On Chinese New Year day (14 February, if you didn’t know) we were 3 times on CCTV9.
It was a new format, like a spontaneous discussion. I was soso convinced about it, but the program turned out quite OK, and lasted nearly 20 minutes (double the time we were told before). The idea:
“On the eve of Chinese New Year, you are invited to a tea party at Ms. Jehanne De Biolley’s (a Jewelry Designer located in Beijing) house. And each of the guests brought a small gift (please choose one gift that has the characteristic of your home country).
Once everyone is inside the house, we will start with exchange of your gifts. This will be followed by talks on “made in China”. You could think about what does “made in China” mean to you, how has its image has changed in the past few years.”
I brought Belgian chocolate (Cote d’Or) and cookies…
Part of the pics are from the actual shooting (28 January), the others are TV screen shots.
Host: James Chau CCTV – World Insight (nice and friendly)
Location of the shooting: a Ming Dynasty Siheyuan in a hutong close to Qomolangma Hotel, Gulou Xi Dajie (Drum Tower area), atelier and home of Jehanne.
It was sad to see that part of the centuries old building had just burned down (probably due to bad electric wiring from Chinese neighbors), destroying a lot of Harrison’s personal belongings and work. I cannot imagine how firefighters could even come close to the building. The buildings are impressive, see the old beams. Impressive too is the interior done by Jehanne and Harrison.
The guests:
1. David Tool, a professor teaching at China International Studies University (USA);
2. Gilbert Van Kerckhove, “a businessman” (Belgium)
3. Sun Bin, Gilbert’s wife (Belgium/China);
4. Cem Aygun, a lecturer at China Foreign Studies University (Turkey);
5. Scott-H Olson, Emerson (Beijing) Instrument Co., Ltd. (USA)
6. Jehanne de Biolley, jewelry designer located in Beijing (Belgium);
7. Harrison Liu, husband of Jehanne (China)
8. Severine Perrennet – French assistant of Jehanne (France)
