I come from Taiwan and it’s been a
lovely four days in Fukushima thank you
for giving me the opportunity to
understand and to get to know the land
and the people who are so resilient
throughout the earthquake and trying to
get back up in such an uncertain future
today I want to share with you a story
that’s very much of my own but also a
story that’s very much of everyone’s
image and it’s projecting something I
think that’s deeper our internal fear of
now confronting something that we could
do more to the world and yet we were
just sitting around and not doing
something or anything can I have my
slight up I grew up in a night market in
southern taiwan I don’t know how many of
any of you have been to Taiwan raise
your hand okay I see a few people I grew
up in industrial town in southern part
of Taiwan called Gaussian my mother runs
a beauty parlor in a night market like
this growing up I spend every day doing
homework next to my mom’s shop what I
found most about environment like this
is how people are interconnected with
each other how our lives cross each
other in a way that we don’t know how
much we will be needing each other in
the future growing up I’ve always been
taught a night market is a micro image
of a society every day you meet with so
many people and everyone is trying to
survive in an environment like this my
mother never went to college and yet I
receive the most important education
from her she always told me whenever you
have a chance you should provide more
opportunity to others because if God
give an opportunity to you
you that means God take another
opportunity away from another person so
that idea has always been on my mind
whenever I start a business whenever I
becoming a legislator a member of
Congress now I’ve always think how can I
provide opportunities to others this is
a teapot that has been passed down to my
family for generations growing up we
were in a very poor family we didn’t
have much to do we didn’t have any toys
to play but we have a really good family
time my grandfather would always make a
tea and then he would get there around
all the kids in a night market and share
stories he would tell in an aquaculture
society everyone helps each other in a
time of difficulty everybody welcome
everybody to their home for dinner for
supper for meals everyone is taken care
of for the comfort for the warmth nobody
goes hungry so I’ve always have this
image of how do we pass on knowledge how
do we pass on important things in our
life how do you tell your children
important things for your family this
teapot is something of a family treasure
it’s been passed down from my
grandfather to my father and now to me
and I treasure it as a symbol of passing
an important value what do I see in a
zoo in Fukushima is you have something
important to pass out it’s something
related to a true Japanese spirit which
is resilience which is we don’t want to
take fate as it is after I graduated
from college I had a chance to travel I
left my hometown and which is very rare
for someone like me I went to Central
America I had saved up enough money to
travel from Guatemala Honduras El
Salvador Costa Rica and all the way to
peru this is the first time i detach
myself from a familiar environment for
the first time i get to see what it
means to be a taiwanese why should be
why should a cup of coffee that cost
three dollars in starbucks in taipei
would be a livelihood for family in
guatemala the way that we detach
ourselves to understand our environment
better it’s an important technique that
we should always carry during this six
months of travel I get to understand
something that I could never find
answers for there are five questions I
ask myself Who am I what is my mission
on earth how the world is different
because of me where do I come from and
what should I do with my life I wrote
down these questions at the age of 23
when I went backpacking 10 years later
when I started business when I enter
into politics I still ask myself myself
the same questions today I want to ask
you are there questions for you that you
cannot find answers for these are the
important questions you need to ask
yourself now oh and not all questions in
your life have answers you need to keep
searching you need to keep looking for
questions that have no answers for this
is something I have been thinking about
since my grandfather passed away since
he stopped telling stories over a pot of
tea I thought of myself what exactly is
the value of our assistance on the world
what are we doing on earth are we just
living and breathing I was just making
money I think we are creating stories
and we are leaving those stories we
create it behind so the first questions
I want to ask to the audience today is
what stories are you looking forward to
tell you children I think this place I
zoo welcome answer and
Fukushima has an important story to tell
and that’s why I think I want to come
here to share with you the message I am
an entrepreneur turn legislature it’s a
weird combination people think that
politicians or talk no do things but I
want to change that I want to change
politics with entrepreneurial spirit so
much so that has to do with my
upbringing in night market the idea of
growing up in the night market makes me
believe that you can do anything you can
survive and you will have your value and
you can change things so how do I do
that let me tell you a little bit about
my journey I started telex Taipei in
2009 Taipei is the third city in the
world to be granted for license over the
last eight years I’ve curated more than
400 talks and a dozen of conferences and
most of all I get together a group of
changemakers a community that is willing
to say no to status quo that is willing
to say hey we want to change so three
things passion courage and change are
the three important elements that we
need to learn to distill in our society
what I believe a gathering like this is
for everyone to have a chance to speak
with each other that you would normally
wouldn’t have chance to how do a
businessperson talk to a sock a master
how do a farmer talk to a professor and
how do we bring that environment how do
we bring that element 20 cross of the
society our society is confronting
problems because too many experts
thinking in their own silo way and that
is why I want to get into politics and
it’s change that because we are living
in a society ruled by experts who think
they can determine the future and the
future is so complex we can never
determine which one thing go domain
knowledge
taiwan has been a very turbulent place
over the last five years we’ve suffered
from the economic downturn and we have a
quite vibrant democracy on the eve of
march 18 2014 a group of students storm
into the building of premier the
nation’s highest administrative official
executive they broke in the windows they
start trashing everything’s and you know
breaking things premier then order a
forceful removal of the students they
