As Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity rolls around again for its 65th edition China’s presence at the festival continues to grow in terms of attention, delegate numbers, and sponsorship. For the second year in a row there will be a full day dedicated to China related talks.
第65届戛纳国际创意节即将拉开帷幕，中国在戛纳的参与度越来越高，不论是外界关注，还是参与人数，抑或是赞助都如此。去年戛纳第一次专门设立了一整天的中国演讲，今年这一传统还会延续。
In terms of awards and honors, however, last year China’s numbers lagged relative to the size of the country’s submissions and the size of its advertising market. What is holding back China’s market from earning international recognition for its advertising work? Is it that Chinese agencies and brands do not place high value on foreign awards shows or are there perhaps deeper questions to ask – such as how is creativity and innovation are different in each country and culture. Could it even be that international award shows like Cannes are fundamentally biased against the type of creative work coming out of new creative giants like China?
然而，从获奖荣誉来看，虽然中国递交的作品数量不少，广告市场也很巨大，但是获奖数量却不尽如人意。是什么阻碍了中国在国际广告市场的认可度呢？是因为中国广告机构和品牌不够重视国际大奖赛吗？还是要深入挖掘其中的原因？比如说不同国家和文化在创意和创新上有什么不同？甚至，又是不是因为戛纳这样的国际大奖从根本上就对新崛起的中国创新有偏见？
SHP+ asked local creatives, producers, and designers in China’s creative industry a few of these questions. Leading up to the festival we will feature these interviews. The first interview comes from AQKA’s Creative Director Eric Cruz.
SHP+提出了几个小问题，询问中国创意人士、制片和设计师的看法。在戛纳到来之际，我们将给大家带来系列访谈。首位受访者是雅酷创意总监Eric Cruz。
AQKA’s Creative Director | 雅酷创意总监
Eric Cruz
1. What is your definition of creativity 你如何定义创意？
Creativity to me is the beautiful shaping of ideas and insightful, compelling problem solving that moves people and culture.
在我看来，创意就是精心塑造想法和洞察，专注解决问题，打动人心和文化。
2. How much do you feel your cultural background impacts this definition or your understanding of creativity? 你认为自身的文化背景对你的定义有何影响，对你对创意的理解又有何影响？
Who you are and where you come from, the totality of your collected experiences from the cultures you existed and interacted with informs every decision you make. I’m Asian by birth, American by upbringing, but consider myself a transnational globalist, which I believe is the inevitable fate of everyone. I’ve been fortunate enough to live and create across 5 countries (USA, UK, JP, Malaysia, CN) over the last 20 years, which allowed me an insightful perspective on the forces that shape culture at large across the different cities and cultures I’ve collaborated with. The future is one global community and this is an exciting prospect to me.
文化影响着我们做出的每一个决定。我是亚裔，在美国长大，我认为自己是一个跨国全球主义者，我也相信全球化不可避免地会影响每一个人。 我很幸运，在过去的20年里在五个国家（美国、英国、日本、马来西亚和中国）工作生活过，这让我对文化的塑造力量有一种深入的洞察力，足迹遍布不同城市，跟不同的文化都接触过。未来是全球化社会，我觉得这样的前景很鼓舞人心。
3. China often is accused of being a copy-cat, is this a misunderstanding of China’s creative industry development or do you find this to be a genuine issue in China’s market? 中国总被人说成是山寨，你觉得这是对中国创意产业发展的误解吗？还是事实确实如此？
To answer this question we have to look at the natural evolution of humanity across history. I consider China the product of collective evolution. It was isolated and closed off from the West for nearly 40 years up until the end of the Cultural Revolution, awakening in the early 80’s and coming of age in 2008 during the Beijing Olympics. During its initial rise, yes it looked at what the rest of the world is doing, but in my opinion its now surpassing the West. If you think about it, the West has had 230 year to industrialize. China did this in 28 years. Digitalization took 32 years to happen in the developed world but 10 years in China. So while it’s incontestable that China has been massively influenced by the rest of the world, it is now “coming of age” recreating phenomenons like Silicon Valley, at unprecedented rates. It is now beginning to pave their own path.
在回答这个问题之前，我们先回过头看看历史上人类的自然进化过程。我觉得中国是集体进化的产物。文革期间，中国封闭了40年，80年代初开始苏醒，2008年，举办了北京奥运会。中国在崛起之初，就要参考世界其他地方，但在我看来，现在，中国正在赶超西方。想一想，西方经历了230年实现了工业化。中国只用了28年。发达国家用了32年实现了数字化，但是中国只用了10年。确实，不争的事实是，中国受到了世界其他地方的极大影响，但是现在中国已然成熟，重新打造了类似硅谷这样的现象，速度之快前所未有。现在，中国已经开始铺平自己的道路。
To say that China is copying the West would also be to ignore history. Gunpowder, ink, printing, and paper currency are all innovations that came from China. Those are technologies that happened 3-4,000 years ago. So we have to consider this question of intellectual property in a bigger context than the last century.
要是说中国照抄西方，那就忽略了历史。火药、墨水、印刷和造纸都是中国发明的，三四千年前就有了。我们在说知识产权的时候，不能只是想最近的一百年，而是要有更广阔的时间线。
And in the global race towards global supremacy, China isn’t exactly sitting by the sidelines. About the same time that people were debating whether WeChat is a copy of Facebook, a few years later Facebook soon started becoming influenced by the new innovations introduced by WeChat.
