China is not necessarily known for attaching particular importance to environmental protection or social compatibility in its numerous infrastructure projects overseas. Young Chinese entrepreneur Huang Honxiang wants to change that. He founded “China House” in Kenya, an independent social enterprise that aims to bring Chinese companies and local stakeholders to one table. In today’s interview, he talks about the many challenges involved, starting with the mistrust he faces from all sides as a Chinese national in an environment that Chinese people rarely frequent.
Despite all the challenges, Huang has high hopes for the future. More and more young people from the People’s Republic are interested in sustainability and climate action. He says all they need is guidance and places where they can actually get involved in social issues. After all, as the leaders of tomorrow, a lot is in their hands, especially in the Global South.
The EU is keen to offer itself as an alternative to China in the Global South, and especially in the Indo-Pacific region. However, as the EU-Indo-Pacific summit showed, the differing positions of many ASEAN states on the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine increasingly jeopardize this endeavor.
In Brussels, representatives of countries in the Global South accused the European Union of double standards when condemning the atrocities committed. The fact that more and more countries question Europe’s moral credibility plays into China’s hands, writes Amelie Richter. Using a blend of diplomatic skill, seemingly neutral reservation and a dash of anti-Americanism, Beijing is perfecting its recipe for establishing itself as the leader of the Global South.
In 2014, you founded “China House” in Kenya, a socially focused company that has set itself the goal of combining Chinese foreign investment with sustainable development. How did you come up with this idea?
About ten years ago, when I was still working as a journalist, I studied and wrote a lot about Chinese overseas investments in the global south and their socio-environmental conflicts in mining projects, oil projects, and so on. In the beginning, I was focusing on Africa, and Kenya is like the gateway country for many Chinese people who go to Africa.
There are a lot of sustainable development issues connected to China’s global engagement and Chinese companies overseas, especially in the Global South, but you don’t find many Chinese civil society organizations working there, resulting in a lot of communication gaps, misunderstandings, and conflicts between the Chinese stakeholders and local, international stakeholders. That’s why I started China House. So when local communities, NGOs, and media want to learn more about China and want to connect with Chinese stakeholders, they could come to us.
What are the main problems you aim to solve with “China House”?
First and foremost, we want to create dialogue and reduce misunderstandings and conflicts. Chinese companies in the global south often have very little understanding of the international and the local side of handling business, but local and international stakeholders also understand little about how Chinese companies and Chinese communities work. We have seen this situation everywhere, not just in Kenya. In Latin America and even many parts of Asia it is the same. They want to know what the Chinese are doing and why they are doing what they’re doing. And then they, of course, want to influence them on how they do it, let’s say, on sustainable development.
You want to help Chinese companies to improve their working conditions and protect the environment. How do Chinese companies react when you offer them your services?
There have been mixed reactions. It is not easy getting the trust and funds from the Chinese company side. One of the challenges we face is that many of these companies do not allocate budgets for sustainable development projects. Additionally, the concept of what we do as a social enterprise is relatively new to many of these companies, so it is difficult to convince them that our service is helpful for them.
However, we also had some successful cases of working with Chinese companies on CSR programs in countries like Kenya, Myanmar, Tanzania, South Africa, and so on. These programs cover different areas, including vocational training and wildlife conservation.
Given the bad press in many countries, one would think that Chinese companies should be keen to improve their reputation overseas …
Many people working in Chinese companies in the Global South perceive media-related services differently than you perceive it in the West. For example, we approached a Chinese company and said, ‘Hey, we want to do some beneficial community project, do you want to be part of it? It can improve your image and might even give you new business opportunities, regarding there is a lot of negative press about Chinese companies.’ And what they mainly asked us was: ‘So, if there is negative press about us, can you erase that?’ And I have to say to them: Sorry, no, we can’t, and we don’t do such things.
Is there any suspicion that “China House” could be working directly for the Chinese government or exclusively for the benefit of Chinese companies?
