“CEAF 50" 2026 Think Tank Annual Meeting
Special Guest at the "CEAF 50 Forum”
On September 12-13, 2026, the "CEAF 50 Forum " 2026 Think Tank Annual Meeting was grandly held at the Wyndham Hotel in Wenzhou. After the exciting opening ceremony, the themed forum made a brilliant appearance. Multiple themed forums were held on the same stage to discuss and exchange ideas from multiple dimensions. Domestic and foreign speakers shared their experiences and viewpoints around the forum theme, jointly opening an industry grand event of deep collision between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary creativity. Artistic concepts and practical experiences from different cultural backgrounds are fully integrated on site, and attendees can fully immerse themselves in the beauty of cross regional and cross-cultural creativity.
Focus on creativity and cultivate new quality forces
This themed forum is hosted by renowned host, cultural scholar, and former news anchor of China Central Radio and Television Station, Chang Xiao. Speaker Zhang Linghao, President, Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor of Nanjing Academy of Arts, Cao Xue, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, J ú lia Beltran, Representative of the President of Catalonia Polytechnic University to Tongji University and Foreign Senior Expert, Chen Ping, Global President of the International Organization of Folk Arts (IOV), Chief Chair of the UNESCO Chair on the Inheritance and Innovation of Traditional Handicrafts, and Dean of the Institute of Cultural Heritage and Creative Industries at Jinan University, shared a series of practical paths for cultivating new quality productivity in the art industry, focusing on empowering traditional crafts with digital technology and reconstructing handmade forms through modern design. Strengthen the pivotal role of "design empowerment" and explore how to creatively redesign traditional handicrafts through design thinking, design methods, and design tools, injecting new vitality and creating new cultural productivity.
Professor Chen delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 Think Tank Annual Meeting of the "CEAF 50 Forum"
Professor Chen pointed out in his keynote speech at the 2026 think tank annual meeting of the "CEAF 50 Forum" that bringing traditional handicrafts into contemporary life is not simply about pushing products to the market, but about reintegrating their knowledge, value, and creativity into social construction. Youth should become co creators of this process. She emphasized that live inheritance needs to shift from "preserving skills" to "maintaining cultural life systems", safeguarding material cognition, physical experience, and cultural relationships. Innovation is not about changing forms, but about re establishing connections - design should play the role of "cultural translation". In the face of artificial intelligence, she reminds that algorithms can generate forms, but cannot replace cultural subjects' judgments on ethics and rights.
Youth should not be at the end of inheritance, but at the center of creation. The six-year practice of "Creativity 100" has shown that young people must first deeply cultivate local knowledge, and their innovation can be extended to public fields such as education and art therapy; Talent cultivation focuses on cultural understanding, value judgment, and cross-border connectivity.
Based in Wenzhou, she suggests testing the effectiveness of innovation through contemporary life rather than short-term traffic, upgrading youth training to a long-term education mechanism, and establishing rules for the use and rights of traditional knowledge in the digital process. She fully supports the establishment of the "International Organization of Arts and Crafts" led by the China Arts and Crafts Society, and looks forward to deepening global dialogue through this platform, so that traditional handicrafts can truly gain the ability to participate in and create the times.
Focusing on culture and enhancing value connotation
This themed forum is hosted by Professor and PhD supervisor Sudan from the School of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University. Speaker Yan Haiping, Chief Professor of World Literature at Tsinghua University and Dean of the Institute of World Literature and Culture at Tsinghua University; Lin Qi, CEO of the 36th Institute and founder of the Linqi Ma Mian Skirt brand; Assadou Markarov, Professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Bulgaria and Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of China Academy of Art, Lin Jifu, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Central University for Nationalities, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association, and Jin Jiangbo, Executive Dean (Chair) of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, deeply analyzed the contemporary transformation path of local cultural roots around the forum theme, allowing different regional craftsmanship characteristics to inspire each other through communication, transforming handicrafts from traditional to contemporary life, and integrating intangible cultural heritage stories, local memories, creative concepts, and Eastern and Western aesthetic spirits into contemporary creation through immersive, experiential, and interactive consumption transmission.
Focus on fashion and achieve contemporary expression
This themed forum is hosted by Jin Jiangbo, Executive Dean of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. Speakers include Professor Sudan from the School of Fine Arts at Tsinghua University, doctoral supervisor Guo Aihe, a representative of the 14th National People's Congress and a master of Chinese arts and crafts, Beno î t Munoz, artistic director, creative director, and spatial narrative landscape designer, and Pan Lusheng, cultural scholar and vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. They focus on the theme and use different regional cultural symbols as creative anchors to reconstruct the ecology, function, and usage scenarios of traditional crafts with modern design thinking, exploring innovative models of integrating traditional skills into modern life scenes. By positioning itself as a "light luxury brand", we aim to achieve effective supply of "similar things gathering together", meet the niche needs of "people dividing into groups", and enable sustainable and dynamic inheritance of local culture in contemporary life.
The roundtable forum of this conference has a strong lineup of speakers, including Zhu Xiaojie, the founder and artistic director of the "AOPO" brand who has attended as a speaker for four consecutive years, Cheng Xinxiang, a representative of the National People's Congress and a master of Chinese arts and crafts, David Picazo, a famous architect, Jeremie Thircuir, a French artist and curator, and Sun Rui, the deputy secretary-general of the China Arts and Crafts Society. The roundtable forum of this conference is chaired by Chen Jing, Deputy Secretary General of the China Arts and Crafts Society. The guest speakers conducted in-depth discussions on the core theme of "building a craftsman industry and achieving a master economy". The host and guest speakers interacted and exchanged ideas, presenting multiple core industry topics, ranging from how traditional craftsmen can connect with contemporary design language, to the differentiated development paths of the Chinese and foreign handicraft industries, and to how local cultural IP can be commercialized. The five guests shared their views one by one based on their own practical experience. The entire roundtable forum broke down the cognitive boundaries of guests from different fields and nationalities, presenting a cross-cultural and cross disciplinary collision of ideas.
The "CEAF 50 Forum" was born just after the closing of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. In just four years, the forum's advocacy of "art should follow the times, craftsmanship should lead the fashion" has already been well received in the industry. The goal of "turning the handicraft industry into a fashion industry" inspires colleagues in the industry to constantly turn around and practice. The development direction of "local culture and fashion expression" proposed for the first time at this annual conference provides a new innovative reference for the national arts and crafts industry, promoting more traditional skills from the deep alleys to the public, and from the region to the world.
Cao Xue, professor and doctoral supervisor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and head of the design team of the mascot "Bing Dwen Dwen" of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, was at the meeting site
