Europalia China may be the biggest festival of events from China ever, standing on a par with the France China exhibition in 2007, and De Mulder has been responsible for pulling it all together. A mammoth task in anyone’s book.

The Chinese love nothing more than monstrous statistics, and Europalia does not disappoint: 1,500 artists, 450 events and 50 exhibitions, partnered with 58 Chinese museums and several Chinese provinces, in a programme spanning five countries.

“It only took three years”, says De Mulder, flipping through the massive catalogue. “Actually, given that the performance part could only be done after the Olympics were over, some of it was done in a year. What a team I have!”

A biennial event that brings the arts and culture of one country (and last year all of Europe) to Belgium, Europalia indeed has a history of teamwork. The list of international cultural events taking place across the country under their direction is more than just impressive, it gives a new meaning to the term “cultural diplomacy”.

“In the wake of the festival, there are of course economic opportunities and delegations,” says De Mulder, “but the real goal is to explain, to help people to understand, to create a sense of connection.” I’m not sure that Belgium (or indeed the international bodies based here) are really aware of what a treasure Europalia is; I cannot think of anything similar in its scope and intellectual ambition – Edinburgh plus exhibitions, perhaps, or Avignon plus all the French and European towns in a 500-kilometre radius?

This festival is a treasure house of learning, ideas and cross-cultural viewpoints, and without it the capital of Europe would be immeasurably impoverished. It is always a success, but China is going to be real high point in its history.

One almost hesitates to cite must see’s, so I let Kristine do it for me: “Oh, Lin Zhaohua’s Hamlet at the National Theatre, that’s unmissable … and Yan Jun, a lovely man, poet and musician and right at the edge of the electronic music scene in China… and the One Man Operas, they are simply sublime, with three artists interpreting their own stories through opera… and the Silk Road exhibition! That is one of our key events, a journey across Northern China.”

The festival is a clever mix of blockbuster events (such as the monumental Son of Heaven exhibition on the importance of the emperor in Chinese thinking) and the eccentrically appealing (like the Shanghai Modern exhibition of poster and iconography from the 1930s or the Lu Xun/Frans Masereel woodcut exhibition).

The music line up in particular is outstanding. Lang Lang, China’s first real international piano prodigy, plays Beethoven and Prokofiev, and the fabulous Qing Mei Wei Hu quartet of traditional instruments stages a performance.

But I also recommend the less obvious stuff; I’ll be getting tickets for Liu Sola, Chinese avant-guard artist and jazz musician. And I haven’t even mentioned contemporary dance or the acrobats!

The challenge, of course, is to find a guiding line through the richness. Frankly, some Chinese cultural expressions are tough for Westerners without an introduction. I’ve never managed to get friends to like Chinese opera, for example. Chinese contemporary dance, on the other hand, is in an international vocabulary with which everyone will be comfortable. Other Chinese offerings, such as their rich puppetry tradition, their formal design and their tea culture, are both odd and accessible simultaneously. Some events are as educational as entertaining. “We have an exhibition dedicated to calligraphy, with nearly 150 masterpieces,” says De Mulder. She admits that this is not an easy sell, but she also knows that it is an indispensable key to understanding Chinese culture, uniting its philosophy, learning, teaching and aesthetics.

The festival thus manages to finely tune the choices between the academic (contemporary Chinese poetry) and the animated (the famous National Acrobatic Troupe). Europalia has also increased its ambitions: The festival will not only play in Belgium but also France, Germany and the Netherlands. “We are bringing China to Europe,” explains De Mulder. “The aim is for as many people as possible to get a glimpse of this amazing culture.”

The festival this year seems to be as much a personal odyssey for De Mulder and her team as an institutional challenge. “I have never learned so much in the course of developing a festival,” she confirms. “Great moments of warmth and achievement, alongside moments of real misunderstanding! It has been a lesson in communicating and in how important it is for everyone to hold onto our core values. But the end result is testimony to the professionalism of both the Chinese and Belgian programmers.”

Europalia has had the best support possible, from Belgium’s former ambassador to China, Claire Kirschen, to Fan Di An, director of the National Art Museum of China, who ran the cultural side of the Olympics. In a sense, all Chinese cultural events now imitate the Olympics and their overwhelming success in putting a different side of China on the world stage. But a culture as old and contradictory as this one needs a lot of different approaches if audiences are to spot both the similarities and the differences.

There are currently two somewhat opposing philosophical trends about China. The first is represented by European thinkers such as Belgium’s Simon Leys or France’s François Julien and is all about “otherness” and “inaccessibility”, about profound psychological and philosophical differences.

The other, more in tune with the zeitgeist, is represented by Professor Jean-François Billeter of Switzerland, who prefers to demystify China by saying: “It’s all about the politics.”

Where we are different, is that Europe has had a longer tradition of individualism, translated into political organisations. Europalia China, all crammed into Belgium’s tiny borders, offers us a rare opportunity to make up our own minds. There is such a comprehensive range of options that anyone who takes the time will be sure to find some half-open doorway into China and its vast, rich, infuriating and energising culture.

Until 16 February, 2010

Across Belgium

www.europalia.be