Shen Jinfeng

• Shen Jinfeng: Chairwoman of Foundation of Intercultural Participation of Chinese Families. Certified child and adolescent therapist in the Netherlands; Master of Clinical Psychology of Children and Adolescents from the Free University of Amsterdam, and Master of Child and Family Science with Honors from Leiden University.

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• "I worked as a university teacher before coming to the Netherlands in 2008. In the process of close communication with students, I saw the important role that parents, schools and culture play in a person's talent and psychological development. This inspired me to do something for children, to help them grow mentally healthy and fully realize their potential. Therefore, I decide to study  child psychology in the Netherlands .

• Later on, I raised two children and worked as a child and adolescent therapist and parent counsellor (orthopedagoog) in the Netherlands. During my own parenting and working practice, I found out that Chinese children in the Netherlands face unique challenges in their growth. They have to switch between Chinese cultures in families and Dutch culture at schools every day, trying to integrate the confusion brought by cultural differences and find their own identity. Some children may become dissatisfied with Chinese culture and have disagreements with their parents because of some biased reports on China by the Dutch media, explicit or implicit racial discrimination at school, and lack of sufficient emotional support in the family. They cannot find the meaning of their own existence during adolescence, which leads to psychological or behavioral problems; some may even be unable to continue their studies. Because Chinese culture has always advocated solving problems independently, they do not easily tell others about the problems they and their children encounter, or seek professional help. Only when the problems become more complicated and difficult to solve, do they accept help at the request of the school or social workers. However, due to language and cultural differences, it is difficult to get appropriate help. All of this has brought great pain to Chinese children and parents. And all of this could have been prevented.

• Therefore, we established the Foundation of Intercultural Participation of Chinese Families, hoping to accompany and support Chinese children in the Netherlands by organizing various cultural and social activities for Chinese children and their parents, so that they can find their own identity in the Chinese-Dutch dual culture and grow up healthily and happlily; we also support Chinese parents to actively participate in bicultural social activities, so that they and their children can find their own belonging and happiness in Dutch society. "