Still Human: 61 Inspiring paintings from an upcoming generation
Amidst today's flood of AI-generated art, these paintings by Chinese children speak with a rare clarity about empathy, creativity, and the soul of what it means to be human
If you’re a regular reader of this Substack, you’ll know that a few weeks ago I was in Tianjin, China, for the annual World Economic Forum “Summer Davos” meeting. It’s a place where global movers and shakers get together (along with a few lowly academics like me) to discuss the state of the world and what comes next.
But this wasn’t my abiding memory from the event.
This year’s theme was “Entrepreneurship for a New Era” and, as you might expect, there was a lot of talk about AI, innovation, and the emerging geopolitics around transformative technologies.
What stopped me in my tracks though wasn’t the parade of world leaders or the high powered discussions, but an exhibition of 61 paintings by local school kids.
I was on my way to the week’s big “cultural do” where the meeting’s hosts give delegates a taste of what makes their city special. And just before I got to the main event, I caught sight of a sign announcing: “Paintings of the Future Tianjin by Children.”
To its left was a display spelling out “TIANJIN” in large letters. And on each letter, paintings by local school children — 61 one of them:
The paintings were created by students between 7 and 15 years old, and each uniquely captures the thoughts, imagination, perspectives, and aspirations of the young artist.
Browsing through them, there are some common themes; the Tianjin Eye ferris wheel on the Hai river that runs through the center of Tianjin for instance. And as you would expect from a group of young people, many of their ideas of the future didn’t feel that much different from the present.
But that’s not the point.
What is the point (at least to me) is that these were personal, authentic, and mesmerizingly beautiful paintings that capture the soul of an upcoming generation.
And above all, THEY WERE NOT GENERATED BY AI.
I found the sheer humanity of them moving me to tears as I moved from one to the next.
Rather than say more — because I think they speak for themselves — I’ll leave the paintings with you. I hope you’re inspired as much as I was by them.
The paintings:
Click to expand. These are all cropped from larger photos taken on my phone, and the quality reflects this — but I think this just adds to the authenticity.
Wow some of them can really draw! And we can ask be reassured that the future contains plenty of dumplings 😊