The EU delegation to China last week launched a short-film series, EU-China Love Links, to coincide with the opening of the fifth EU Film Festival in China. The 10 short films about cross-cultural relationships between Europeans and Chinese from all walks of life were filmed in various locations.
"Each couple provides the viewer with an intimate, yet accessible, story of how their love has overcome the challenges raised by an intercultural relationship," the delegation says in a website posting, "proving that love is truly without borders."
The couples who starred in the project attended the premier showing at the festival's opening in Beijing on Nov 1. All the stories will be available on Sina Weibo and Youku.
The Polish embassy brought a bonanza of music, art and fine food to Beijing last week as Ambassador Tadeusz Chomicki and his wife, Susan Kim-Chomicka, launched the 2012 Polish Culture Festival. The fun began last Friday with a symphonic concert featuring Chinese pianist Chen Sa - an award-winner for her past interpretations of Chopin - and the China National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Poland's celebrated maestro Krzysztof Penderecki at Beijing Concert Hall. The festival also included the opening of a photo exhibition by China's Tang Pengju, two arts exhibitions at Tsinghua University and a final symphony concert on Wednesday with Chinese pianist Wu Muye and Polish conductor Michal Dworzynski. On Tuesday, the ambassador and his wife hosted Polish Cuisine Night, an independence-day reception with a massive dinner buffet presented by Krakow chef Krzysztof Zurek and Warsaw's Konrad Korszla.
Ove Karl Berthelsen, Greenland's minister for industry and mineral resources, ended a weeklong visit to China this week hosted by the Danish embassy to China. Timed to coincide with a major mining industry expo in Beijing, the visit was about much more than rare earths and other mining interests. Berthelsen was in Shanghai on Oct 31 to meet leather and fur companies. Later, in Beijing, the embassy hosted an exhibition about Greenland's travel opportunities, including the UNESCO World Heritage site at Ilulissat Ice Fjord, as well as the territory's food and fashion. The Great Greenland fur house presented a chic collection of sealskin fur coats.
Longtime Israeli diplomat Nati Tamir never received a posting to China. But he's always had a Sino-fascination, which was enhanced by his taste of Asian culture during a stint in Japan. The former ambassador to Latvia, Finland and Australia didn't lose any time realizing his dream after he retired. He and his wife, Daphne, have spent the last six months learning Mandarin at a language academy in Guilin run by American brothers Robbie and Bradford Fried. The Tamirs were in Beijing last week visiting old friends Lars and Brigitta Backstrom at the Finland ambassador's residence and touring the antique furniture collection at the Guanfu Museum before heading home to Israel.
Czech Ambassador Libor Secka hosted representatives of the University of Tomos Bata from Zlin, in the eastern Czech Republic, who hope to attract more Chinese students to their school and explore the possibility of partnerships with Chinese universities in research and education projects.