One of the highlights in the Sapporo Convention Center during the 2008 iSummit was the exhibit of more than one hundred photographs, part of the CC China Mainland photography contest held in China in 2007. All the photos, from both amateur and professional photographers, were licensed under the China Mainland version of the Creative Commons licenses.

This exhibition is unique in bringing together the works of grass roots and professional photographers in China. They not only are documenting the social, human and daily lives of the Chinese people, they are also joining forces in supporting the ideals of open access, as promoted by Creative Commons.

This exhibit is particularly important in reflecting some of the creative changes which have taken place in the new China. From the 1950’s to the 1980’s, Chinese photography was used mainly as a political instrument of the government. So China has not really had a visual history of its ordinary people until recently.

This unique collection of CC licensed Chinese photography has received wide press coverage in China. Examples include stories on China’s leading web site for professional photographers, CPhoto, the official site of the China Photographers Association, China Photograph Online, the FotoMen site, Art News, and China Visual.

This photo exhibition consists of two parts. The first part is made up of the best submissions to the CC-licensed photographic works contest held in 2007. It was, jointly sponsored by CC China Mainland and Nphoto.net.

The majority of these works beautifully capture the social, cultural, and scenic flavor of contemporary China, as rendered in the eloquent portraits of its people. Coming from diverse communities of Chinese photography amateurs on the mainland, these photographs bear witness to the trials, tribulations and celebrations of the times, catching the pulse of Chinese society in a visual language which embodies the grass roots spirit of the people.

The second part of the exhibition includes the works of the ten most important  professional Chinese photographers who chose to release  their works under the  China Mainland version of the CC licenses.  Like their amateur counterparts, these photographers also bore testimony to the exciting transformations of Chinese society.

Every image in this collection tells the story of different social and cultural groups in the various regions of China. As pioneers who led a significant movement in the history of Chinese photography, the contributions of these photographers do not stop at just creating images. More importantly, these photographs have awakened a sense of social conscience for the Chinese people and opened up whole new horizons for their successors.

We are delighted that visitors to the exhibit expressed their appreciation for the photographs, as evidenced by these wonderful comments from our visitor guest book:

A beautiful exhibition!    
Congratulations on such a successful competition.
The work is very inspiring for the iCommons community.
What a wonderful space, full of very special images.
Thank you for amazing photos! I love them.
Great pictures!
Stunning photos that capture the spirit and lives of people in China.
Great photos!

This exhibit is here at the suggestion of Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito. The curator for the exhibit is Xiaobo Chen. The members of the CC China Mainland team who mounted the exhibit are Handong Zhu, Yi Zheng, and Song Shi. They had the very difficult task of very carefully boxing up more than one hundred photos, making sure they survived the flight from Beijing, and then guiding them through Japanese customs! Support for this exhibition was also provided by CC China Mainland Advisory Board members Professor Jing Wang and Dr. Stewart Cheifet. The entire project was created and managed by Professor Chunyan Wang, Project Lead for CC China Mainland. Funding for the exhibit was provided by the Ford Foundation.

This is a compilation of works from participants of Mini Midi 2008.

Including live recordings, field recordings and works exclusively for this compilation.

It was produced by Creative Commons China Mainland and Sub Jam/KwanYin Records. Will be released under license of “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike”.free mp3 will be available on this site soon.

the release conference will be hold on June 17th, 2008 at 2Kolegas Bar.

artists: Wang Fan + 718, Li Tieqiao, Li Zenghui, Fujui Wang, MiguelSantos, Andy Guhl, 10, The Wedding Beast, Xiao He, Hong Qile,TronOrchestra+SAM2+xinix+VacuumCar’Ori+ShiYang+ Yan Jun

From December 17 to 18, 2007, the International Conference on Information Technology & Social Responsibility took place in the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

The conference, jointly organized by CUHK, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Creative Commons China Mainland, was hosted by the School of Journalism and Communication of CUHK. Over thirty experts, scholars and professionals from America, Britain, Canada, Australia, China Mainland, and Hong Kong attended this event.

Former president of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Kenneth Young, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. During the conference, Professor Clement Y. K. So, Dean of Journalism and Communication School, and Professors Joseph M. Chan, Eric K. W. Ma and Kenneth W. Y. Leung presided over different sessions of the meeting. The attendees delivered keynote speeches and had in-depth discussions on the following topics: The Future and Present of Information Society; Citizens’ Responsibilities and the Digital Media; Pursuing Common Interests: Public Domain in Digital World and Intellectual Property in Politics; State Responsibility; Corporate Social Responsibility and the Internet. They promoted their perspectives on each issue and reached broad consensus with the audience.

During the Conference, Chairperson of Advisory Board of CC China Mainland, Professor Jing Wang from MIT delivered a speech “Creative Commons for the Socially Marginalized? Model Building for a Developing Country”; Board member Professor Hal Abelson from MIT delivered a speech entitled “The Responsibility of the University in the Age of the Information Commons”; and Project Lead of Creative Commons China Mainland, Professor Wang Chunyan presented her speech “Some Rights Reserved: A Creative Commons Approach to Copyright in the Information Age”. Those speeches aroused great interest among the audience and provided them a comprehensive understanding of Creative Commons and its development in China Mainland. All three speeches won much attention and support from the conference participants.

