Kita Hu

Artist, Concerned citizen, Environmentalist, Event planner, Musician, Student, World traveler

I'm an 11th grader from Kang Chiao International School in Taipei. I'm very passionate about art, although I'm planning to major in business management at university. Before I study overseas in 2022, I want to realize my passion by hosting a series of TEDx events and also giving myself a graduation present. Through inviting people of different ages and schools to cooperate with me, I hope to bring a tighter community among international students in Taipei.

In addition to my determination to study business management in university, art and sports that allow me to challenge myself play important roles in my life. First of all, I treasure every opportunity to explore my interests in art, either on campus or off campus. Back in tenth grade, the personal project, an assignment under the IB MYP program that allows students to create a project of their own interest, gave me a chance to express my thoughts about an individual’s life through oil paintings. Through my six oil paintings, I was able to communicate my perspective towards an individual’s life cycle with the students and teachers at my high school. My passion for delivering messages and ideas through paintings comes from the hobbies I enjoy during my leisure: I visited different exhibitions around the world, from national art museums to personal exhibitions, and understanding each artist’s background and learning how they conveyed their ideas through artistic means were huge inspirations to me. Beside my passion in arts, I also crave to challenge myself through different events. I participated in snowboarding courses every winter vacation and took part in different competitions throughout the school year, such as Model United Nations and X Culture competition about business. From these activities, I sharpen my critical thinking skills, absorb knowledge that are not involved in school curriculum, and develop communication skills by listening and interacting with others from my international peers.

In recent years, there is a rising trend to read prose or books that are about self help in my community. Like other teenagers of my age, I also fell for this trend. Whenever I feel down or lost in life, I would read these books and be enlightened by the wisdom that is embodied in them. However, although I am convinced by the ideas the authors hope to deliver to the reader, I always find myself incapable of carrying these ideas or knowledge to real life. For instance, one of the most cliche ideas in self help books is to “be yourself” and disregard others’ opinions and judgements. Yet, individuals are pressed to conform to social expectations and standards in reality because humans are social animals and we seek interactions and connections. It is within our human nature to avoid performing actions that will isolate ourselves from society. Therefore, I believe we need to provide new definitions of “be yourself” and other unachievable ideals while taking into account our societal norms.

Before ninth grade, I had always seen art as my safe haven, where I can freely express my thoughts and feelings that I am more unwilling to talk to others about. However, when I was invited to host the graduation ceremony for my middle school, my perceptions of my means to communicate with this world changed. The preparation process taught me that art is not restricted to one individual’s ideas or to one individual’s stories, instead, through collective efforts art can become a platform to share stories and spread knowledge. As a somehow introverted person, I have always avoided public speaking, yet now I realize that ideas can be spread through other forms of communication, through art, through writing or through others’ words. Therefore, beside spreading my ideas through creating art pieces, I hope to spread my inspirations and ideas through others’ stories and experiences by hosting a TEDx event.