Design and the City is a podcast by reSITE, raising questions and proposing solutions for the city of the future. In the third episode, "When East meets West", Yoko Choy reflects upon bringing together the knowledge and insights of the east and the west and translating them into a common creative language. Joining Choy are curator Beatrice Leanza of Lisbon’s MAAT Museum as well as UK and China-based WallaceLiu founders, Jamie Wallace and Jee Liu.
Yoko Choy, known for launching Art Basel in Hong Kong, managing Beijing Design Week’s communications and working as the China editor of Wallpaper* magazine, has recently launched Collective Contemporist, a creative consultancy, aiming to stimulate and inspire conversations and collaborations between East and West. Raising awareness on the importance of cross-cultural exchange across fields of design and architecture, Choy established a platform to help connect, integrate and provoke that dialogue.
I think Europe is the origin of all contemporary culture. Being here, there are a lot of opportunities to see new things and to meet new people, to be inspired and when I bring this experience and new knowledge with me back to Hong Kong, I create new conversation at my work and with people I hang out with or even in the industry so I think is also very beneficial in a way. -- Yoko Choy.
Starting the conversation discussing China’s obstacles and excitement, Jamie Wallace explains that the cultural difference is beneficial, while Beatrice Leanza states that people everywhere have the same struggles. Going back to the regeneration theme, Choy implies how relatively new the concept is in China especially that in the past couple of decades, in urban common practices demolishing everything and building from scratch was the answer. In recent years, this approach changed because according to Leanza it is not economic, while Jee Liu emphasizes that more concrete is not the solution.
Talking about Hong Kong and Amsterdam, Yoko Choy shares how she likes the lifestyle and the pace and activities in Europe, but the energy and spontaneity of the east. Moreover, she states that “in mainland China, there's a lot of things changing and happening and of course, as a creator, it's very exciting to be part of the change and part of the movement”.
ReSITE, a global non-profit acting to improve the urban environment, launched its first podcast, Design and the City, featuring nine speakers from the reSITE 2019 REGENERATE event. Revolving around how we can use design to make cities more livable and lovable, every week, a new episode is released, featuring a new guest.
