As a reporter and news editor, I center my interviews, reportage, and columns on developments in relations between Europe and China. I am interested in the impacts on people’s everyday lives, their dreams and expectations. It is my hope that despite the breakneck pace of social change in China, these personal stories don’t fall by the wayside. My contacts in China can sense my genuine curiosity about them as people and the issues that matter to them. My reporting aspires to raise awareness of issues and to spark debates.
Since 2016 until today
Online Portal China Report – Editor-in-Chief and Publisher
www.manz-chinareport.com
Since 2013 until today
Member of the executive committee and head of the office of CTOUR, travel journalists' association Berlin/Brandenburg, author of the online magazine ctour-report
www.ctour.de
2006 – 2024
Journalist and from 2013 managing editor of the magazine ‘RUIZHONG’ of the Swiss-China Association, Zurich
www.schweiz-china.ch
2014 – 2022
Reporter and news editor for Konfuzius Insitut (Confucius Institute) magazine, Leipzig and Beijing
issuu.com/konfuziusinstitut
www.konfuziusinstitut-leipzig.de/konfuzius-institut-das-magazin
From 2008 to 2010
Directed the large-scale project Foodscape: Food History and Culture in China and Switzerland on behalf of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss cultural foundation, for the 2010 Expo in Shanghai. In 2010, the Foodscape book was honored with the Best in the World Gourmand Award for Chinese Cuisine Book at the Paris Cookbook Fair.
1991 – 2008
(Co-)established and directed literary institutions in Berlin and Basel: literaturWERKstatt berlin (deputy director, programming coordinator);
Literaturhaus Basel, Switzerland’s very first literary center (managing director and art director)
In addition, I have served on judging panels and curatorial boards. For example, I sat on the advisory council for public funding of theatrical and interdisciplinary projects of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture. On behalf of Stiftung Kulturfonds, the former cultural foundation for eastern Germany, I was also involved in the awarding of project stipends and residencies for literature and theater.
I am a member of the German Trade Association of Journalists, the International Club of the German Foreign Office (ICAA), Stadtkultur Intenrational (SKI), and the Swiss-Chinese Association.