Sometimes, we encounter this as well. Because it is uncommon to see Chinese civil society organizations in the Global South, some local people would think we are from the government. However, usually, after we explain what we do and the projects that we have done, we manage to gain their trust.
Did you ever try to approach the local Confucius Institutes to collaborate?
Government organizations in China are often not interested in working with us because we are a pure grassroots civil society organization. For many Chinese people, if you are not “official” (associated with the government), you are a nobody.
And that’s different with Western organizations?
Yes, compared to Chinese companies and government-related organizations, international organizations such as global NGOs are way more open to working with us. I think that also has something to do with my background, as I studied international development at Columbia University and worked with many international sustainable development organizations before. And I also played a role in an award-winning Netflix documentary about the ivory trade investigation in 2016. That brought us a lot of credibility.
In the Netflix documentary “The Ivory Game,” you posed as a Chinese businessman who wants to buy ivory.
Yes, it is relatively easy for Chinese investigators to get the trust of traffickers in the Global South, and that helps fight the illegal wildlife trade. We have built a Chinese investigator team for global wildlife conservation issues. We recently discovered a big black market for pangolins in a country in Southeast Asia, and we are currently in the process of investigating in a similar manner. We operate several sustainable development projects, including the Human-Wildlife Conflict Project in Kenya, Orangutan Conservation in Indonesia, Anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) initiatives in Kenya, and so on.
Do you believe that the efforts of Chinese companies to tackle such problems will increase when a new generation of internationally-minded Chinese are in leadership positions?
I think more and more young Chinese people are interested in this field of sustainable development. They want to learn about issues like gender equality, quality education and environmental protection. However, they need guidance to learn and get into this area. Through such programs, they would learn about this area and grow their global citizenship. In the future, when they work in Chinese companies and so on, I believe they will behave in a very different way.
But we need to find a way to sustain ourselves because this is a very long-term project. We need to be able to sustain our team and maintain our programs. Apart from us, there aren’t many opportunities for young Chinese students to go to the field and learn about global sustainable development issues.
How do you aim to achieve this?
This year, we hope to do some fundraising globally and work more with international organizations who could provide some funding. Securing sustainable funding for these international projects is a significant challenge. We have to try to do fundraising for those international projects, particularly from China. We have to try different ways because I believe there is a big need for an organization like ours, which aims to further integrate China into global sustainable development, so it is important for us to find sustainable ways to continue those projects.
Hongxiang Huang graduated from Fudan University and holds an MPA in development practice from Columbia University. In 2014, he founded “China House” in Kenya to advise Chinese companies looking to invest in the continent on sustainable development. In addition, “China House” is involved in several education and development projects in Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2018, Huang was nominated by Forbes China as a “30 Under 30” in the social enterprise category.
The different positions on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East dominated the EU-Indo-Pacific summit. Representatives of countries from the Global South accused the European Union of double standards regarding the wars in Ukraine and Gaza at the meetings. Negotiations on the wording of a joint statement with the ASEAN states were tough. The summit revealed that the EU’s plan to position itself as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific region will be more difficult than perhaps expected under the current geopolitical conditions.
The joint statement released on Friday after the talks between European ministers and their counterparts from the Southeast Asian ASEAN bloc made this clear: “We agreed to condemn all attacks against civilians and we noted the call of some of us for a durable ceasefire,” reads the joint statement regarding the Gaza war. It continues: “We called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, especially women, children, the sick and the elderly. In this context, some of us raised the importance of release from arbitrary detention.”
The statement also revealed the disagreement between the EU and ASEAN on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: “Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine (…) There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.
