Hey there readers👐, welcome to my blog post. Just a bit of introduction, I am Matthew Lau of Theme 1: AI-empowered design. attached picture for your reference on how I look in real life.
[self voted best looking, most charming SUTD student, haha lol shameless🙈]
In writing this post, I’ll try to make it really not boring. I should point out that you need not read this post in progression, 3 parts narration etc. Each snippet, for the most part, can be read individually, even out of order, without losing its significance. Thus, I sincerely invite you to consume this highly planned and designed blog catered to serve maximum reading and viewing pleasure(hopefully🙈) in either parts, Chinese buffet-style or in a good-old orderly manner, all depends on your personal taste.
I shan’t bore you in long-winded O-level’s English narrative essay style that’s ironically narratively boring to the core. Thus, I have included images & videos to aid your brain in processing the information. (one thing I learnt in data visualisation course here in ZJU is more than 1/3 of our brain is catered to process visuals, far exceeding than given over to processing sound, movement and smell combined). -IKR😯😳
This week started with a great typhoon.
Nah Just kidding, if this happened you wouldn’t be reading this post. Instead, this is what typhoon looks like here.
I hid inside my room the whole day for the first time as my natural defence instinct kicked in. In order to survive(to nourish myself with food), I resorted to ordering in(a more familiar term would be 外卖🥡). I was really appreciative of the food deliverer who braved through the storms and rain, nearly sacrificing himself to serve a greater purpose of fulfilling my tummy. 🙂
[the food deliverer in yellow, refer to the tip of arrow]
Here’s some other food we had here.
[Xin Bai Lu, lol you’ll be shocked as it cost nearly one-fifth the price of a restaurant of this calibre in Singapore]
[one of the nicest noodles I tried here]
[mm, Durian pizza, the adventurous me finally tried this in the end of DATE trip. I honestly think it taste fairly good, it’s comparable to the Durians in JB(shout out to Malaysia!!😄, how I missed home😭)]
And yes, if you haven’t noticed. I believe most of the blogs you’ll read from DATE is about food and food-related, it’s unsurprising as the food here is really just like giving your tongue a taste of heaven, 6⭐️🌟 treatment. Lol, writing about food in this blog at this point of time is making my tummy go crazy.[AND where’s my waimai ahhh, eh 20 mins alreaddd😩😩, why so long one siaa] JKJK😂
Ok, I shall share my experience on the main purpose I am here- to learn and do projects and to experience for myself the technological advancement in this country: the great CHINA. Here’s a picture of us before our final presentation.
[yaya, doing our final ammendments just before it]
[Yu Xiang giving it like a pro]
One take back I have from the 2 main projects here is -to wrap an interesting story around a product that people would be convinced of. So ya, from our experience in DIP I believe we have gain some acute sense of convincing story-telling. This is directly reflected in our Theme being ranked no.2 in final presentation.
Here’s a look at our extended, director(which is me😄🙈, Matthew Lau Zhi Yuan)-exclusive clip that’s 3 minutes long (woa😲👏🙌👏🙌👏👏).
Our project is about summarising Live-streamings from e-commerse giant ~ Alibaba’s TaoBao. read Xu Liang’s post for more details here.
In this project, I mainly did the medias. The data visualisations posed a new challenge to me as I’ve never done such before. Having attended the data visualisation summer course in ZJU helped tremendously, and it has successfully convinced me of a future I’ll pursue (another reason for anyone to come for DATE, it’s life-changing, at least for me I guess😊) After final presentation, we had a great farewell dinner at hotel nearby.
Another highlight of the night is Karaoke, this is something that if you didn’t experience you can’t say you truly experience China(just Joking 😂😂 there’s obviously more to china than mindless shouting and gross saliva spitting one’s heart out, Matt🙈)
[watch talented Shin Jie flaunting his voice]
Overall, I know you want to know more(haha hopefully la). I’ll be having a sharing session on 2nd October and if you’d like to know more, do come over to LT2 to hear my humble sharing.
In closing, should you feel sleepy or drowsy while reading this blog, unlike most bloggers, I won’t be disheartened. But one serious note I’d like to share is my thoughts on this trip.
Knowing that the human mind can only focus for a really limited time, it is the greatest form of flattery for me to know that you are convinced to come DATE or at least a grew some marginal interest in China. I am entirely delighted that you’ve made it till this line.
Overall, DATE has been a rollercoaster ride for me, some part mild some part so intense it’d make your heart out if you’re not aware😂😂jkjk.
From giving keynote presentation like Steve job to being asked out by local Chinese girls (haha Date, get it?🙃🙃) to exploring food(constantly giving my tongue the ultimate orchard road wallet-emptying, great service treatment.
~oh dear tongue it’s been quite a journey), to exploring the most scenic places in the world to visiting really high-tech behind-the-scene, to doing project ourselves, getting hold of our ancestral roots(honestly, I can 100%-confirm-guarantee you, my Chinese proficiency has skyrocketed like nobody’s business(💥highly exaggerated).
All in all, I would like to thank all the people involved: Professor Sun, TA Zhe Ting, Hillary, PhD Dexian, JingXIan, and of course my theme members: YongChun, XuLiang, YuXiang, Keith and Charles (the most responsible SUTD personnel in charged of student exchange) and many more. If I didn’t include your name and would liked to be mentioned here, pls contact me directly through WeChat or other means of communication like email, mailing, WhatsApping, FBing or beeping(lol wat this). Thank you dearly to everyone who has made this trip ever more so super fun, It’d always be a memory that I’ll forever cherish.
Cheers to China🥂
Now now, where’s my WaiMai🙂
