He suggested that archives should make their cultural heritage accessible to help achieve a solution to both contemporary and future problems. "One could say that today's archives have a socio-political task, so to say, a task that transcends borders and cultural barriers," Blum said.
A case in point: Blum is working on an upcoming exhibit on the flight of German Jews to Shanghai during World War II, which will be shown at the Jewish Refugees Museum in Shanghai. Given the refugee crisis in Europe, it will be a very timely exhibit.
Blum has over a decade of experience cooperating with the Beijing Municipal Archives. He first visited the Beijing Municipal Archives in 2004 and returned the next year with his wife and four children in tow.
"No one would deny that there were occasional frictions and misunderstandings. But the archivists of the two countries recognized the benefits they would reap from cooperation, despite different languages, traditions and customs, which has resulted in resilient and friendly ties," he said. In fact, Blum is very pleased with the "guanxi" system he has managed to establish after he first set foot in China.
Surprisingly, when asked how the idea for the Paralympics exhibit was hatched, Blum said the upcoming Paralympics in Rio were more of a lucky coincidence. He first came up with the idea two or three years ago while touring the Beijing Municipal Archives, where he was shown documents and artifacts from the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.
Since then, Blum has been involved in multiple China-related projects which keep him on his toes, for example, he helped the Jinan Municipal Archives locate documents in German archives, especially as pertains the former German railway station in Jinan. What's more, CCTV-7 invited him to participate in the making of a documentary on the Long March on site in Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces, during which he was always "followed by a microphone, two ground cameras and a camera drone," Blum said.
When asked how the cooperation between the Heidelberg Municipal Archives and its Chinese counterparts could be improved, Blum believed that learning by doing is best. "As is so often the case, there is a sheer endless number of ideas and themes. Both sides should display open-mindedness, curiosity and some courage," he said.
The Paralympics exhibit is scheduled to move to the Saarland State Archives in September to coincide with the Paralympics in Rio, but the launch date has yet to be determined, Dr. Doerte Kaufmann, vice director of the Saarland State Archives, told Xinhua via email. She is playing a pivotal role in bringing the exhibit from Heidelberg to the Saarland together with the Saarland Sports Archives.
"By organizing this exhibit, we hope to inform visitors about the past of the Paralympics and raise their awareness for the importance of archiving sports documents," David Kraus, the director of the Saarland Sports Archives, said in an email interview with Xinhua. "Moreover, we would like to draw attention to the integrative power of sports, especially for the disabled, and the lack of its historical documentation in the Saarland so far."
As opposed to the Heidelberg Municipal Archives, Kraus said neither his archives nor the Saarland State Archives have cooperated directly with Chinese archives or organizations to date, but he and his colleague Kaufmann are fully aware of the opportunities such cooperation presents.
"Especially for the Saarland State Archives, which in comparison to other state archives have very limited financial and human resources, cooperation is indispensable," Kaufmann said. "As a border region, the Saarland has already gathered experience in international cooperation, which offers terrific opportunities to broaden one's horizon and gain new perspectives as an archivist," she said.
Blum has a similar opinion that cooperation as exemplified between the Heidelberg and Beijing Municipal Archives working together on the Paralympics exhibit is definitely rewarding. "Cooperation is always worth it; you can accomplish so many positive things. Exciting experiences and new friendships are guaranteed every time," he said.