Several ministers from countries of the Global South made direct accusations against the European Union for its divergent policies on Ukraine and Gaza. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry formulated this very directly in front of media representatives in Brussels. He sees a “double standard when it comes to the Middle East and the plight of the Ukrainians.” “The credibility of the Western world is at stake unless you treat all of them equally,” he said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi also urged EU ministers to exert more pressure on Israel to curb its military operations in Gaza. “No state is above the law,” Marsudi emphasized in her opening speech and appealed to European countries not to stop their support for the Palestinian refugee aid organization UNRWA and its work in Gaza. “Listen to your heart and do the right thing, to stop atrocities in Gaza, in Palestine,” she urged, emphasizing the “consistency with values and actions reflect sincerity of moral high ground … it shows who we actually are.”
Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen rejected the accusations: “It’s not a double standard at all. We are steadfast against any targeting of civilians,” said Valtonen. “We have been condemning the Hamas attack very, very directly. But also, we do recognize that while Israel has the right to protect itself and its civilians, it also needs to do that obliging to international law and humanitarian law.” Valtonen also spoke with Marsudi about the issue on the sidelines of the event.
The EU has been struggling to find a united position on the war in Gaza since October. A growing number of EU member states are calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, while others insist on Israel’s right to retaliate and eliminate the Hamas terrorist group. There are also differing views on this within the EU Commission. EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell warned: “Our position in the conflict in Gaza could certainly jeopardize our relations with many people in the world.”
And that could play into China’s hands. Beijing has discovered the Middle East as an important element of its geopolitical strategy. With a combination of diplomatic skill, seemingly neutral reservation and a dash of anti-Americanism, Beijing is trying to gain influence in the region. To score points with Arab and Muslim governments, China is taking a clear stance in support of the Palestinians and positioning itself as the leader of the Global South.
However, in the joint statement from the EU and ASEAN representatives, there was also agreement on issues that Beijing is unlikely to be pleased with. Regarding the South China Sea, both sides reaffirm “the importance of the respect for the rule of law, sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation” and emphasize compliance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. “Self-restraint” should be exercised in all activities in the South China Sea. The EU and ASEAN also welcomed the development of a code of conduct for the South China Sea.
“The European Union has a lot to offer. We are a transparent and reliable partner,” said Borrell at the opening of the summit. He emphasized the joint commitments to work more closely in the fight against climate change, to strengthen trade, develop technology and invest in infrastructure. Around 70 delegations traveled to the event. 20 of the EU foreign ministers attended, more than last year. According to media reports, 25 ministers from the Indo-Pacific region were present.
However, the – repeated – absence of key players was criticized: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sent Minister of State Tobias Lindner to Brussels. Baerbock did not attend last year. France’s new Foreign Minister, Stéphane Séjourné, was also absent from the third Indo-Pacific Ministerial Meeting. Italy’s Antonio Tajani also skipped the Indo-Pacific part and only took part in the afternoon session with the ASEAN countries. Japanese Foreign Minister Yōko Kamikawa, Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and South Korea’s new Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul all skipped the meeting. Neither China nor the US were invited this year.
Theresa Huemmer carefully puts her business card on the table. “Greeting the Taiwanese way,” she adds. She never used a business card in Germany, but here it’s like a handshake. In the three years that she has been head of the Goethe-Institut Taipei, Theresa Huemmer has received hundreds of business cards. She is in regular contact with around fifty cardholders to organize cultural projects for the Goethe-Institut.
And Huemmer’s interest in culture also led to an exchange with East Asian countries. Before starting her studies, she had no clear picture of China, Korea, Japan, or let alone Taiwan. Huemmer studied cultural studies at the University of Landau. For her Master’s, she transferred to the University of Passau and studied international business. The cultural studies program also included a lot of ethnology, and Huemmer was keen to spend time abroad.
“I remember how my university offered me places like Poland or France back then. No offense to these countries, but I wanted to go a little further away,” she says. It was at this very moment that a lecturer set up a university partnership with Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“If this lecturer had partnered with Rwanda or Canada, I would have gone there,” explains Hümmer. But as it was, she was drawn to South Korea in 2012, a country that she had never much thought about before. When Huemmer told her mother the news, she immediately got a call back: “She asked me if I was crazy, I couldn’t go to a war zone,” Huemmer recalls. It was the time before the European K-Pop boom, and most Germans only associated Korea with the division into North and South. Only during Huemmer’s stay did Psy’s infamous song “Gangnam Style” attract a different kind of worldwide attention.
