Having a bachelor in business administration from the University of Applied Sciences HEIG-VD with a major in Marketing and Innovation, Sabine Boulos joined the team for a four months internship. This is the first event she attended!

The role of cultural diplomacy was the main subject of the Swiss Day in East China Normal University. It is Mr. Claude Hauser who started and led the whole evening. Four different speakers took the word and share their knowledge.

The first one was H.E Jean-Jacques de Dardel, our Swiss Ambassador. He gave a good overview of the Swiss cultural activities in China since 1950: going back to the very source of our relation, listening to the story, being remind of the faced challenges and understand our actual situation. It has been interesting as well to listen to a Chinese point of view by Mr. Feng Shaolei. He, for instance, brought forward some reasons why Switzerland is neutral. Firstly, it is the Fruit of a courageous people who defended its independence. Then when covenants have been made, Switzerland maintained its neutrality. To put in a nutshell his whole speech, “China cannot copy the Swiss model, but can be inspired.”

To understand better the main subject, and read some of the speakers work, here is a link (available in French, English, German, Italian and Chinese): http://www.shijiejingxiang.ch

In conclusion of the first part of the evening, and to quote Mr. de Dardel, “The Sinno-Swiss relationship is a growing friendship and an increasing proximity.”

To experiment a bit of the cultural part, the presentation was followed by the release of the movie “Watermarks” by Luc Schaedler (2013). Telling three different stories, by going back to what influence those people lives. Showing the contrast between their daily, and listening to their hope, when hope exists. A moving, authentic, and recommended movie: http://www.watermarksthefilm.ch