shot water comes at this students
students then took to the streets of a
sudden thousands of people if now tens
of hundreds of thousands marched to the
streets they are protesting for a
illegal passing of a bill of free treaty
with mainland China what I found during
that particular moment is not just the
protest against China it’s actually a
protest against generational injustice
it’s against some things that are so not
right and how do we do something to
change it i sat in one of those protest
and I feel like I’m powerless I’ve done
so much in a community I’ve created
business by said there as if both of my
limbs and my legs were chopped off
because i feel i’m hopeless and helpless
for these young people this young people
most of them graduate students they skip
class and then they come to protest i
ask myself what should i do to help them
how can i set up an example so that in
the future they can follow they can be
something that they say look if we see
something that is wrong where you want
to beat the thing that changed the
system so i decided to join politics
in the end of 2015 I was nominated for a
non constituency legislation position
for KMT I accepted the nomination
because I wanted to see what if on a
wall of two sides always people are on
the other side of throwing eggs and
protesting and shouting and fighting
inside the wall politicians they are
going on on a daily business what if I
climb across that wall and roll up my
sleeves and try to change things so
during my first congressional speech I
use a device that is developed in Japan
in the wake of Fukushima earthquake it’s
called safe cast which Peter would talk
about later I demo a self cast as a way
to monitor natural disaster more
effectively more efficiently through ilt
through technology that was the night
before my speech was the big earthquake
in tainan southern part of Taiwan a 4.7
magnitude of earthquake rocked of the
city and several big buildings were
toppled down I talked about it in a way
that that’s never been happened in the
arena of politics there are three
focuses as my political agenda education
culture technology and innovation and
environmental sustainability I want to
find a way to blend three circles to
find a common ground to pursue a future
that is sustainable that is good for
everyone so as part of my efforts I
continuously host public hearing to
bring together different stakeholders to
host events to host public hearings so
that everyone have a conversation also
for the first time I take what I’ve
learned from Ted and then I created
Congress
salam open Congress alone this is the
first open conquer so long that I hosted
where I talk about gender equality and
I’m proud to say i will be one of the
first legislators to push the advance of
same-sex marriage in asia so that’s
something i think a important thing to
pass and also that means the
progressiveness of a society the future
is nonlinear it’s a complex future and i
think you understand how a natural event
will change everything this natural
disaster will change everything because
it’s not linear we need to think about a
nonlinear way how do technology will
change the way we face how society is
organized how in verse structure is
organized how the roads are laid out
have our technology caught up with the
aging society is our own minds and
hearts prepared for the coming of robots
are robots our friends or caretakers or
they are they our threats I think none
of the legislation’s are ready for this
but I want to be the first one to throw
that ideas out there so that these
things can be discussed in the
government so that our society can be
prepared prepared for it someone that
influence influence me quite a bit is
joi Ito he is now the current MIT media
lab director and he’s a Japanese there
are several principles that I pay strong
attention to these are nine principles a
few things I’m thinking how do I plan my
political I deal with entrepreneurial
spirit and I learn from this man I want
to take two things from this night
principles to share with you what I’ve
been doing in the parliament first one
is practice over theory and second one
is learning over education we need a new
form of leadership one that changes
politics with entrepreneurs
and I believe I’m living it and I’m
trying to set up an example there are
the nine things i’m hoping that anyone
who in the future sees politics will
have a different eyes to it an open
system politics politicians you think
like startup o’clock the entrepreneur
long linear path iterative thinking
think ecosystem always live in in beta
small and nimble and lastly community
community and conversations these are
the nine things I think about when I
think about how I go about my political
affairs how do we create iterations
after iterations of bills so that
everyone can understand everything is
open can be traceable you can find all
the data and records online so
politicians cannot lie they can have
that open record everything can be
checked I share with you a tool examples
that I promoting within the Parliament I
hosted a conference called sure bro city
where June was part of where I talk
about how do we better use public space
and the to condense the over usage of
the public space and turn them into
sharing economy business models so over
the course of 24 hours we invited
designers programmers entrepreneurs
public public policy makers and then we
were brainstorm and we do hackathon we
come up with 17 apps that would
basically help better use of public
space a lot of it has to do with a
biking trail and how do we use the
public housing and how will you take
care of the long lean elder people in
the city this is the first example
second example is a open policy platform
called V Taiwan it’s a platform where we
upload all the important issues that we
discuss in the parliament
and we upload them and before we go into
voting we have a very deep discussions
online and for example these are some of
the controversy that’s going on in
Taiwan regarding ooper shmooper be legal
so everything is discussed on this this
this platform and all the audience’s
opinions can be shown in a data
visualization format as you can see and
things like this allow decision-makers
to have more educated and informed way
of making judgments and in the way that
older budget can now can be more
transparent and all the things and the
proposals and the policies can be more
effective so things like this I do and I
don’t care if I go on to the second term
I see this more as a calling just as I
see coming to a zoo and Fukushima as a
calling and I believe I zoo has a story
to tell and I want to ask you as the
last question before I my speech what
stories are you looking forward to
telling your children from this space
lastly I want to leave you with a quote
by scientist Carl Sagan imagination will
often carriers towards that never were
but without it we go nowhere thank you
very much [Applause]