The Tsinghua-UNICEF Gender Equality Cross-media Design Achievement Conference was held on December 17. 20 Master of Fine Arts and Internet + Innovative Design students presented digital media design projects on the topic of gender equality and received high recognition from UNICEF officials and experts.
The conference was hosted by Nie Xiaomei, lecturer of the course "Thinking and Methods of Cross Media Design". Experts from the Shenzhen Broadcasting and Television Group, Tencent Tianmei Studio, Shenzhen Yichen Virtual Reality Technology Co., Ltd and officials of Shenzhen Women and Children's Fund were invited as judges, and officials from the UNICEF China office participated via video.
Patty Tredway, brand strategy officer of the UNICEF China Office, expressed delight towards students’ ideas and contributions on the topic of gender equality. She said, "I really value hearing from younger people about what matters most in terms of gender empowerment today. I've shared this with a lot of people at my office, and we're all very interested and excited to hear your ideas. Beyond just the ideas, it was also really inspiring to see the creative strategies that you came up with. I want to encourage you to keep thinking about how to extend advocacy campaigns on Chinese social media and I also look forward to hearing your voices on Chinese social media in the future."
Patty Tredway, Brand Strategy Office of UNICEF China Office
Teams presented their projects on the global issue of gender equality, with the aims to provide UNICEF with insight that combines Chinese characteristics and new generation creative design. After research and analysis of the many dimensions of gender equality, teams developed cross-media projects that integrate different means of communication such as film, animation, H5 interactive design, games, graphic design, public relations, and event planning.
Students presenting their projects
"Best Strategy Award" was awarded to "Lighting up", aimed at launching support campaigns on sex education for left-behind children in poor rural areas. “Most Creative Award” went to "Rereading Chinese Mythology: Girls should be so!", a project that reexamines female characters in Chinese mythology such as Mulan, White Snake, Nüwa, and drawing qualities applicable for modern women . "Best Design Award" was awarded to "More equal, more love", a project that promotes equality between parents for children’s healthy personality development. "Girls, think one step forward!", a project about the low proportion of female elites, also won UNICEF's praise for its innovative strategy.
Other projects were also well-received by experts. These include "Don’t Worry, Be Happy ", aimed at mental health issues in adolescent women; “Love Letter”, which designs an interactive game to combat sexual violence on campus, and "Let the world hear you", which calls for girls to speak up through performance art videos.
Students receiving the Best Strategy Award
Judges commented that the student projects were innovative, imaginative and had well thought-out strategies. They were impressed with the high quality of the projects given the short amount of time, and applauded students for their hard work. Judges also gave professional guidance to students and put forward suggestions for their future study and career development.
Judges at the event providing comments and career advice (from left): Ms. Chen Ni, Director of the New Media Content Department of Shenzhen Broadcasting and Television Group; Mr. Zhang Wei, IP Creative Director of Tencent Tianmei Studio; Ms. Chen Jinghang, official of Shenzhen Women and Children's
Group photo of students and judges
The Tsinghua-UNICEF Gender Equality Cross-media Design Achievement Conference was jointly organized by OPEN FIESTA, the Design Art Institute of SIGS, and with support from the UNICEF China office.
Article by Luo Feng
Photo by Zhang Junyi
Edited by Karen Lee
