The winners of the 2020 German Chancellor fellowship were announced on May 1. FANXiaochun and LIANG Yiyi, both from Tongji University, won the award.
FAN is a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy of Tongji University and a visiting doctoral student at Humboldt University of Berlin. She was previously undertaking documentary work in Shanghai and New York. She plans to seek ways for the future dialogue of civilizations between China and Germany based on Deutsche Menschen written by Walter Benjamin.
LIANG Yiyi graduated from the Department of Architecture of Tongji University and is currently carrying out research of architectural history and theory at Harvard University. She will go to Germany to cooperate with local research institutions and museums to carry out research on the theme of "building a bridge for cultural dialogues between China and Germany through art museums".
Because of the pandemic, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation used online interviews, and changed procedures from previous years. After robust selections at different levels, a total of nine young Chinese talents won the 2020 German Chancellor Fellowship. They have high overall qualities and many of the candidates are PhD students or have post-doctoral degrees with good leadership abilities, fine social skills and sound international perspectives.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's German Chancellor Fellowship provides the opportunity for young leaders from the U.S., Russia, China, Brazil and India to pursue a self-designed project during one year in Germany. The fellowship seeks prospective thought leaders from a broad range of professional fields such as politics, public administration, law, business and the arts. Fellows are mentored by a host that they have to select themselves before applying. In addition to a generous stipend and mobility allowance, fellows are provided a language scholarship for a two-month intensive language course in Germany. Also, fellows participate in a two-week study tour of Germany, the Foundation’s annual meeting with a reception held by the Federal President, and a meeting in Berlin which includes a reception at the Federal Chancellery. Since 2006, most of the Chinese winners have become conspicuous figures in all walks of life.
