Global Media Highlights in June

THE SAIGON TIMES

Headline: Call for XJTLU’s 6th MEGA International Creative Media Festival

Published on: 8 June 2026

Summary: XJTLU’s Academy of Film and Creative Technology is calling for submissions for the 6th MEGA International Creative Media Festival, with this year’s theme of “Syntegration” emphasising interdisciplinary connections across technologies and creative practices.

Professor Qian Liu, Dean of AFCT, explains that MEGA is more than a platform for showcasing works – it is part of the University’s ongoing effort to explore how creativity, technology, and future media can come together in new ways. 

GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY NEWS

Headline: Updated Amplification Tool Rapidly Detects Mycoplasma

Published on: 10 June 2026

Summary: Chinese researchers have developed a nucleic acid amplification technique (NAAT) that detects Mycoplasma species in biological products within hours instead of the traditional 28-day culture test, while maintaining high sensitivity and specificity.

Developed by scientists at China’s National Institute for Food and Drug Control, Yeasen Biotechnology in Shanghai, and XJTLU, the method uses three primer-probe sets covering 183 Mollicutes species. It requires no special equipment and enables same-day release testing for cell therapies and short-shelf-life biologics, though it comes with higher reagent costs and has not been verified against rare strains from extreme environments.

FORBES

Headline: Why Supporting Employees’ Family Lives Can Help Leaders At Home Too

Published on: 11 June 2026

Summary: New research shows family-supportive leadership is not just a one-way benefit to employees – it helps managers too. When supervisors support employees’ work-family balance, they are more likely to share positive work experiences at home, improving their own and their partner’s family role performance.

Dr Yan Pan of XJTLU, co-author of the study, says these positive work stories can especially strengthen connection in lower-harmony households. The findings suggest organisations should treat family-supportive leadership as a trainable capability, not just individual goodwill.

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION

Headline: A ‘smart’ way to get students working together

Published on: 11 June 2026

Summary: XJTLU lecturers Ya Zhang, Shuhao Zhang, and Yu Liu developed a framework to improve project-based learning, tackling issues like cultural differences and uneven workloads that often lead to disjointed teamwork. It combines shared roles, guided communication, regular checkpoints, and transparent contribution tracking through live documents.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Headline: XJTLU celebrates 20th anniversary and unveils new 10-year plan

Published on: 11 June 2026

Summary: XJTLU celebrated its 20th anniversary on 22 May 2026 with a High-Quality Development Conference that unveiled the University’s new 10-year strategic plan. Professor Youmin Xi, Executive President of XJTLU, announced that the University’s core strategy for the next decade will pivot from building upon its 3.0 industry-innovation ecology towards exploring the “XJTLU 4.0 model”, aiming for deep integration across industry, academia, research, government, and society. 

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Headline: Out of the shadows: Huawei’s ‘chip queen’ steps back into the spotlight with scaling law

Published on: 13 June 2026

Summary: Huawei’s “chip queen” He Tingbo has resurfaced after years out of the public eye to unveil something called the “Tau Scaling Law”. Huawei claims this framework could let it build chips by 2031 that are as advanced as those made with today’s most cutting-edge manufacturing process (1.4nm) – without needing the highly advanced machines (EUV lithography) that US sanctions currently block China from buying.

Professor Zhao Chun at XJTLU says the physics itself is not new, but Huawei’s contribution is synthesising scattered academic work into one framework that redefines “advanced” chips by time rather than size. He likens its significance to Moore’s 1965 observation, though notes the real test is whether it can be turned into viable products.

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION

Headline: Feedback is a skill to be taught, not assumed

Published on: 17 June 2026

Summary: Jiashi Wang at XJTLU’s English Language Centre teaches peer feedback as a core skill using a structured framework (affective, descriptive, specific, justified, constructive). Strategies include analysing weak feedback examples, training students to read marking criteria via exemplar essays, using custom GPTs with transparent authorship tracking, and treating feedback as a dialogue – with AI supplementing, not replacing, student judgement.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PORTUGAL

Headline: Decifrando as escritas perdidas do mundo antigo (Deciphering the lost writings of the ancient world)

Published on: 20 June 2026

Summary: Dr Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, Associate Professor at XJTLU, has dedicated more than half his life to deciphering Linear A, a Bronze Age script used by the Minoan civilisation of Crete between approximately 1800 and 1450 BC.

Although it has remained undeciphered because the language appears unrelated to ancient Greek or any other known language of that era. Since beginning his study in 1999, he has noted that while the script shares many characters with the related Linear B syllabary deciphered by Michael Ventris in the 1950s, the words formed by Linear A produce what he describes as “a jumble of gibberish” when read with Linear B values, though modern tools and technologies now offer new hope for potential breakthroughs.

THE STRAITS TIMES

Headline: Why hospitals in China, including Raffles Medical, are attracting more foreign patients

Published on: 21 June 2026

Summary: A growing number of international patients are travelling to China for medical treatments, including cancer therapies, dental implants, health screenings, and traditional Chinese medicine.

Dr Linjia Zhang, Associate Professor at XJTLU’s Department of Economics, notes that China‘s inbound medical tourism market is still in an early growth phase, with a significant share of demand among international patients still coming from expats already living in China, and that while the market is warming up, it has not yet reached large-scale cross-border flows.

THE JAKARTA POST

Headline: XJTLU strengthens presence in Indonesia

Posted on: 29 June 2026

Summary: XJTLU has expanded its recruitment presence in Indonesia amid AI-driven changes in higher education. Announced by Executive President Professor Youmin Xi at a press event, the University has forged partnerships with top Indonesian institutions, including Binus University, Universitas Indonesia, Institut Teknologi Bandung, and Petra Christian University, as well as agencies and schools.

 

 

By Kayla Foniel Johan

Edited by Xinmin Han and Vionna Fiducia Theja