My Academic Story with China | Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer: Possibility, creativity, and openness are the main characteristics of Chinese culture

BEIJING, May 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from Global Times:

【Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, German Professor Emeritus for East Asian Literature and Culture at the University of Goettingen】

In the present day, I experience that it remains very difficult to make China understandable to the public in Europe. There are so many prejudges and so many misconceptions.

I hope that people (can) feel that the Chinese culture and Chinese tradition (are) so rich. The possibility, creativity, and openness of China are, I think, still characteristics of Chinese culture. This is a great advantage for the whole world. 

For us, in Europe, it would be better to see this and to pursue China Studies as I do it (for) more than 50 years, always learning new things, and always correcting my insights and my views, and also to understand the others' views on China and also on mankind in general.