Beyond the Wall

The image of China in Western eyes has a long and controversial history; this also applies for the image of the West in China.

The strongest orientation towards the West occurred during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). It was a period of great variety in China; numerous influences came from India, the Arabic world and Europe, and in return Chinese products and inventions reached the West. An open world view resulted in many innovations and vivacious cultural creativity. The last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), had to protect itself against the imperialistic West. The Chinese imperial court had to recognise painfully that their country was just one state among many and not the centre of the world. Since then the relationship with the West has been clouded as a result of the semi-colonial past. The Opium War is still much more alive in the Chinese memory than in the forgetful West.

After years of being closed off to the rest of the world, China has once again opened up to the world and demands its equal place on the world stage. This demand causes a certain amount of anxiety in the West. China as a world power has been seen as a new threat since 2005; not any more as the "Yellow Peril" of the colonial period, and not as the communist threat of the Cold War, but as the capitalist competitor "Made in China".

Liberal Chinese intellectuals who had seen the opening of the markets as the solution to internal Chinese problems began to doubt when the Asian financial crisis broke out in the 1990s and when NATO bombs fell on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Their belief in capitalism and American values was seriously shattered. At the same time, opening up to new ideas may cause a return to one's own values and to national pride.

Nowadays, China is considered the country that will challenge America's global position. It signals hope to developing countries which see China as a successful role model with a socialist background. The question where China is going is part of the question; where is the world going? China and the West have used each other frequently as projection screens, such as during the Chinoiserie of the 18^th century and the Mao cult in Europe during the Cultural Revolution. The unfamiliar and the unknown serve as an ideal and project qualities that deviate from reality. Does this lead to a superficially covered racism? At the same time China is looking for solutions and suggestions in the West, and Chinese students crowd into American lecture halls.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair 2010, the great deficit of translations from Chinese into German since Tiananmen became obvious. The German speaking countries turned their backs on China after 1989, in contrast to Italian and French speaking ones. There is a gap and a lack of literary translations into German which in spite of all efforts of the Frankfurt Book Fair could not be filled. China on the other hand is fully aware of any post-modern discourse going on in the West. China is the leading book nation worldwide.

Considering the historical and political preconditions, what can the direct cultural contact between Switzerland and China look like? Is it possible to translate and exchange anything and everything? How can cultures meet within and beside the political sphere?

Demanded is an open exchange through personal contacts and cooperation with concrete projects shared by Swiss and Chinese intellectuals. Since, on the artistic level, language and its impact on philosophy and ideologies play a rather minor role, art offers a free sphere, which can be filled with new meaning.

And, after all, what does it mean to be Chinese? Do the Chinese define themselves as a Confucian civilisation? Or do they feel closer to the former Soviet Union due to their communist past? Cultural affiliation cannot be classified too simply. There is no essence that is definitely Chinese, though one needs invariabilities that enable one to find one's place in the global society. One has to be clear about one's own position to take part in the community; Confucius was of the opinion that human beings are the same in essence, but different in their habits.