First Hand Event: The Swiss Education System– Gymi or Lehre
Date and Time: 18:00 – 20:00, July 7, 2025 (Outdoor Apéro follows) Location: Stadt Zürich, Laufbahnzentrum Berufs- und Laufbahnberatung, Konradstrasse 58, 8005 Zurich
Speaker:
Aïda Biscevic, Manager Career Counseling Institutional Clients, Stadt Zürich, Laufbahnzentrum, Berufs- und Laufbahnberatung
Entry: Free Language: English Dress code: Business-Casual
Registration: (Seats are limited to 50 participants)
Understanding the Swiss Education System: Multiple Paths to Success
In the Zurich area, 5th-grade students will soon face an important decision: whether to prepare for the academic-track long Gymnasium entrance exam or to pursue a more practical route through regular secondary school and an apprenticeship. It’s important to note that students who take the regular path still have the opportunity to enter Gymnasium later and eventually attend university. Likewise, those who begin with an apprenticeship can still return to academics and obtain a university degree later on.
Switzerland’s education system is known for its flexibility — a true “all roads lead to Rome” model — and society does not emphasize university as the only path to success.
Before making such a key decision, both parents and children need accurate, firsthand information to fully understand the Swiss education system and the diverse future options it offers. That’s why, just before the summer break, we have invited an education and career expert from the Swiss government to provide you with a comprehensive overview.
Ms. Biscevic, Manager Career Counseling Institutional Clients, Stadt Zürich, (Laufbahnzentrum) will provide insights into Switzerland’s education system, focusing on the academic high school (Gymnasium, or Gymi) and the apprenticeship (Lehre) pathways. Presentation slides will be in English, with key terms also shown in German. Chinese translations will be directly integrated into the slides
During the Q&A session, Dr. Xiaodan Li, a senior principal investigator at the Paul Scherrer Institute, will share the educational journeys of her two sons, who took different paths within the Swiss system. In addition, two to three current students will speak about their experiences — one from a Gymnasium and others from the apprenticeship track.
The discussion will be held in English, with Chinese translation provided as needed. A small outdoor Apéro follows.
We would like to take this opportunity to share an exciting initiative led by the Chinese Community in Switzerland (CHCCH). With the support of the Chinese Consulate in Zurich, we are in the process of establishing a Chinese book library, which will be donated to public schools and prisons across the Canton of Zurich.
If you have any books, novels, or educational materials in Chinese that you would be willing to contribute to this meaningful cause, please feel free to contact us via email at hong@chcch.ch or office@chcch.ch.
Join us for a special luncheon organized by the Chinese Community in Switzerland (CHCCH), exploring the dynamic topic:
How to Work with Chinese Capital: Cross-Border Opportunities for Swiss Founders, Global Chinese, and Family Offices
This event will feature a keynote presentation by Sally Yan (Executive Board Member, Drivetide Capital) and a panel discussion with distinguished cross-border investment experts Steve Yu (Senior Client Advisor, Bordier & Cie SCmA ) and Roger Bischof (Counsel, Advestra AG), moderated by Jess Jia (Secretary General of CHCCH).
Photos and Bio：
Sally Yan – Keynote Speaker
Sally Yan is a seasoned expert in China-Europe cross-border strategy, M&A, and corporate internationalization. She currently serves on the boards of China’s “Hidden Champion” enterprises, a Swiss carbon trading company, and a Europe-China investment boutique.
With a Master’s from ETH Zurich and an MBA from HKUST, Sally has over 20 years of leadership experience at Fortune 500 and investment institutions. She was a guest speaker on CNN Money Switzerland and Hong Kong International Financial TV.
Sally teaches world-renowned business schools, including CEIBS (China Europe International Business School, Financial Times Globally Ranked No.1), St. Gallen, and FFHS (Fernfachhochschule Schweiz). She actively empowers Swiss founders, global Chinese, and family offices to succeed with Chinese capital.
Jess Jia – Moderator
Dr. Jess Jia currently serves as the Secretary General of the Chinese Community in Switzerland (CHCCH). She holds a PhD in Law and Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a CAS in Data and Machine Learning from ETH Zurich. With 17 years of cross-border legal and business experience in Shanghai, Brussels, Zagreb, Zurich, and Beijing, Dr. Jia has also served as a board member and Chair of the Market Access and Regulation Committee at the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Commerce. As a commercial lawyer with programming expertise, she founded SINOVA, dedicated to advancing cross-border business between China and Switzerland and supporting the dual development of startups in both countries. Dr. Jia is also actively involved in community building, striving to empower the Chinese community in Switzerland and promote their high-quality development.
Steve Yu – Panelist
Steve is currently a senior client advisor at Bordier & Cie, providing solutions to high-net-worth clients on protection and growth of family wealth. He served in similar roles at Edmond Rothschild and Credit Suisse. His stint at the latter began in Hong Kong in corporate derivatives structuring before moving to Switzerland. Prior to these, he worked in asset-backed securities research at Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank in New York. The Deutsche Bank team he was a part of was profiled in the book/movie “the Big Short” for their successful shorting of subprime mortgage-backed securities leading up to the Global Financial Crisis. Steve graduated from Cornell University with degrees in computer science and industrial engineering.
