Theme: Break Through

Wuhan, a metropolitan with fourteen million people, a harbor city in the center of Central China, has a nick name “Oriental Chicago” but is not well-known. But it changed all of a sudden due to COVID-19. In history, many fantastic creative works were produced in the pandemic. During the Great Plague, Isaac Newton retreated to his family home where, in a remarkable burst of creativity, he laid the groundwork for his theories of gravity and optics, and invented calculus. William Shakespeare wrote some of his best poems and plays while plague forced a closure of London’s theatres. Even though we cannot say with absolute assurance that masters like Michelangelo and Da Vinci were directly inspired by the plague, we can perhaps allow ourselves to interpret that their art as a celebration or attention to life, manifested by the pandemic. Perhaps few of us will reach Newtonian or Shakespearean heights, but what kinds of diverse ideas do the people here have? Break Through can be interpreted to mean out-of-the-box ideas or perceptions, or applying a common idea from one field to another. We will have multiple speakers, both native and foreigners living in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China. They will share their break through views and ideas. It would be a unique experience.
武汉是一个拥有1400万人口的超级大都市，是华中的内陆中心港口，被称为“东方芝加哥”，但并不知名，直到2019年底爆发的COVID-19。在历史上，疫情期间产生了很多突破性的创新和传世作品。因为大瘟疫学院关闭，牛顿回到老家在“社交隔离”中以惊人的创造力为引力和光学理论奠定基础，并发明了微积分。瘟疫迫使伦敦剧院关闭，莎士比亚潜心写作，写了一些他最好的诗歌和剧本。我们不能绝对肯定地说像米开朗基罗和达·芬奇这样的大师受瘟疫直接启发，但可以允许我们将他们的艺术解释为是对文艺和生命关注的回归。也许我们当中很少有人会达到牛顿式或莎士比亚式的高度，但是在这里，这些刚刚走过最艰难疫情的人们在想些什么呢。“突破”可以解释为开箱即用的想法或看法，或将一个领域的通用想法应用于另一个领域。我们将有多位演讲者，住在湖北省武汉本地人和外国人。他们将分享他们的突破性观点和想法。这将是一次独特的体验。

武汉星思路（Pro-Stage）
经济开发区金色港湾3期18栋
Wuhan, Hebei, 430056
China

Damon Modrise Grayson

Entrepreneur

(a.k.a. DMG) Damon rose out of the hardcore streets of Compton CA, escaping police brutality, discrimination, a poor school system, the 1980's crack epidemic and gang infestation. He became a single father at 23 and went on world traveling as a music producer which led him to establish West Wear Clothing Company. He achieved global success while Snoop Dogg became the ambassador of West Wear by wearing his apparel on TV music videos and magazines etc. He founded a nonprofit organization to take boys to visit museums where they wouldn't be exposed to, and teach them things that were not taught at home or school. He successfully managed a world tour for the Latin artist, Paris Escovido. But later, he went through a Terrible Divorce and lost everything he owned. Today, he is bouncing back. Damon runs an online marketing company and is the owner of mywordsofwisdom.com, which is ran by him and his eldest son. Damon is on a mission to uplift and inspire the world!

Paul deMena

Cofounder of Wuhan Yangtze International School

Paul deMena and his family have been living in Wuhan, China for over twenty years. He leads a consulting company that provides education, healthcare and family services. When he and his wife arrived in China for the first time, they understood little about the culture and even less of the language. His years in China have been filled with many rich experiences and wonderful friendships. The work is difficult at times, and in those moments Paul likes to turn to a creative outlet for rejuvenation. For years, he has chosen photography as the means for refreshing his energy, but in early 2019, when he injured his knee, he decided to try his hand at writing a novella. His first book, True Masterpiece, was so much fun to write and share with others that he decided to write a second novella, A Bit of Healing, a few months later. Well after his knee was better, he's still at it. In early 2020, he wrote The Cost of Payback, and his fourth book, Running for Trouble and released on Amazon.

Yanping Chen

Data Scientist

Yanping started as a risk management analyst in the finance industry from 2006. After a decade of intensive work and the witness of Financial Crisis 2007–2008 as well as the latter economic recovery, she decided to jump out the comfort zone. She began to devote herself in the areas of less attention but in great need of programming thoughts and skills. When COVID-19 broke out, she was in Wuhan, China. Yanping was developing a novel English curriculum. During the lockdown, the team got in a very hard state, lack of many resources. The sudden epidemic also pushed the team to think how to make the English curriculum more friendly in self-learning, more efficient, and less hassle, less cost. During the dark time, Yanping led the team to continue the development, and the team leaders took charge of providing the daily living things, medical needs and resolving any inconvenience due to the citywide lockdown. Now the curriculum is helping many Chinese students and will sure help more.