She used her time in Seoul to travel to other East and Southeast Asian countries. However, she never managed to make it to Taiwan. After graduating, she applied for a cultural training program at the Goethe-Institut. The training program lasted two years and initially took Huemmer to Munich. She was then sent to Brussels to the regional institute, where Huemmer gained experience at the EU Parliament. After her vocational training, she was offered a permanent position and worked for a year and a half in the cultural department in Munich. At the first opportunity that presented itself with Taiwan, Huemmer returned to East Asia.
In Taipei, she lives near the famous “Elephant Mountain”. Huemmer loves the city’s diversity, but also the fact that she can quickly get out into nature. On weekends, the institute director takes the metro to travel to the mountains or the sea. She also consumes a lot of culture: Whether film, theater or music, the culture enthusiast spends many evenings at events where her professional and private lives mix. But that doesn’t particularly bother Hümmer: “When we have cultural events, and I go to see a film or a play, for example, it doesn’t even feel like work. Instead, I can also use and enjoy it as a private individual.”
The Goethe-Institut’s next cultural project is already in the pipeline – a simulation game in which students design a climate-neutral city in the role of stakeholders. In addition to teaching the German language, Huemmer aims to raise awareness of climate change and creatively approach the topic. Shoko Bethke
Looks like a carnival mask. It isn’t, of course. For one thing, it is made of actual gold. Secondly, it is an object from the so-called Sanxjingdui culture, presumably from the 12th or 11th century BC.
The Shanghai Museum has opened its new 33,600 square meter branch in the Pudong New Area and is exhibiting this mysterious gold mask, among other things. Initially only as a pilot project. The building will not be fully open to the public until the end of November.
China is not necessarily known for attaching particular importance to environmental protection or social compatibility in its numerous infrastructure projects overseas. Young Chinese entrepreneur Huang Honxiang wants to change that. He founded “China House” in Kenya, an independent social enterprise that aims to bring Chinese companies and local stakeholders to one table. In today’s interview, he talks about the many challenges involved, starting with the mistrust he faces from all sides as a Chinese national in an environment that Chinese people rarely frequent.
Despite all the challenges, Huang has high hopes for the future. More and more young people from the People’s Republic are interested in sustainability and climate action. He says all they need is guidance and places where they can actually get involved in social issues. After all, as the leaders of tomorrow, a lot is in their hands, especially in the Global South.
The EU is keen to offer itself as an alternative to China in the Global South, and especially in the Indo-Pacific region. However, as the EU-Indo-Pacific summit showed, the differing positions of many ASEAN states on the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine increasingly jeopardize this endeavor.
In Brussels, representatives of countries in the Global South accused the European Union of double standards when condemning the atrocities committed. The fact that more and more countries question Europe’s moral credibility plays into China’s hands, writes Amelie Richter. Using a blend of diplomatic skill, seemingly neutral reservation and a dash of anti-Americanism, Beijing is perfecting its recipe for establishing itself as the leader of the Global South.
In 2014, you founded “China House” in Kenya, a socially focused company that has set itself the goal of combining Chinese foreign investment with sustainable development. How did you come up with this idea?
About ten years ago, when I was still working as a journalist, I studied and wrote a lot about Chinese overseas investments in the global south and their socio-environmental conflicts in mining projects, oil projects, and so on. In the beginning, I was focusing on Africa, and Kenya is like the gateway country for many Chinese people who go to Africa.
There are a lot of sustainable development issues connected to China’s global engagement and Chinese companies overseas, especially in the Global South, but you don’t find many Chinese civil society organizations working there, resulting in a lot of communication gaps, misunderstandings, and conflicts between the Chinese stakeholders and local, international stakeholders. That’s why I started China House. So when local communities, NGOs, and media want to learn more about China and want to connect with Chinese stakeholders, they could come to us.
