Let’s eat Chineasy!

Avevo deciso di studiare il cinese. E come sempre quando mi metto in testa una cosa prima o poi riesco a farla. Poi guardando le figurine che piacciono a me in giro mi sono imbattuta in questo progetto che fa al caso mio per tanti motivi: perché ha un bel design, perché è ludico, perché è intuitivo, perché è il trionfo della sintesi e della logica delle connessioni, e allora sono andata a vedere come funziona qui, ho guardato la mia TED Talk quotidiana qui, poi un giro su Fb e alla fine ho deciso che posso provarci.

Ma come nasce questo progetto?  Nasce da un anno sabbatico, dalla considerazione che la lingua è il primo scalino per comprendere una cultura, che forse l’approccio di sintesi degli ideogrammi cinesi può essere la strada per capirli anche solo aprendo gli occhi. .

The Vision

It is evident that people are hungry to learn about China. People are keen to be able to communicate with the 1.3 billion people. Yet there is not much out there to enable them to do so. Whilst the entire Chinese population is learning English, it is time for us to really comprehend this complex economy and society with our own eyes and judgment. Knowing their language is the first baby step but a crucial one.

The real agenda behind this project is to bridge the gap between the East and the West. 

I want to give the West a real understand and knowledge so that people can understand China and appreciate Chinese culture via their own eyes rather than layers of packaging, manipulation or loss in translation.

Chineasy will become the first step for anyone in the world who wants to understand China, Chinese culture and its language. It is educational, social, cultural and inspirational. I am demonstrating the beauty of this deep and broad culture with a modern interpretation by creating sleek modern design. For me it is also an arts project, as I grew up in an artistic family. I am connecting the dots–bringing me back to my artistic upbringing, and connecting my life journey of being in both the East and the West. “

Chi è ShaoLan? è un imprenditrice, geek, scritttrice, viaggiatrice e sognatrice.

After taking a sabbatical from being a venture capital investor in London, ShaoLan is now focused on a social project, Chineasy. ShaoLan’s ultimate aim is to bring down the great wall of Chinese language and allow Eastern and Western cultures to communicate freely.

Born in Taipei and now living in London, ShaoLan is an entrepreneur, geek, writer, traveller and dreamer. She has had several dramatic career changes in the past and, while studying for an MBA, wrote four best-selling books on software, awarded “book of the year” in Taiwan. In her second semester she co-founded her first venture, pAsia Inc. Under ShaoLan’s leadership, pAsia became a major player in the Internet sector in the Greater China area in the late 1990’s. After moving to London, she began investing in and advising young technology companies through Caravel Capital, which she founded in 2005 whilst studying at the University of Cambridge. She has also been a director of five UK-based technology companies.

ShaoLan is a member of several management and advisory boards for nonprofit organisations in the UK, including the Saïd Business School of Oxford University, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Asia House, and the New School Network, an organisation backed by the British Government promoting educational reform.