Roger Bischof – Panelist
Dr. Roger Bischof is a Counsel with the Swiss law firm Advestra AG. He focuses his practice primarily on cross-border restructurings and insolvencies, market entry advice, foreign direct investment, international business structuring, distressed M&A, PE and VC.
Roger also gained several years of practical experience as a lawyer in China (Shanghai and Hong Kong) and Singapore, including a role as in-house counsel for the downstream business of one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies with responsibility for the jurisdictions of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. During his professional career in Asia, he served as a board member of the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai for many years.
Roger is dually-qualified as lawyer and certified public accountant. He is the President of the Swiss Turnaround Association (STA) / Turnaround Management Association (TMA) Switzerland and a Fellow of INSOL International.
Jens Kruse– New added Panelist
Jens Kruse is a Portfolio Manager and the Swiss Representative for Jifu Investments based in Zurich, Switzerland. In addition to build relationships for Jifu Investments he is responsible to manage an in-house global equity portfolio. Prior to joining Jifu Investment Group, he was the Director and Country Head of Switzerland within Franklin Templeton for over 10 years. In that capacity, he oversaw the increase of Swiss client assets from USD 4B to 24B at the peak, joining the top ten Swiss investment managers. His team conducted sophisticated, technology driven campaigns, covering all sales channels, including pension funds, private banks, insurance companies, family offices, and independent asset managers. Jens was instrumental in executing state-of-the-art sales processes with the team in a pilot project, subsequently followed by all international offices. Jens has 30 years of investment experience, selling financial products to European institutional investors. He lived and worked in the UK, Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland and acquired the local languages. He holds a master’s in political science with a focus on macroeconomics from the University of Berne, Switzerland.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, investor, professional or simply interested in the evolving China-Switzerland cross-border investment landscape, this luncheon promises valuable knowledge sharing and excellent networking opportunities.
Seats are limited! To secure your spot, please register using the above link or QR.
We look forward to welcoming you on June 12!
Organized by: Chinese Community in Switzerland (CHCCH)
China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) is the world’s first state-level expo focusing on supply chain and an open international cooperation platform established by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in 2023 and organized by China International Exhibition Center Group Limited once a year.
The second CISCE was held in Beijing from November 26th to 30th, 2024. Premier Li Qiang had a dialogue with exhibitors and delegates of the Expo. Vice President Han Zheng attended and addressed the Opening Ceremony. Together with the representatives of the global business community, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) released the Beijing Initiative for International Cooperation on Industrial and Supply Chains. The Expo featured over 1,000 exhibitors from China and abroad. The number of visitors exceeded 200,000.
The third CISCE which will be scheduled in China from July 16th to 20th, 2025 in Beijing, and will still focus on six major industrial chains and one area, namely Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy, Smart Vehicle, Digital Technology, Healthy Life, and Green Agriculture as well as supply chain services.
Contact Information:
Website: https://en.cisce.org.cn/
Contact CCPIT Representative Office in Switzerland
Steve 目前是瑞士宝瑞银行的资深客户顾问，为高净值客户提供保护和增长家庭财富的解决方案。他还曾在爱德蒙罗斯柴尔德和瑞士信贷担任过类似职务。他在瑞士信贷的工作始于香港，负责企业衍生品结构设计，后移居瑞士。在此之前，他曾在雷曼兄弟和德意志银行纽约从事资产证券化投资研究。他所在的德意志银行团队因在全球金融危机爆发前成功做空次级抵押贷款证券而被写入书籍/电影《大空头》。Steve 毕业于康奈尔大学，获得计算机科学和工业工程学位。
Roger Bischof – 圆桌嘉宾
罗杰博士（Dr. Roger Bischof）是瑞士律师事务所Advestra AG的法律顾问。他的执业领域主要集中在跨境重组与破产、市场准入咨询、外商直接投资、国际商业结构、困境并购、私募股权和风险投资等方面。
A pilot study to diagnose lactose intolerance based on the exhaled breath metabolome
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Daniel Pohl, University Hospital Zurich
Participants wanted for a scientific study For a scientific study, we seek to recruit healthy adult men and women with diagnosed or suspected lactose intolerance aged between 18 and 65. Participants should be able to understand and provide written informed consent in English and/or German.
Aim of the study: We would like to test whether we can identify molecules in the breath that can help to discriminate different symptoms of lactose intolerance.
Study schedule and duration: The study will involve three appointments (inclusion, intervention visit, and close-out visit) within a period of four weeks at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich. The inclusion and close-out visits will last approximately 1 hour each. The intervention visit will last approximately 8 hours. After the inclusion visit, you will complete a home screening that lasts approximately 2 hours to assess your ability to digest lactose. Your diet and gut microbiota will be monitored for 3 days. The study intervention is a carbohydrate challenge (lactose or glucose) with monitoring of changes in breath and urine after the consumption of the carbohydrate. You will be assigned to one of the two challenges randomly to ensure a balanced distribution of participants with different tolerances to lactose consumption. The glucose challenge will serve as a control and enable us to consider the specificity of the biomarkers for lactose metabolism. Both challenges involve ingesting the carbohydrate solution (25 g of lactose or equimolar amounts of glucose: 13 g glucose) dissolved in 150 ml water. You will be monitored by non-invasive sampling (breath and urine), and symptoms will be assessed for six hours after ingesting the assigned carbohydrate. Intestinal gases will be monitored during the challenge by a commercially available capsule that will be ingested within 5 minutes of ingesting the carbohydrate solution. All experiments will be conducted at the breath analysis laboratory at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich.
