor, Creative” on November 4th. He commented that he believed that inspiration comes from our living surroundings, and he advised young people to be observant and grasp what is happening in the world, applying what they see by being bold in their attempts to convert their experiences into creative endeavours.
 
The seminar started at 7 pm in Wui Chi Building's Lecture Theatre 1. The aim of the seminar was to support the government's policy to promote the development of Macao’s cultural and creative industries. Nearly two hundred students from the Design programme, students from Macao Conservatory and other young people attended the seminar which was a full house. Cheng said with a smile that this was the first time he had been invited to come to Macao for a talk and he could not have imagined that the response would be so positive.
 
Speaking about creativity, Cheng said many people had said to him in the past: “acting on TV and making programmes are inseparable from creativity, but if we are not in this industry, how is creativity related to me?” Cheng asserted that every industry needs creativity, and only if we keep improving can we achieve success, citing a number of examples to prove the rectitude of his assertion. For example, when an ice-cream shop opened in winter time with the customers eating (ice-cream) hot pot, “ice-cream and hot pot are two different things that are totally not related”, but this becomes a business opportunity. Also, the existence of conveyor belt sushi provides convenience to customers at the same time as it reduces manpower.
 
The film market in mainland China has been booming in recent years, with a lot of successful ‘Television IP’ being developed, as with very hot ‘movie IP’. What is ‘movie IP’? Cheng pointed out that ‘movie IP’ refers to the source material for a movie, which is the film-related intellectual property rights, and also something related to creativity.
 
Regarding the act of creation, as a film producer, director and screenwriter, Cheng believes that inspiration is sourced from our life and living surroundings. The behaviour of people in the street can be a source of inspiration, therefore instead of driving he takes the bus, MTR and tram. He said that attentive observation is the first step in creativity. To cultivate creative ideas he suggested we should “read the world”, and he advised the younger generation to observe more of the world, to grasp what is happening around them, and to be bold in their attempts to convert their experiences into creative endeavours.

 


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