The visible and invisible beauty | Jinbo Li | TEDxDushu Lake
Jinbo Li explored the subjectivity and diversity of beauty, arguing that beauty holds no meaning outside of human experience — it is essentially a projection of our emotions onto the world. He emphasized that beauty and "non-beauty" are interdependent: light needs shadow to stand out, negative emotions often give birth to art, and anxiety and creativity stem from the same source.He pointed out that true appreciation of beauty requires a sense of distance and safety, transcending utilitarian thinking. However, in today’s efficiency-driven society, this capacity for aesthetic experience is often suppressed. Li criticized the tendency to standardize aesthetics, warning against reducing beauty to a single, fixed answer. Instead, he advocated for embracing diverse forms of beauty — whether lofty or humble, each has its own value.Li further stressed that genuine aesthetic literacy lies in separating aesthetics from moral judgment, respecting individual differences, and recognizing the value of complex, even conflicting, emotions — such as the intertwining of love and resentment within familial bonds. Ultimately, he proposed that beauty is not a fixed state but a dynamic process. Only by letting go of the obsession with "perfection" and embracing contradictions can we expand the ways in which we perceive and experience the world. An applied psychology expert with a master's degree in psychology and over 20 years of professional experience. A distinguished lecturer at Zhejiang University's School of Humanities and a nationally certified Level-2 psychological counselor, dedicated to enhancing overall well-being in Chinese society.
The author of multiple bestselling psychology books and a frequent contributor to various psychology programs, they have delivered over 1,000 talks throughout their career, including more than 30 public welfare psychology sessions annually, reaching an audience of over 300, 000 people. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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