What are the main problems you aim to solve with “China House”?
First and foremost, we want to create dialogue and reduce misunderstandings and conflicts. Chinese companies in the global south often have very little understanding of the international and the local side of handling business, but local and international stakeholders also understand little about how Chinese companies and Chinese communities work. We have seen this situation everywhere, not just in Kenya. In Latin America and even many parts of Asia it is the same. They want to know what the Chinese are doing and why they are doing what they’re doing. And then they, of course, want to influence them on how they do it, let’s say, on sustainable development.
You want to help Chinese companies to improve their working conditions and protect the environment. How do Chinese companies react when you offer them your services?
There have been mixed reactions. It is not easy getting the trust and funds from the Chinese company side. One of the challenges we face is that many of these companies do not allocate budgets for sustainable development projects. Additionally, the concept of what we do as a social enterprise is relatively new to many of these companies, so it is difficult to convince them that our service is helpful for them.
However, we also had some successful cases of working with Chinese companies on CSR programs in countries like Kenya, Myanmar, Tanzania, South Africa, and so on. These programs cover different areas, including vocational training and wildlife conservation.
Given the bad press in many countries, one would think that Chinese companies should be keen to improve their reputation overseas …
Many people working in Chinese companies in the Global South perceive media-related services differently than you perceive it in the West. For example, we approached a Chinese company and said, ‘Hey, we want to do some beneficial community project, do you want to be part of it? It can improve your image and might even give you new business opportunities, regarding there is a lot of negative press about Chinese companies.’ And what they mainly asked us was: ‘So, if there is negative press about us, can you erase that?’ And I have to say to them: Sorry, no, we can’t, and we don’t do such things.
Is there any suspicion that “China House” could be working directly for the Chinese government or exclusively for the benefit of Chinese companies?
Sometimes, we encounter this as well. Because it is uncommon to see Chinese civil society organizations in the Global South, some local people would think we are from the government. However, usually, after we explain what we do and the projects that we have done, we manage to gain their trust.
Did you ever try to approach the local Confucius Institutes to collaborate?
Government organizations in China are often not interested in working with us because we are a pure grassroots civil society organization. For many Chinese people, if you are not “official” (associated with the government), you are a nobody.
And that’s different with Western organizations?
Yes, compared to Chinese companies and government-related organizations, international organizations such as global NGOs are way more open to working with us. I think that also has something to do with my background, as I studied international development at Columbia University and worked with many international sustainable development organizations before. And I also played a role in an award-winning Netflix documentary about the ivory trade investigation in 2016. That brought us a lot of credibility.
In the Netflix documentary “The Ivory Game,” you posed as a Chinese businessman who wants to buy ivory.
Yes, it is relatively easy for Chinese investigators to get the trust of traffickers in the Global South, and that helps fight the illegal wildlife trade. We have built a Chinese investigator team for global wildlife conservation issues. We recently discovered a big black market for pangolins in a country in Southeast Asia, and we are currently in the process of investigating in a similar manner. We operate several sustainable development projects, including the Human-Wildlife Conflict Project in Kenya, Orangutan Conservation in Indonesia, Anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) initiatives in Kenya, and so on.
Do you believe that the efforts of Chinese companies to tackle such problems will increase when a new generation of internationally-minded Chinese are in leadership positions?
I think more and more young Chinese people are interested in this field of sustainable development. They want to learn about issues like gender equality, quality education and environmental protection. However, they need guidance to learn and get into this area. Through such programs, they would learn about this area and grow their global citizenship. In the future, when they work in Chinese companies and so on, I believe they will behave in a very different way.
But we need to find a way to sustain ourselves because this is a very long-term project. We need to be able to sustain our team and maintain our programs. Apart from us, there aren’t many opportunities for young Chinese students to go to the field and learn about global sustainable development issues.
