Bottling aroma for an ancient city

Zhang considers herself as a 200 percent optimistic person, and her "homestay parents", Veronique Bernard and Gabriel Bernard, identified her strength and took it to a new height.

She recalls that when she first arrived in Metz, a city in northeast France, she burst into tears when she saw the graveyard outside her room window.

"You are lucky that you don't have to deal with a neighbor who plays rock music at 3 am," Zhang says as she remembers how Veronique Bernard tried to comfort her.

During her stay of more than four years, Zhang benefited from the family's love and care.

For instance, every evening, the family would exchange their daily experiences during dinner; and when she was having trouble understanding Victor Hugo's poetry, Gabriel Bernard invited her to sit by his side under an apple tree in a rainy afternoon, reading the piece repeatedly and trying to feel the sorrow of a father who lost his daughter.

"There should be ordinary communication in ordinary life, and this kind of ordinary communication is particularly powerful," Zhang says.

Later, Zhang entered the Institute of Research and Commercial Action in Paris and got both an undergraduate and a master's degree on marketing and business management.

In 2008, Zhang, 23, returned to her home city of Xi'an and worked at the provincial bureau of commerce.

Meanwhile, she participated in many events organized by Yishu 8, a nonprofit organization engaged in arts and cultural exchanges between China and France. Christine Cayol, founder of Yishu 8, was impressed by Zhang's passion for the arts. She invited Zhang to attend the first France-China Cultural Forum in 2016. In 2018, Zhang tried to bring the annual event to her hometown of Xi'an where she got to know Wasser.

"Zhang spent her youth in France where she developed her character and vision, but she was born in Xi'an where her roots are, and the local culture is in her blood. It's her destiny to create the dialogue between two cultures," says Cayol.

In 2011, Zhang established Ronghua Charity Foundation, focusing on helping vulnerable groups. In January last year, Zhang spent 2.2 million yuan on providing materials to elders in Shaanxi, and donated 12.5 metric tons of fruit to Wuhan, the Chinese city hardest hit by the pandemic.

So far, the foundation has donated 220 million yuan, and invested 315 million yuan in public services.