Terminal colorectal cancer. After this diagnosis, some people follow the impulse to close their inner book. But not Mei Huang. Dr. Mei Huang, a writer and scientist living in Berlin, becomes a freelance curator of international art exhibitions. She organises major cultural events, collects works of art by important artists and organises salon evenings near the Haus am Lützowplatz in a spacious flat that she has dedicated entirely to art. Her career is also extraordinary in that she only began these activities at the age of 36, after receiving the life-changing diagnosis.
Mei Huang, Performance © the artist
Mei Huangs calls herself a world citizen. She was born in Hengyang, Hunan Province, graduated from Peking University, where she studied aesthetics under Master Li Zehou, and obtained a doctorate in art education from Goethe University Frankfurt am Main in 1997. Mei Huang has now lived in Germany for over 20 years. The hard, protracted struggle for her life continues to shape her inner attitude and actions to this day. Following the thought “In the cosmos, a human life plays an insignificant, brief role. What is precious is the sharing of experiences.” Huang consistently advocates understanding between cultures through the means of art. Her ongoing commitment to dialogue between cultures, between artists of different backgrounds, and to dismantling divisive elements informs all of her projects.
Mei Huang, Performance © the artist
The blow of the cancer diagnosis was followed by other drastic experiences. The young woman endured the fact that the father of her then one-and-a-half-year-old son began an affair with her sister and finally left Mei. Despite the illness, she practically took on the responsibility for her child alone. Mei Huang remarried, divorced again and had a relationship with a man 21 years younger for eight years.
Mei Huang, Performance © the artist
The author
Becoming a full-time writer was not and is not her goal. And yet, all that she has experienced blazes a trail, and Mei Huang follows the longing to share her experiences almost intuitively. She begins to write in order to let others share in her strength and in the positive will to create. She writes about human life, about her process towards becoming an economically and spiritually independent modern woman.
„It is inevitable to feel sadness and loss, to hurt others and to be hurt in our lives, alongside joy and success. Our bodies can bear scars, as can our hearts. How do we rethink our lives and continue to love with those scars? How do we create art and draw annual rings of our lives with these scars?“
Mei Huang
In 2013, her autobiography “Marital Right to Speak” was published in China. In 2018, the publication of the extended edition of her biography “Love Until Death” followed in China, and the English translation was published in Australia in 2020. Her third autobiographical novel, “10 Years – I’m Happier Than B … and M …”, is in the works, and a French publisher has expressed interest in publishing it. With her autobiography “Love Until Death”, which is available in English and Chinese, Mei Huang is currently a guest at the BuchBerlin 2021 fair in the Arena Berlin (21.11. + 22.11.). As an independent woman, her extraordinary life has made her a witness to our globalised world, in which different cultures and mentalities interact with each other and often come into conflict due to different economic and political models.
Mei Huang, Performance © the artist
The bridge builder
Through her intensive commitment to exchange, understanding and comprehension, Mei Huang tries to counteract these conflicts. Since 2002, she has organised the cultural exchange project “German-Chinese Youth Days” in Berlin, which took place for the 19th time this year. Since 2003, she has led the project “Ode to Joy – 100 Concerts”. After taking place over 82 times and for over ten years in major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Luoyang, Wuhan, Wuxi, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the event came to Hainan Island in 2015 and continued there in 2016. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, it was held in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi and Wujin – in the 109th edition of the event. In 2009, she chaired the cultural programme “Together in Motion – Contemporary Art from Germany and China”. Currently, she is the first chairperson of the non-profit association FIAKE e.V. and the managing director of the 3 Monks Economic Culture and Education Bridge.
Her commitment to the arts
In 2018 and 2019, Mei Huang contributed to the realisation of a variety of exhibition projects as the organiser and curator of The Silk Road Exhibition project tour and in 2020 as the curator of the group exhibition Scars and Annual Rings at the renowned Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin. In 2021, she is the curator of HER POWER – Global Female Contemporary Art Online Presentation in Hong Kong.
During the pandemic period, the premises of MMAE, a former flat in a stately old building on Berlin’s Lützowplatz, were completed. These rooms are entirely dedicated to art. Synergies of creative work and presentation are made possible here on 200 square metres. The idea is for guests and artists to connect with each other, to link and share their particular aspects of life with art. Art, participation and creativity should encourage people to gain strength, meaning and joy in life.
Mei Huang, Performance © the artist
As Mei Huang has processed her life experiences in many ways, she has become increasingly active artistically. Installation, video, photography, performance and fashion are among her forms of expression with which she wants to portray her experiences, joy and suffering and share them with other people.
Learn more on www.mmae720.com and www.mei-huang.com/de
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