When is a city entitled to describe itself as an "international cultural metropolis"? Can a cultural metropolis be planned? What can municipal governments and local cultural policy- makers do to ensure their city acquires the standing of a cultural metropolis or indeed of an international cultural metropolis? How can a city’s creative cultural potential be developed and fostered? Istanbul and Berlin are proud to call themselves an international cultural metropolis. Beijing is also keen to become a "cultural metropolis with international influence". Which strategies do they follow in order to set themselves apart as cultural metropolises? What do they base this on? What can they learn from each other?

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Zhao Dongming (Board Chair- man of Beijing Gehua Cultural and Creative Industries Development Foundation, Vice Director of China Culture Admin- istration Society, Culture and Ceremonies Department Director of Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics)

Esra Nilgün Mirze (Founder and Chairwoman of Istanbul Association for Art and Design, Inter- national Relations Director – Istanbul 2010 – European Capital of Culture)

Michael Schindhelm (Cultural Advisor and Writer)

Guest Introduction

Zhao Dongming is Board chairman of the Beijing Gehua Cultural and Creative Industries Development Foundation and Vice Director of the China Culture Administration Society. His former posts include Director for Cultural Affairs at the All-China Youth Federation Beijing, Director for Culture&Sports at the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press and Publication, Deputy Secretary General of the Beijing Municipality Culture Commission, Director of the Beijing Capital Office for Culture, Vice Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio, Film and Television. He was member of the organizing team for the National Day Festivities at the 35th anniversary of the founding of the People ́s Republic of China and Vice Festivities Director and Director of the evening gala at the 50th anniversary. After being Culture and Ceremonies Department Director of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics he was Deputy Secretary General of the Organizing Committee for the International University Sports Federation 21st Universiade, where he also acted as Event Director. He was in charge of the Opening Ceremony, the Culture Festival, the National Torch Relay as well as overall organization and implementation. In 2011 he also was the Executive Director of the Beijing International Film Festival.

Esra Nilgün Mirze is founder and the chairwoman of 41-29 Istanbul Association for Art and Design, has received the 2010 European Culture Award presented by Kultur Forum Europa and is barer of Silver Cross presented by the State of Hungary. After graduating from TED Ankara College (1973), she received her BA and MA from Istanbul University Faculty of Letters, English Literature Department, and worked at the same University till 1989 as a lecturer. In 1989 she joined Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and worked as the Press and Public Relations Director (1909-2003), Corporate Communications Director (2003-2006) and also worked for the organization and promotion of international projects. Between 2006- 2010 she acted as Advisor to Chair at the same foundation. In 2000 she was one of the five NGO representatives who initiated the "Istanbul 2010-European Capital of Culture" project and acted as the general coordinator til 2006 and as the vice President of the Steering Committee. After the establishment of the 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency she worked as the International Relations Director til the end of 2010. Mirze acted as the Head of Turkish Network of Anna Lindh Euro- Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures on behalf of IKSV, and worked with the task group of ECCM presided over by Spiros Mercuri. She is a board member of Les Rencontres and also founder and Board Member of Heybeliada Association for Musical Sciences founded in collaboration with Bosphorus, a Greek NGO. Mirze also worked as Advisor for Cultural Affairs for the Municipality of Beyoglu, and worked as a lecturer on "Cultural Policies" in Istanbul Culture University.

Michael Schindhelm is a cultural ad- visor and writer. He was the Cultural Director of the Dubai Arts and Culture Authority and the first Executive Director of the newly founded opera group "Stiftung Oper in Berlin" that comprised Berlin’s big three opera houses (Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper, Komische Oper) from 2007-2009. Before that, he was Director of the Theater Basel (Switzerland) from 1996 to 2006, Founding Director and Director General of the theater and opera house "Theater & Philharmonie Thueringen" in Gera and Altenburg from 1994 to 1996 and Theatre Director in Gera from 1992-1994. He also works as a novelist ("Roberts Reise", "Zauber des Westens", "Die Herausforderung"), translator (in Russian and German) and documentary filmmaker, ("Birds Nest", "Gobi Desert"). Schindhelm also is professor at the Strelka-Institute in Moscow, where he leads the research project "Public Space and Urban Culture". Since 2010 he is also involved in the creation of a think tank for global culture at Zurich University for the Arts. Furthermore, he also started collaboration on global philanthropy with the German charity organization Welthungerhilfe in 2010. Schindhelm grew up in the former GDR and started his unusual career as Assistant Professor at the "Zentralinstitut für physikalische Chemie" at the East Berlin Academy of Science from 1984 to 1986 after studying quantum chemistry at Voronezh State University in the former USSR.

About the Mercator Salon

The Mercator Salon is a series of events run by Stiftung Mercator in Beijing. The salons provide a platform for Chinese and Europeans to exchange ideas and opinions on topical issues relevant to culture and society. In 2013, additional salons will take place at different venues in Beijing.

For more information about the Mercator Salon, please visit: http://www.mercator-salon.com

About the Foundation

Stiftung Mercator is one of the largest private foundations in Germany. It pursues clearly defined objectives in its thematic clusters of integration, climate change and arts education and it achieves these objectives with a combination of socio-political advocacy and practical work. Stiftung Mercator implements its own projects and supports external projects in its centres for science and humanities, education and international affairs. It takes an entrepreneurial, professional and international approach to its work.

China is the most important new political and economic ac- tor in the emerging multipolar world and a country with extraordinary potential. Quite simply, international development is no longer conceivable without China. This demands a better and more nuanced understanding of Chinese reality, especially in Germany. This is what we hope to achieve in long-term partnerships and cooperative ventures. Currently, Stiftung Mercator is funding several different projects in China: school and youth exchanges, multiplier en- counters and fellowship programmes for young managers in the areas of civil society, politics, academia and business. see http://www.stiftung-mercator.de/en for more information.

Project Manager: Pan Di

Chair: Michael Kahn-Ackermann (Stiftung Mercator China Special Representative)