On December 15, 2007, CC Salon & CC 5 Years Global Birthday Party (Beijing) was successfully held in Beijing, Camp Club. It was part of a global ceremony, during which a series of parties were held sequently through some dozen of cities including Beijing, Berlin, Seoul, San Francisco and Los Angeles, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the release of CC Licenses. It was jointly organized by Creative ommons China Mainland and Mozilla Online and was presided over by Zhu Handong, Project manager of CC China Mainland. About 80 participants from various areas such as the art, information technology and the law have attended this event.Its supporting media, Sohu.com reported the event with living word broadcast  (Link: http://hztop.news.sohu.com/news/s2007/0278/s254104612/).
The event featured two sections: the CC Salon and the Global Birthday Party. The first part featured several keynote speeches delivered by: Wang Chunyan, Professor from Law School of Renmin University of China, Project lead of CC hina Mainland; Wang Fun-den, President of China Open Resources of Education (“CORE”); Ou Ning, a renowned curator; etc.

Professor Wang Chunyan delivering a keynote speech.

Professor Wang Chunyan, project lead of CC China Mainland introduced the concept and origins of CC, and reviewed its worldwide development and significant achievement in various areas including photography, the art, Internet, and blog over the last five years. Most recently, there have been 42 jurisdictions officially launched a local version of CC licenses. Since CC 2.5 China Mainland version was officially released, the number of CC users in China Mainland had increased rapidly. Professor Wang further addressed the upcoming promotion strategy of CC with emphasis that in addition to the promotion among creators and elite communities in urban areas, CC will be introduced to the people of China Midwest as an instrument helping their cultural enrichment. CC has a bright outlook; its future is full of promises.

 

Wang Fun-den, President of China Open Resources of Education

Wang Fun-den, President of China Open Resources of Education described the development of open education at home and abroad, and addressed the practical significance of its concept. He announced that there will be a long-term communication between CORE and CC, which will be dedicated to bring forward an easy acquisition of educational resources for more people.

On behalf of the blog community, Liu Xinzheng, the executive chief editor of SOHU Blog discussed with the guests on the protection of copyright for bloggers in the context of the Internet, and noted that CC Licenses could be a feasible approach for settling this issue. HIPIHI, the creator of a 3D digital world in China has sent its representatives, Li Chaoqun, senior manager of International Department and Ding An, senior manager of Policy Department, to present a short movie of HIPIHI world. Mr. Ding said that there has been a profound relationship between HIPIHI and Creative Commons, and that they’re looking forward to develop an approach applying CC License to HIPIHI to settle the problems of intellectual property in the virtual world. He expected more intensive cooperation between HIPIHI and CC China Mainland.

Zhao Wen, representative from Mozilla Online Ltd congratulated CC’s 5th birthday on behalf of her company. She introduced the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary in China, Mozilla Online Ltd. Implementing the concept of openness, she said, the company has dedicated itself to the promotion of openness, share, freedom and creation, which is consistent with CC’s concept of “Share, Reuse and Remix legally”, to the extent of building a harmonious cyber world.

 

Ou Ning, curator and founder of Get It Louder

Then Ou Ning, curator and founder of Get It Louder, presented the most notable works from Get it Louder exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, arousing intense interest among the audience. He addressed that the ideas of many forms of contemporary art serve the same as some of CC’s concept. CC is not merely a legal tool, he added, it has influenced people’s thinking on property rights in the internet era, and provided an ideal model for distribution.

 

Volunteers from Renmin University of China

Afterwards is the birthday party. From American, artist Cao Fei instructed the on-site staff to play her CC-licensed multi-media work, the video of RMB City, as a gift celebrating CC’s 5th birthday. Meanwhile, Project lead of Creative Commons China Mainland, Professor Wang Chunyan lit up five candles symbolizing CC’s development over the last five years. As volunteers from Renmin University sang the HAPPY BIRTHDAY song, all guests toasted the fifth anniversary of the release of CC Licenses.

On the afternoon of Dec.8^th, 2007, “Communication of Creative Commons and Photographic Works” was held in Canon Communication Space, Beijing. As part of the Exhibition of Award-winning Works of 1^st Creative Commons Photographic Contest, it has received great support from members of nphoto.net and CC licenses users. Zhu Handong, project manager and Shu Jianwei, project assistant attended on behalf of Creative Commons China Mainland. The event featured two sections. The first part featured a speech delivered by Mr. Zhu, introducing the concept of CC and CC licenses, further providing details of ways to use these licenses.

The second part featured an exhibition of two photo series: “Momentariness” and “Femineriness” presented by Jura, a famous photographer. His distinctive vision of lens and shooting experiences, as reflected in these works, aroused intense interest among the audience. Meanwhile, as an artist himself, Mr. Zhu shared his conceptual photographic work such as “Beijing Dream” and “Dreamland” with all participants. Subsequently, there was an open discussion for all guests to exchanged ideas with photographers on topics relating to the art of photography.