7TH EDITION
27 FEBRUARY - 29 MARCH 2026
GHENT
Festival Day
Made in China Festival Day
Minard
Sunday 30 March 2025
Immerse yourself in China: a day-long celebration
Short Films
A selection of Chinese short films will be screened between 13:00 and 14:00 in the big hall and continuously in the attic all day long.
Literature: Modern Chinese Literature & Shi Tiesheng
What is modern Chinese literature? How does it relate to Chinese tradition and to Western literature? Talk with translator Mark Leenhouts and Jan Dertaelen on Chinese Literature and the novel 'Notes on Principles (Wuxu Biji 务虚笔记) by Shi Tiesheng 史铁生.
Talks & Live Podcast: The Image of China in Chinese Architecture
Talks on culture and architecture by Mieke Matthyssen and Martijn de Geus, followed by a roundtable and Q&A with host-journalists Veerle De Vos and Tom Van de Weghe with guests cultural antropologist Ching Lin Pang, Belgian architect Frederiek Ampe, Mieke Matthyssen (UGent) and Martijn de Geus (Tsinghua Univ).
VR & Docu
Immerse yourself in an unforgettable 360° experience that feels like more than just a visit to China—it feels completely real. Visit the absurd city where people actually live among The Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal. Don’t miss it!
Poetry Cabinet
Video with recitals by the poets Ling Yu, Yinni and Zheng Xiaqiong from China and Taiwan, with commentary by translator Silvia Marijnissen.
Literature Corner
Literature corner by Boekhandel Walry with an extensive selection of books about China in Dutch and English.
Chinese Cuisine: Chopstix
Enjoy authentic homemade Chinese noodles from Chopstix Noodle Bar for lunch or afternoon snack!
With Shi Tiesheng's 史铁生 novel Notes on Principles (Wuxu Biji务虚笔记) Made in China Festival presents one of China’s most influential philosophical novels from contemporary China. It is an introduction to contemporary Chinese thinking and the country's turbulent recent history. For Shi Tiesheng, as a wheelchair writer, physical disability has always been a starting point for reflections on human deficits in general. Notes on Principles, his 'autobiography of the mind', is considered one of the most influential philosophical novels from contemporary China.
Mark Leenhouts (°1969) is a Dutch translator and critic of Chinese literature. He is author of 'Aards maar bevlogen – Chinese literatuur van nu' ('Down-to-Earth Yet Inspired: Chinese Literature Today'). His translations include novels by Han Shaogong, Su Tong and Qian Zhongshu, as well as a co-translation of the Chinese classic 'De droom van de rode kamer' ('Dream of the Red Chamber'). His latest translation is 'Notities van een theoreticus' ('Notes on Principles') by Shi Tiesheng. He writes for de Volkskrant and has a blog on Chinese literature at: aardsmaarbevlogen.nl.
Jan Dertaelen is a Belgian journalist and art critic who writes mainly about literature and theatre for the newspaper De Tijd. He's teaching a course on Dutch literature at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.
Veerle De Vos is a journalist at VRT NWS. China has fascinated her since the 1990s, when she lived there for 2 years and worked as an English teacher at a university in Wuhan. About that period she wrote the book 'In elke rivier schijnt een maan' together with a Chinese friend. In 2023 she published ‘Alles onder de hemel. Ferdinand Verbiest en de ontdekking van China’, about the first meeting between China and the West.
Tom Van de Weghe is a VRT journalist specializing in China and Asia. He learned Chinese and in 2007 founded the first correspondent bureau from Beijing. For five years he reported for VRT on the most important events and developments in the region. Van de Weghe became America correspondent and bureau chief in Washington DC until 2016. In recent years, as a research fellow at Stanford University, he has investigated the impact of technology on geopolitical relations between China, Europe and the US.