How do you aim to achieve this?
This year, we hope to do some fundraising globally and work more with international organizations who could provide some funding. Securing sustainable funding for these international projects is a significant challenge. We have to try to do fundraising for those international projects, particularly from China. We have to try different ways because I believe there is a big need for an organization like ours, which aims to further integrate China into global sustainable development, so it is important for us to find sustainable ways to continue those projects.
Hongxiang Huang graduated from Fudan University and holds an MPA in development practice from Columbia University. In 2014, he founded “China House” in Kenya to advise Chinese companies looking to invest in the continent on sustainable development. In addition, “China House” is involved in several education and development projects in Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2018, Huang was nominated by Forbes China as a “30 Under 30” in the social enterprise category.
The different positions on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East dominated the EU-Indo-Pacific summit. Representatives of countries from the Global South accused the European Union of double standards regarding the wars in Ukraine and Gaza at the meetings. Negotiations on the wording of a joint statement with the ASEAN states were tough. The summit revealed that the EU’s plan to position itself as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific region will be more difficult than perhaps expected under the current geopolitical conditions.
The joint statement released on Friday after the talks between European ministers and their counterparts from the Southeast Asian ASEAN bloc made this clear: “We agreed to condemn all attacks against civilians and we noted the call of some of us for a durable ceasefire,” reads the joint statement regarding the Gaza war. It continues: “We called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, especially women, children, the sick and the elderly. In this context, some of us raised the importance of release from arbitrary detention.”
The statement also revealed the disagreement between the EU and ASEAN on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: “Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine (…) There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.
Several ministers from countries of the Global South made direct accusations against the European Union for its divergent policies on Ukraine and Gaza. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry formulated this very directly in front of media representatives in Brussels. He sees a “double standard when it comes to the Middle East and the plight of the Ukrainians.” “The credibility of the Western world is at stake unless you treat all of them equally,” he said.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi also urged EU ministers to exert more pressure on Israel to curb its military operations in Gaza. “No state is above the law,” Marsudi emphasized in her opening speech and appealed to European countries not to stop their support for the Palestinian refugee aid organization UNRWA and its work in Gaza. “Listen to your heart and do the right thing, to stop atrocities in Gaza, in Palestine,” she urged, emphasizing the “consistency with values and actions reflect sincerity of moral high ground … it shows who we actually are.”
Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen rejected the accusations: “It’s not a double standard at all. We are steadfast against any targeting of civilians,” said Valtonen. “We have been condemning the Hamas attack very, very directly. But also, we do recognize that while Israel has the right to protect itself and its civilians, it also needs to do that obliging to international law and humanitarian law.” Valtonen also spoke with Marsudi about the issue on the sidelines of the event.
The EU has been struggling to find a united position on the war in Gaza since October. A growing number of EU member states are calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, while others insist on Israel’s right to retaliate and eliminate the Hamas terrorist group. There are also differing views on this within the EU Commission. EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell warned: “Our position in the conflict in Gaza could certainly jeopardize our relations with many people in the world.”
And that could play into China’s hands. Beijing has discovered the Middle East as an important element of its geopolitical strategy. With a combination of diplomatic skill, seemingly neutral reservation and a dash of anti-Americanism, Beijing is trying to gain influence in the region. To score points with Arab and Muslim governments, China is taking a clear stance in support of the Palestinians and positioning itself as the leader of the Global South.
However, in the joint statement from the EU and ASEAN representatives, there was also agreement on issues that Beijing is unlikely to be pleased with. Regarding the South China Sea, both sides reaffirm “the importance of the respect for the rule of law, sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation” and emphasize compliance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. “Self-restraint” should be exercised in all activities in the South China Sea. The EU and ASEAN also welcomed the development of a code of conduct for the South China Sea.
