By Celine Chen

Still remember your 20th birthday? Or what are your expectations for your 20th birthday? Can you imagine hundreds of people attending an overnight party featuring a world-famous band? It seems that Goethe Institute is like a spoiled child who has grown up under the care of a warm-hearted "extended family".

At the press conference of Goethe Institute China's 20th anniversary, Michael Kahn-Ackermann, the founder and the general president of the institute, expressed his appreciation for all those who have given them support in the past 20 years, and offered them a generous form of thanks: a series of activities to be held in Beijing for the institute's 20th anniversary.

An extravagant party, called "Goethe Night," will be held in the UCCA (Ullence Center for Contemporary Arts) in 798 art district from 2 PM on November 1 until 2 AM the following morning.

During the spree, musicians from both countries will provide round-the-clock performances to the audience. German electronic music bands, including Deine Lakaien, Manuel Goettsching, Olaf Benders and Heiko M/S/O, will all be there. Renowned Chinese rock musicians Cui Jian, Dou Wei and New Pants Band will also sing for their supper.

The overnight party will also feature activities such as "Fun Market", art installations, films, dancing, interactive drama performances, DIY crafts, sports games… The Presentation Ceremony for the "Goethe Ambassador" awards will also be held at the party. Especially for the party, Goethe Institute China has prepared some lovely gifts to be given away. The Institute will be celebrating the happy occasion together with many Chinese friends.

Deine Lakaien

After last year's "German Night", this is the second event combining art, music, literature, drama and games that Goethe Institute China has dedicated to its Beijing friends. One of the most exciting prospects is that world-famous German Darkwave group Deine Lakaien will perform for the first time in Beijing, singing "Happy Birthday" to the Goethe Institute China at the party.

Goethe Institute China, also known as the German Cultural Center (China), was founded on November 1, 1988 in the library of Beijing Foreign Studies University and moved into Cyber Tower, Haidian in 2003.

Over the past two decades, as the main German intermediary, Goethe Institute has been one of the primary cultural and educational institutions for the promotion of German foreign policy. Its basic tasks include promoting the study of German abroad, encouraging international cultural exchange, and fostering knowledge about Germany.

"To date Goethe Institute China has founded branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and so on. Goethe Institute China has done a great deal to promote exchanges between China and Germany," said German Ambassador Dr. Michael Schaefer at the press conference.

"The original role of Goethe Institute China was as a German language study center for Chinese students," said Michael Kahn-Ackermann, who studied in Beijing during the mid-1970s. "We transformed this role to a window through which Chinese people could get to know more about Germany. As China opened up, clearly we were no longer the only bridge to the people of China, so in a third phase, we focused on promoting interactive cultural activities between China and Germany." Since the 1980s, Kahn-Ackermann has devoted himself to the translation of modern and contemporary Chinese literature into German, introducing a group of notable writers such as Lao She and Zhang Jie.

He also expressed his desire to boost cultural exchanges between the two countries. "Compared to political and economic cooperation, cultural exchange is still lagging," he said. "There are still misunderstandings between the people of the two countries. We can see that even now cultural cooperation is in its infancy, and a great deal of work awaits us."

In addition to the party there will be many other activities to celebrate the anniversary, including design shows, publication of new books, talkshows, and a tourist visit called "Find Germany in Beijing in one day". Well-known German films will be screened in many movie bars and clubs. The most eye-catching should be a dramatic version of Love Is Colder Than Death, a movie by the famous German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The movie was adapted as a Chinese drama by the renowned avant-garde drama director, Meng Jinghui. It will be shown in the Fengchao Experimental Theater from November 7 to November 16.