SE Tales and One Man's View [3 of 4]

SE Tales and One Man's View -
Social Entrepreneurship in Hong Kong

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3. CNEX Foundation (CNEX)

CNEX is the short form of 「Chinese Next」 and 「See Next」, and the motto of CNEX is 「Looking for Chinese 2.0」.

Registered in Hong Kong as a tax-exempt charitable institution, CNEX came into existence in 2007 with the aspiration to promote the production of documentaries related to the Chinese people. Firmly believing in the power of empathy, founder Ben Tsiang is determined to make CNEX the vehicle for people from within and beyond the Greater China region - especially the next generation of the Chinese population around the world [aka Chinese 2.0] - to better understand contemporary Chinese societies through documentary films.

CNEX also strives to facilitate cultural exchange between Chinese and the rest of the world through supporting documentaries depicting contemporary Chinese - people of Chinese ethnicity, their lives and their society. With the mission of producing 100 documentary films about China's society change over the course of ten years, CNEX hopes to establish and develop a library of global Chinese nonfiction work, and to enhance a sustainable strategy for the contemporary Chinese documentary making.

Albeit a legal entity registered in Hong Kong, CNEX is strictly speaking not a Hong Kong-based social enterprise. Founder Ben Tisang is originally from Taiwan and is a successful IT entrepreneur co-founding the popular Internet search engine Sina.com, which gives him the opportunity to understand the deep cultural diversity across Chinese societies. Given the imperative for CNEX to operate in all major Chinese cities across the region, Hong Kong offers a strategic location for CNEX to instigate its activities. From 2007 onwards, a chosen theme would be announced annually to solicit documentary films, articles, publications, and art works through online and offline submissions, which allows CNEX produce, collect and disseminate influential works. The goal is to preserve the development history of the Chinese people at the beginning of the 21st century to serve as a memoir for future generations.

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