Articles by Helen Chang

Culture & Literature 14. December 2025

Advent, Advent, Ein Lichtlein Brennt! 

Advent, Advent, Ein Lichtlein brennt!  Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier,  Dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür. This is the most popular song sung by every child in Austria before Christmas. As a festive season, Advent t begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, often referred to as Advent Sunday. Advent season is observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus’s birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming  In Western Christianity, Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year. The name comes…

Chinese Community in Vienna, Culture & Literature, Interviews, Opinions 9. November 2025

International Symposium on Johann Strauss and Contemporary Music Culture Successfully Hosted by the School of Humanities in Shanghai Jiaotong University

2025 marked the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II. The whole year, Vienna has been offering an impressive variety of Johann Strauss events under the title “Vienna goes Strauss”, including concerts, operettas, theater, films, dances, art exhibitions, cultural picknicks, and other forms of performances.  To commemorate this anniversary of Johann Strauss II’s, Shanghai Jiaotong University (Below as Jiaoda) organized a two-day international symposium this October on “Johann Strauss and Contemporary Music Culture”, a first-time and well-implemented cooperation between Jiaoda’s Institute of Humanities and Arts, and the Golden July Music Festival Vienna. Hosted by Jiaoda’s School of Humanities, the symposium saw a collection…

Allgemein, Culture & Literature, Interviews, Technology 25. October 2025

The 2025 Jiangxi Fashion Institute’s International Fashion Art Festival  & the “Runhua Award” – Belt and Road University Student Fashion Design and Skills Competition Grandly Opened

The morning of October 20th 2025 saw the grand opening of Jiangxi Fashion Institute’s International Fashion Art Festival and the 29th “Runhua Award” – Belt and Road University Student Fashion Design and Skills Competition. Over 3,000 Chinese and international guests attended the event. Among the attended celebrities were Shi Ke, Vice Governor of Jiangxi Province and Director of the China Vocational Education Society; Xiong Shengwen, former Vice Governor of Jiangxi Province; Chen Dapeng, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council and President of the China National Garment Association; Wang Haitao, Deputy Secretary-General of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Government;…

Interviews, Opinions 7. October 2025

UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ Message to Mark Two Years Since the Attacks of 7 October 2023

Two years ago today, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched an abhorrent large-scale terror attack on Israel. The attackers brutally killed more than 1,250 Israelis and foreign nationals. More than 250 others were abducted and taken into the Gaza Strip as hostages, including women, children and the elderly. On this day, let us remember all those who were killed and suffered horrific violence.    The horror of that dark day will be forever seared in the memories of us all. Two years later, hostages remain captive in Gaza in deplorable conditions. I have met with hostage families and survivors, who…

Culture & Literature, Interviews, Opinions 14. September 2025

Exhibition of Miao Embroidery Collection by Du Fei Opening Soon in Vienna

Miao embroidery, visually colorful and captivating, is an ancient art by the Miao people in China. Geometrically symmetrical, aesthetically imaginative and technically complicated, it is a unique, encyclopedia-like means to document the long history of Miao’s who does not have a written language of their own’s throughout history. The exhibition opening at Kunstraum Feller on 24. September in Vienna will exhibit a valuable collection of Miao embroidery by Ms. Mag. Du Fei in the late 1970s and 1980s. During this time, she traveled to many places in Guizhou, particularly the remote gathering places of the Miao ethnic group. Among the…

Chinese Community in Vienna, Culture & Literature, Interviews, Opinions 10. August 2025

Kubin’s 2025 Vienna Reading Session Held again in Café Museum by BACOPA

On 8. August, the Austrian Publishing House BACOPA held again a reading session for the well-known German sinologist Prof. Wolfgang Kubin (Chinese: 顾彬) in Café Museum, Vienna. Wolfgang Kubin has been famed primarily as a translator of Chinese literature and philosophy. At almost 80 years old, he recently launched a new series with BACOPA: Classical Chinese Poets. Following Li Bai (701-762), his Cao Zhi (192-232) has now been published under the title “The Feast of Life.” (German original: Das Fest des Lebens) During the reading session, Prof. Kubin thanked BACOPA for having been – without thinking of profit – supporting his…

Interviews, Opinions, Technology 10. July 2025

“Global Disarmament, a necessary condition for human survival – Special focus on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons”, an Information and Discussion Meeting Successfully Convened at Vienna International Center

On June 26th, 2025, “NGO COMMITTEE ON PEACE – VIENNA” organized an information and discussion meeting at Vienna International Center (VIC) on “Global Disarmament, a necessary condition for human survival – Special focus on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons”. Two speakers were invited to the meeting, including Dr. Klaus Renoldner, IPPNW – International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Medical doctor and sustainability researcher, and Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Director of the Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Department of the Austrian Foreign Ministry. Author of the book “The Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons: How it was Achieved and…

Culture & Literature, Interviews, Opinions 7. July 2025

The Significance of Education for Today’s Global Security, an Online Talk with Madame Helga Zepp-LaRouche

On July 3, 2025, SINOPRESS held an online dialogue with Ms Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder and chairwoman of Schiller Institute in Germany, concentrating on the topic of “The Significance of Education for Today’s Global Security”. As a decade-long activist for historical investigation, world economic modules and dialogue of cultures, Ms Helga Zepp-LaRouche has, not without controversy, been devoting herself to the intercultural talks with people from different regions holding different mentalities. Open-minded, she is by all means a person of courage.  The talk with her will focus on education as the most sustainable policy to secure the global peace, in contrast…

Chinese Community in Vienna, Culture & Literature, Technology 24. June 2025

YUFENG DESIGN, A New Return of Chinese Porcelain Art to Europe

Porcelain has been beloved in Europe for long. At the time when Johann Friedrich Böttger, the alchemist hired by Augustus II the Strong, finally discovered the recipe with a mixture of quartz, feldspar and kaolin from Meissen in 1709, hard-paste porcelain was exclusively made in China and was almost more precious than gold in Europe.  Fired at high temperatures of over 1300 Celsius, kaolin clay can produce very hard white porcelain, called “white gold” by the Europeans. The manufacturing process has been known to the Chinese for more than 1,500 years, presumably since the Han Dynasty around the year 206….

Chinese Community in Vienna, Culture & Literature, Interviews 18. June 2025

“Great Beauty of Funing” 2025 –Yu Guangming Watercolor Studio Started its Europe Tour in Vienna

“Funing, my hometown, is a place of beauty. Landscaped with mountains, sea, and the Great Wall, it is my big artistic inspiration”, said Mr. YU Guangming, an established watercolor painter from China. “The magnificent Jieling Xiongguan Pass, the vast Tianma Lake, the rich-in-history sites of Tianma,Tuer and Zijin Mountain, the blossom- filled Ninghai Avenue, and the Nandaihe Beach – every inch of Funing offers inexhaustible source for my creativity”, he continued. On 15 June 2025, the opening ceremony of “Great Beauty of Funing” 2025 featuring works from Yu Guangming Watercolor Studio was held in Vienna, highly successful und fruitful. The…