On 10 August 2026, the 2026 "Most Beautiful Educators" Award Ceremony was grandly held in Beijing. With the core theme of "Cultivating the Teaching Field with Devotion, Strengthening the Nation with Me", this year's ceremony brought together outstanding educators in the fields of aesthetic education and psychological education across the country to commend educational pioneers who have devoted themselves to the front line of fostering virtue through education. The event received full support and coverage from central mainstream platforms such as China Education Television, CCTV.com, and Xuexi Qiangguo. Dr. Xiao Yawen, a professor at the School of Education of the City University of Macau and a visiting professor at Macau Polytechnic University, as well as a lecturer at Guangzhou College of Technology and Business, was honoured with the 2026 Aesthetic Education Figure Contribution Award in recognition of her more than ten years of dedicated work in aesthetic education teaching in both Guangzhou and Macau, her academic innovation in the field of art therapy, and her long-term practice of public welfare aesthetic education services.
Dr. Xiao Yawen has devoted herself to the front line of aesthetic education for more than ten years, accumulating teaching experience across the entire foundational stage of Macau's primary and secondary schools and kindergartens. She currently serves as a lecturer at Guangzhou College of Technology and Business, and concurrently as a visiting lecturer at several higher education institutions in Macau, connecting the aesthetic education teaching fields across the entire educational spectrum of basic education, undergraduate, and postgraduate studies. Grounded in the current state of educational development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, she takes the traditional Eastern philosophy of "round heaven and square earth" as her foundation, integrates modern pedagogy, applied psychology, and visual art theory, and originally constructs the complete teaching system of "Fangyuan Aesthetic Education".
This system uses mandala colour painting and comprehensive artistic creation as practical vehicles, deeply integrating artistic expression with emotional guidance, and resolving the industry pain point of the divide between traditional aesthetic education's emphasis on technique training and psychological education's emphasis on theoretical instruction, thereby achieving the core educational goal of "nourishing the heart through beauty and healing through art". Through the creative process of colours and lines, it guides participants to become aware of their emotions and sort out their inner feelings, making aesthetic education a gentle vehicle that nourishes the soul and heals emotions.
At the level of academic research, Dr. Xiao Yawen has continuously promoted the construction of localised theories of art therapy, having published more than ten professional research achievements in total. A number of her original artworks and aesthetic education research papers have been published in CSSCI and various core education journals, laying a solid theoretical foundation for the development of aesthetic education with distinctive Guangzhou-Macau integration characteristics.
In terms of social public welfare services, she has built a public welfare brand of mandala art therapy in both Guangzhou and Macau, and regularly offers soul painting workshops on campus. At the same time, she has reached out to Macau communities, customising exclusive art therapy courses for local social service organisations that care for special groups, and using artistic media to provide psychological support services. Over the years, she has successively held nine solo art exhibitions and participated in more than thirty art joint exhibitions at home and abroad, spreading the inner power of aesthetic education and healing through visual art.
In an exclusive interview with on-site media, Dr. Xiao Yawen shared her long-held aesthetic education ideal: "Aesthetic education is not merely the transmission of techniques, but the nourishment of the soul. I hope that through this model of 'Fangyuan Aesthetic Education', I can bring art therapy into more campuses and communities, and let aesthetics become a vehicle for channelling emotions and healing the soul."
Regarding this award, Dr. Xiao Yawen stated that it is a brand-new starting point. In the future, she will continue to deepen cross-disciplinary academic research on "Fangyuan Aesthetic Education + Art Therapy", refine the integrated aesthetic education teaching system with distinctive Guangzhou-Macau characteristics, broaden the coverage of local public welfare aesthetic education services in Macau, promote the localised art therapy model in campuses and communities, and continue to contribute educational strength to the high-quality development of the integration of aesthetic education undertakings and university mental health education in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.
