sinokultur offers artists from the fields of art, literature and music the opportunity to realize and communicate their projects by financially supporting 1-3 projects per year. In 2025 we are supporting the following projects:
The German sinologist and translator Karin Betz is working on a translation of the volume of essays “The Silent Majority” （Chenmo de daduoshu 沉默的大多数）with a selection of writings by the Chinese author WANG Xiaobo. The volume is being translated from Chinese into German and will be published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin in 2026.
The Chinese author, essayist and literary critic WANG Xiaobo (1952-1997) is considered the “enfant terrible” of Chinese literature. In reference to the first English translation of Wang's collection of critical essays, published by Penguin 2023 under the title “Pleasure of Thinking”, Ai Weiwei described him as “a truly unique writer”, which he undoubtedly is. Literary quality aside, it is a phenomenon that, despite his subversiveness, he is still a bestseller in the Chinese-speaking world and is as beloved by readers today as he was in the 1990s when his first writings appeared.
Although the collection of essays covers a wide range of topics, the underlying theme is mostly how people fail to reap the rewards of their own thinking in a variety of ways. The 35 essays range from reflections on the culture shock of discovering American eating habits, treatises on some of his favorite authors, such as Italo Calvino, Ernest Hemingway or the philosopher Bertrand Russell, to the question: why do I write? He discusses the importance of individual resistance to tyranny, the logic of censorship, quirky characters in Chinese village life and classical Chinese philosophy, and recounts his travels between East and West.
Karin Betz (born March 7, 1968 in Hanau) studied sinology, German studies, philosophy and politics in Frankfurt am Main, Chengdu and Tokyo. She has been translating Chinese literature from the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong into German full-time since 2009, including Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, Liu Cixin, Liao Yiwu, Jin Yong and Can Xue. She is also a lecturer in literary translation, editor, presenter and DJ. She has received several awards for her work, most recently the 2024 Helmut M. Braem Translator's Prize for her outstanding translation of the novel “My City” by Hong Kong author Xi Xi and the Special Book Award of China.
Foto © Alexander Neroslawski
The Euro-Asian RRRRRR collective will present their performance "Wen Keng We Meet? - On Connection" in January 2026 at Theaterhaus Gessnerallee, Zurich.
RRRRRR Collective is an Euro-Asian transcultural art collective of performers, visual artists, and a dramaturg: Keng Chen (*1995, Hangzhou/Shanghai), Wen-Chi Liu (*1993, Taipei), Dino Radoncic (*1994, St. Gallen), Eneas Prawdzic (*1989, Zurich), Nathalie Stirnimann (*1990, Zurich), and Stefan Stojanovic (*1993, Zurich).
The collective was founded in 2018 through the “Transcultural Collaboration” program (ZHdK Zurich / Baptist University Hong Kong). Since then, they have developed performances, installations, and residencies in Zurich, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Their practice explores connection, long-distance collaboration, and collective authorship through intuitive and process-driven methods. Past works include “Forbidden Fruits from Richland Garden” (Hong Kong, 2018), “Wen Keng We Meet? – On the (Im)Possibility of Long-Distance Artistic Collaboration” (Zurich, 2019), and “Keng, You Swim!? – Round Two” (Shanghai, 2024).
Their current project, “Wen Keng We Meet? – On Connection”, developed in collaboration with “Open Studio” by Dimitri de Perrot (usage of the scenographic and audio concept), continues this inquiry into transcultural artistic exchange.
Despite globalization, we are witnessing a global resurgence of borders, separation, and geopolitical tension.
The performance “Wen Keng We Meet? – On Connection” places at its centre the question of how, as members of different societies, we can continue to stay connected across national borders — and even deepen those connections.
Therefore, the transnational collective RRRRRR brings a documentary-fictional theatre piece to the stage, transforming a real event — their 2024 attempt to meet at the narrowest point between China and Taiwan — into a poetic reflection on human connection.
Ni Dao Dao's artistic practice engages deeply with cross-cultural dialogue, identity, migration, hybridity, biodiversity, and ecological concerns. They work with materials in a highly physical and embodied way, seeking to create connections between cultural heritage and contemporary urgencies.
A central element of their practice is the use of natural Chinese lacquer (Urushi) — a traditional, eco-friendly material with strong cultural significance. Through working with Urushi, they explore questions of material kinship, sustainability, and care for the more-than-human world. The upcoming exhibition at AKKU Uster will present new installation works that bring together these concerns while also situating them in a Swiss context of intercultural exchange.
The exhibition Between Snow and Rabbits at AKKU Uster offers an opportunity to bring these perspectives into conversation with local audiences, fostering awareness of cultural hybridity, identity, and ecological responsibility.
The exhibition is curated by Fu Congle, a Zurich-based Chinese curator and PhD research fellow, whose perspective contributes an important layer of cross-cultural reflection and dialogue.
Ni Daodao 倪島島 (born in Chongqing, China) is a non-binary artist based in Uster, Switzerland.
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