在追求全球大权的竞赛中，中国并不是旁观者。 有人在争论微信是否抄袭脸书，但与此同时，没几年，脸书就开始受到微信一些原创功能的影响。
So to me it’s a global dialogue about how we all help and influence each other. China is not just “catching up”, we’re now seeing it supersede the West. And in terms of creativity and innovation this will be redefined in the years ahead.
所以，我觉得这是一场全球的对话，看看如何互相帮助、互相影响。中国不再仅仅是“追赶”，我们现在看到，中国在渐渐替代西方。在未来几年，创意和创新将会被重新定义。
4. Why do you think Chinese brands and agencies have not received many international awards? 你认为中国品牌和广告公司没有斩获太多国际大奖的原因是什么？
To me this is only a matter of time. We saw the same pattern with Korea. Back in 2006 South Korea didn’t register in the global awards circuit, but countries that are fast followers soon become innovative hubs. South Korea became the fastest growing economy of the 1990’s, by 2010 it was acknowledged as one of the most innovative countries in the world.
我觉得只是时间早晚的事。韩国也是一样的模式。2006年，韩国在国际大奖中默默无名，但是那些快速追赶的国家很快就成为了创新中心。90年代，韩国成了世界上经济增速最快的国家，2010年，就应经成为了世界公认的最具创新的国家之一。
Now its China’s turn. The difference between Japan and South Korea’s rise to success and creative innovation is that China’s scale is unprecedented. China’s national drive to innovate, spear headed by the Chinese government’s Vision 2020 to make China the innovation capital of the world, multiplied by China’s economic purchasing power will give birth to an economy of a scale we have never seen before. Herein lies the opportunity for creativity to flourish. We are at the cusp of this major transformation that the world is about to see. It’s only a matter of time.
现在轮到中国了。跟日本和韩国相比，中国的成功崛起和创新创意的规模是前所未有的。中国有国家推动创新，政府提出了Vision 2020 ，要把中国打造成世界的创新中心，再加上中国经济的购买力，这将会带来史无前例的经济规模。所以，创新也有了蓬勃发展的机会。中国将迎来重大转变，世界将会拭目以待。只不过是时间早晚的问题。
5. Is there an example from your work or others in the last year created and produced for the China market that stands out as very creative or innovative? And how do you define the difference between creativity and innovation?在过去的一年里，有没有哪部中国创作的作品很有创意或者很有创新性，说说你的作品或者别人的作品都可以。你如何界定创意和创新之间的区别？
Our goal is to fuse ideas with innovation and blend art with science to tell compelling stories in the digital age. So we see the marriage of creativity and technology as our starting point. Considering China is one of the most mobile savvy and digitally connected countries in the world, it is ripe for innovative storytelling, products and services, given the high mobile penetration and critical mass.
我们的目标是把想法和创新融合起来，把艺术和科学结合起来，在这样的数字时代，讲述有感染力的故事。所以，我们把创新和科技的结合作为起点。中国是世界上对移动科技最敏感，数字技术联通最发达的国家之一，时机已经成熟，中国可以打造出创新的故事、产品和服务，中国的移动手机普及率和科技临界质量非同一般。
We’re fortunate enough to have worked on projects that have allowed us to exercise our creative muscles using technology to tell innovative brand stories in the connected age. Below are a few projects that highlight this:
我们非常幸运，参与了很多项目，能够利用科技发挥创意才华，在互通互联的时代，讲述创意品牌故事。下面是我们的项目集锦：
Nike Basketball : Rise 1.0
The world’s first LED and AI enabled basketball court that taught ballers how to play better through data science, was Nike’s biggest effort in basketball worldwide in 2014 and 2015, and we were amazed that this happened only in Shanghai and nowhere else in the world, which demonstrates China’s growing influence and importance.
世界上首个LED和AI篮球场，通过数据科学教运动员如何提高技能，这是耐克2014和2015在全球范围内篮球领域的最大手笔。我们惊讶的看到，这场宣传专属上海，是世界其他城市没有的，这一点也显示出了中国越来越有影响力，越来越重要。
Nike Running : My Sole Story
My Sole Story is a data storytelling platform for marathons across China, an example of data storytelling that takes your data and creates a dynamic story that chronicles your training journey, dedication and comittment from start to finish.
这是一个全国马拉松数据讲故事平台，很好的诠释了利用动态数据讲故事的理念，收集跑步者的数据，打造旅程的故事。
Nike Women : Believe in More
A cinematic journey into actress Zhou Dong Yu’s life from a failed athlete to one of China’s biggest stars. We told a lesser known story of how sports and gymnastics helped her become who she is today.
演绎了演员周冬雨如何从一个失败的运动员成为中国最耀眼的明星。她的故事没那么广为人知，我们讲述了体育和体操如何成就了今天的周冬雨。
6. Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about the growth and development of creativity in China’s ad industry?对于中国广告产业的成长和发展，整体来讲，你是乐观还是悲观？
I am super excited to see the leap frog evolution that will happen in China in the coming years. I think China is fast becoming the new playground for creative innovation in the next decade. It is well underway and we will see a great explosion in years to come. The appetite and hunger to innovate and make a mark for itself is there.
我真的很高兴，期待未来几年，中国能够实现飞跃式发展。我觉得在未来十年，中国正快速成为创意创新的新沃土。中国已经启程，未来几年就会看到这股力量。中国对创新求知若渴，将会留下自己的足迹。
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