Remuneration: 300 CHF upon the completion of the entire study protocol and travel costs incurred for study visits.
All data will be treated confidentially. Participants should not expect any medical benefit.
If you are interested in taking part in the study and satisfy the above-mentioned criteria, please contact Kashish Mallick unter +41 44 633 41 26 Albin Vadakkechira unter +41 44 633 48 34 or write at the following email: lactobreath@ethz.ch
If you would like further information, please also contact Dr. Kathryn Pimentel unter +41 58 467 3187 Dr. Stamatios Giannoukos unter +41 44 632 61 12
BLUE SUN PALACE ist ab 30. April 2025 in der Schweiz zu sehen!
BLUE SUN PALACE
Regie: Zeng Peiyu
Darsteller: Lee Kang-sheng, Wu Ke-xi, Xu Hai-peng
Länge: 117 Minuten, Sprache und Untertitel: Mandarin/De/Fr/It
Ein kraftvoller Film über Heimat, Hoffnung und Schicksal. In einem Massagesalon in Queens, Tausende von Kilometern von zu Hause entfernt, unterstützen sich zwei Freundinnen, Amy und Didi, gegenseitig bei ihrer täglichen Arbeit – geprägt vom Streben nach persönlichem Glück und der Last familiärer Verpflichtungen. Gemeinsam mit ihren Kolleginnen verbindet sie eine zärtliche und unterstützende Schwesternschaft. Doch die körperliche und seelische Belastung ihrer anspruchsvollen Arbeit ist allgegenwärtig. Nach Didis tragischem Tod muss Amy ihr Schicksal selbst in die Hand nehmen.
Festivals & Auszeichnungen：
Caméra d’Or (Erster Filmpreis) der 77. Filmfestspiele von Cannes (Nominiert)
Grand Prix der Kritikerwoche der 77. Filmfestspiele von Cannes (Nominiert)
Hong Kong International Film Festival der 49. Newcomer-Filmwettbewerb, Firebird Film Award (Chinesisch) (Nominiert)
Zeng Peiyu ist ein chinesischstämmiger Amerikaner und Drehbuchautor. Absolvent der Writers and Directors Graduate School der Columbia University in New York. Er hat bei vielen Kurzfilmen Regie geführt, darunter „Beau“, „First Snow“, „Carnivore“ usw. Sein Spielfilmdebüt „Blue Sun Palace“ aus dem Jahr 2024 gewann den French Touch Jury Award bei der Kritikerwoche der Filmfestspiele von Cannes.
“Black Dog” wird ab dem 10. April 2025 in der Schweiz und Liechtenstein gezeigt!
Nach seiner Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis kehrt Lang in seine Heimatstadt am Rande der Wüste Gobi zurück. Als Teil einer Hundepatrouille, die das Städtchen vor den Olympischen Spielen 2008 von streunenden Hunden säubern soll, schliesst er eine unerwartete Freundschaft mit einem Windhund. Regisseur Guan Hu schafft ein bildstarkes Werk zwischen Western und Neo-Noir, mit lakonischem Humor und geprägt vom sozialen Realismus eines Jia Zhangke, der neben Superstar Eddie Peng in einer Nebenrolle brilliert.
Festivals & Auszeichnungen
Cannes 2024: Prix Un Certain Regard Jerusalem Film Festival: Best International Feature Valladolid International Film Festival: Best Cinematography Warsaw International Film Festival: Crème de la Crème Award FIFF 2025 – Festival International du Film de Fribourg: Grand Prix et Prix de la critique
Black Dog läuft jetzt im Kino: Aarau, Basel, Bern, Brugg, Lavin, Luzern, Männedorf, Meiringen, Schaan, St. Gallen, Uster, Wettingen, Winterthur, Zürich… … Filminfo und Tickets online kaufen: https://trigon-film.org/de/filme/black-dog/
Zum Regisseur
Guan Hu zählt zu den erfolgreichsten chinesischen Regisseuren der Gegenwart. Mit „The 800“ brach er in China sämtliche Rekorde, das Filmepos wurde 2020 gar zum kommerziell erfolgreichsten Kinofilm weltweit. Mit „Black Dog“ wendet er sich nun dem Sozialrealismus zu und legt die Kluft zwischen Propaganda und Wirklichkeit im Reich der Mitte offen. Der in Cannes preisgekrönte Spielfilm überzeugt mit betörender Bildsprache und hervorragendem Schauspiel. Nicht zuletzt ist er eine wunderbare Ode an die Freundschaft zwischen Menschen und Tier, die mit dem Soundtrack abhebt: Pink Floyd und die Weite der Wüste Gobi – die perfekte Symbiose.