“The European Union has a lot to offer. We are a transparent and reliable partner,” said Borrell at the opening of the summit. He emphasized the joint commitments to work more closely in the fight against climate change, to strengthen trade, develop technology and invest in infrastructure. Around 70 delegations traveled to the event. 20 of the EU foreign ministers attended, more than last year. According to media reports, 25 ministers from the Indo-Pacific region were present.
However, the – repeated – absence of key players was criticized: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sent Minister of State Tobias Lindner to Brussels. Baerbock did not attend last year. France’s new Foreign Minister, Stéphane Séjourné, was also absent from the third Indo-Pacific Ministerial Meeting. Italy’s Antonio Tajani also skipped the Indo-Pacific part and only took part in the afternoon session with the ASEAN countries. Japanese Foreign Minister Yōko Kamikawa, Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and South Korea’s new Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul all skipped the meeting. Neither China nor the US were invited this year.
Theresa Huemmer carefully puts her business card on the table. “Greeting the Taiwanese way,” she adds. She never used a business card in Germany, but here it’s like a handshake. In the three years that she has been head of the Goethe-Institut Taipei, Theresa Huemmer has received hundreds of business cards. She is in regular contact with around fifty cardholders to organize cultural projects for the Goethe-Institut.
And Huemmer’s interest in culture also led to an exchange with East Asian countries. Before starting her studies, she had no clear picture of China, Korea, Japan, or let alone Taiwan. Huemmer studied cultural studies at the University of Landau. For her Master’s, she transferred to the University of Passau and studied international business. The cultural studies program also included a lot of ethnology, and Huemmer was keen to spend time abroad.
“I remember how my university offered me places like Poland or France back then. No offense to these countries, but I wanted to go a little further away,” she says. It was at this very moment that a lecturer set up a university partnership with Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“If this lecturer had partnered with Rwanda or Canada, I would have gone there,” explains Hümmer. But as it was, she was drawn to South Korea in 2012, a country that she had never much thought about before. When Huemmer told her mother the news, she immediately got a call back: “She asked me if I was crazy, I couldn’t go to a war zone,” Huemmer recalls. It was the time before the European K-Pop boom, and most Germans only associated Korea with the division into North and South. Only during Huemmer’s stay did Psy’s infamous song “Gangnam Style” attract a different kind of worldwide attention.
She used her time in Seoul to travel to other East and Southeast Asian countries. However, she never managed to make it to Taiwan. After graduating, she applied for a cultural training program at the Goethe-Institut. The training program lasted two years and initially took Huemmer to Munich. She was then sent to Brussels to the regional institute, where Huemmer gained experience at the EU Parliament. After her vocational training, she was offered a permanent position and worked for a year and a half in the cultural department in Munich. At the first opportunity that presented itself with Taiwan, Huemmer returned to East Asia.
In Taipei, she lives near the famous “Elephant Mountain”. Huemmer loves the city’s diversity, but also the fact that she can quickly get out into nature. On weekends, the institute director takes the metro to travel to the mountains or the sea. She also consumes a lot of culture: Whether film, theater or music, the culture enthusiast spends many evenings at events where her professional and private lives mix. But that doesn’t particularly bother Hümmer: “When we have cultural events, and I go to see a film or a play, for example, it doesn’t even feel like work. Instead, I can also use and enjoy it as a private individual.”
The Goethe-Institut’s next cultural project is already in the pipeline – a simulation game in which students design a climate-neutral city in the role of stakeholders. In addition to teaching the German language, Huemmer aims to raise awareness of climate change and creatively approach the topic. Shoko Bethke
Looks like a carnival mask. It isn’t, of course. For one thing, it is made of actual gold. Secondly, it is an object from the so-called Sanxjingdui culture, presumably from the 12th or 11th century BC.
The Shanghai Museum has opened its new 33,600 square meter branch in the Pudong New Area and is exhibiting this mysterious gold mask, among other things. Initially only as a pilot project. The building will not be fully open to the public until the end of November.
