Distinguished judges and guests; Dear teachers, students and friends online and onsite, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to join you all here at the Suzhou International Expo Centre to open the 6th MEGA International Creative Media Festival. For the first time, MEGA runs alongside the 15th Suzhou Cultural and Creative Design Industry Trade Expo. On this city stage, this international festival now moves from the campus to the wider world.
Let me extend my sincere thanks to the Suzhou Municipal People’s Government and all our co-organisers. Thank you also to our judges, our guests, and every member of the student and staff organising team. Most of all, I want to recognise creators from ten countries and regions across the globe. This year we received 2,014 submissions, surpassing the two-thousand mark. Every frame and every artistic expression you have crafted bears witness to this age of digital and intelligent transformation.
Of these, 1,479 are from the Student Category, including 377 AI-generated works and 96 immersive media pieces. The Open Category received 535 works. In total, 189 universities and educational institutions have taken part.
I am particularly pleased that, following the completion of our Immersive Dome Theatre last year, MEGA has introduced an Immersive Media Category this year. The vitality of an innovation platform lies in its capacity to evolve and expand its boundaries.
Behind these numbers lies a profound transformation of civilisational paradigms. We are living through a digital-intelligence revolution that is reshaping how we perceive, think, live and produce. Technology is no longer just a new tool; it is making us rethink the very foundations of civilisation. When AI and immersive media feature so heavily in young creators’ work, what we see is not machines replacing people. It is a new generation choosing to keep humanity at the heart of a future built on human-machine collaboration.
People often ask: if machines can paint, write, compose and create, does education still matter? My answer is: technology tells us what is possible; but only humans can decide what is worth doing.
AI can generate images and build stories from algorithms, but it cannot produce lived experience, value positions or humanistic care. It has no questions of its own, no empathy, no search for meaning. Creativity is not a by-product of code. It is rooted in our humanity: a unique spiritual gift of being human, and an irreplaceable dignity that defines us.
This is how XJTLU lives its vision of syntegration and ecosystem. Our “12345” education system has taken us from nurturing professional and industry elites, to building industrial innovation ecosystems, and now we are exploring a future-oriented lifelong learning and innovation social ecosystem. We keep tearing down the walls of the university, embedding education deep within industry and empowering society at large.
What never changes is our commitment to safeguarding human creativity: to nurture a HeXie Mindset and Syntegrative Wisdom, to learn to work with AI rather than be driven by it, and to be builders and pioneers of our time — not bystanders swept along by the tide.
Education is not about competing with machines on speed or computing power. It is about waking up what only humans can do: image, create, judge value, feel empathy, and make meaning. That is how we keep humanity at the heart of this new era.
MEGA brings this educational philosophy to life. MEGA stands for Media, Exhibition, Graphics and Arts. More than a showcase for works, it is an innovative ecosystem crossing national borders, connecting education with industry, and bridging technology and the humanities. I hope that MEGA will carry more young works into industry and society — becoming a wellspring of cultural and creative innovation, a meeting place where civilisations learn from one another, and a laboratory for ways of living yet to come.
A university’s calling is to open new paths into the future. The power of creativity is to keep those paths endless. May every creator here be seen and be inspired. Let us engage with civilisation through creativity, nourish our humanity through technology, and shape a new era together through co-creation. Thank you!
Distinguished judges and guests; Dear teachers, students and friends online and onsite, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to join you all here at the Suzhou International Expo Centre to open the 6th MEGA International Creative Media Festival. For the first time, MEGA runs alongside the 15th Suzhou Cultural and Creative Design Industry Trade Expo. On this city stage, this international festival now moves from the campus to the wider world.
Let me extend my sincere thanks to the Suzhou Municipal People’s Government and all our co-organisers. Thank you also to our judges, our guests, and every member of the student and staff organising team. Most of all, I want to recognise creators from ten countries and regions across the globe. This year we received 2,014 submissions, surpassing the two-thousand mark. Every frame and every artistic expression you have crafted bears witness to this age of digital and intelligent transformation.
Of these, 1,479 are from the Student Category, including 377 AI-generated works and 96 immersive media pieces. The Open Category received 535 works. In total, 189 universities and educational institutions have taken part.
I am particularly pleased that, following the completion of our Immersive Dome Theatre last year, MEGA has introduced an Immersive Media Category this year. The vitality of an innovation platform lies in its capacity to evolve and expand its boundaries.
Behind these numbers lies a profound transformation of civilisational paradigms. We are living through a digital-intelligence revolution that is reshaping how we perceive, think, live and produce. Technology is no longer just a new tool; it is making us rethink the very foundations of civilisation. When AI and immersive media feature so heavily in young creators’ work, what we see is not machines replacing people. It is a new generation choosing to keep humanity at the heart of a future built on human-machine collaboration.
People often ask: if machines can paint, write, compose and create, does education still matter? My answer is: technology tells us what is possible; but only humans can decide what is worth doing.
AI can generate images and build stories from algorithms, but it cannot produce lived experience, value positions or humanistic care. It has no questions of its own, no empathy, no search for meaning. Creativity is not a by-product of code. It is rooted in our humanity: a unique spiritual gift of being human, and an irreplaceable dignity that defines us.
This is how XJTLU lives its vision of syntegration and ecosystem. Our “12345” education system has taken us from nurturing professional and industry elites, to building industrial innovation ecosystems, and now we are exploring a future-oriented lifelong learning and innovation social ecosystem. We keep tearing down the walls of the university, embedding education deep within industry and empowering society at large.
What never changes is our commitment to safeguarding human creativity: to nurture a HeXie Mindset and Syntegrative Wisdom, to learn to work with AI rather than be driven by it, and to be builders and pioneers of our time — not bystanders swept along by the tide.
Education is not about competing with machines on speed or computing power. It is about waking up what only humans can do: image, create, judge value, feel empathy, and make meaning. That is how we keep humanity at the heart of this new era.
MEGA brings this educational philosophy to life. MEGA stands for Media, Exhibition, Graphics and Arts. More than a showcase for works, it is an innovative ecosystem crossing national borders, connecting education with industry, and bridging technology and the humanities. I hope that MEGA will carry more young works into industry and society — becoming a wellspring of cultural and creative innovation, a meeting place where civilisations learn from one another, and a laboratory for ways of living yet to come.
A university’s calling is to open new paths into the future. The power of creativity is to keep those paths endless. May every creator here be seen and be inspired. Let us engage with civilisation through creativity, nourish our humanity through technology, and shape a new era together through co-creation. Thank you!
Professor Youmin Xi
Executive President, XJTLU