Laurence Vandewalle studied sinology and international relations at KU Leuven. A fluent Mandarinspeaker, she has studied, lived, and travelled extensively in China since 1990. She worked for 19 years in the European Parliament, where she served as advisor to the chair of the Delegation for Relations with China and as coordinator of the EU-China political parties’ forum. In parallel, she is an active cultural practitioner, running a puppet theatre in Liège, Belgium.