SACU ChinaChat on The May Fourth Movement and The New Culture Movement – 21 January 2021
About 32 people participated in this online meeting. It was chaired by Ros Wong and coordinated by Wang Fang.
Peter Colebourn, SACU member, reported: “The SACU January ChinaChat featured a discussion of the May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement. The presentation was nicely balanced as Rob Stallard in his introduction provided the historical context for the discussion. He had sourced and organised a wonderful group of graphics to illustrate his talk. Michael Sheringham then developed the discussion to focus on the New Culture Movement. Both speakers built upon their articles in China Eye, issues 61 and 62 : available here
The programme was an excellent example of the advantages of such Zoom meetings: good presentations, opportunity to ask questions and no travel. In fact, the session seemed to fly by and many of the attendees would have liked it to have gone on longer.”
This SACU ChinaChat was recorded and an edited version will be made available to members.
SACU ChinaChat Series – “Your Stories with China” “The Early Years of SACU” with Graham Perry in conversation with SACU Archivist Linxi Li, Sunday 29 November
This was a truly memorable event in many ways. It was the first online link-up between Li Linxi in Beijing and our speaker, Graham Perry and other participants in the UK. It was also a trip down ‘memory lane’, as Graham, an early member of SACU and former Vice Chairman, delved into the origins and formation of SACU in 1965.
Responding to questions from Linxi, Graham described how he himself came to be involved in China since his teens through his father, Jack, who founded the 48 Group and frequently visited China in the pioneering days of opening business with China in the 1950s and 1960s. Graham explained how SACU was founded out of the split within the former Friendship Society with China caused by pro-Soviet and pro-China factions within that society. When SACU was established by such outstanding figures as Dr Joseph Needham, Professor Joan Robinson and Derek and Hongying Brian, Graham became involved from the outset. The name of SACU – whether ‘friendship’ or ‘understanding’ – was hotly debated from the start, but ‘understanding’ was agreed upon as the most ‘diplomatic’ term. Not surprisingly, especially at this time of heated politics in the run-up to the Cultural Revolution, a great variety of people, were attracted to and joined SACU with their different views and ideals about China’s trajectory. SACU established an office in Camden Town in London and many meetings in the nearby Conway Hall were packed, especially by young people.
Graham mentioned the many organisers of SACU during this early period, not least the contribution of Felix Greene and his family. On the Chinese side, SACU was welcomed by the Friendship Society in Beijing and long-time foreign residents in China, who received and met SACU’s delegations and tour groups. In spite of a five -year gap in these visits during the height of the Cultural Revolution, friendly contact was maintained through the Chinese Embassy in London and business channels such as the 48 Group.
After Graham’s talk, other ‘old SACU friends’ reminisced on their memories of SACU and learning about China in those years. Jenny Clegg (Vice President) placed this formative period of SACU within the international context of the time: the Sino-Soviet split, the Vietnam War, the world-wide protest movement against the war, the burgeoning Civil Rights movement in the US and the resurging movement for women’s emancipation, in which China seemed to be providing a great model.
In conclusion, Graham raised the question of how we in SACU could see China today, and he suggested that the best approach is to try to understand China from China’s perspective. That would be a healthy alternative to the view from ‘our perspective’ as represented in our media and popular discourse.
The link to the video recording of this online event will be made available to members by email newsletter.
This was the first of “Your Stories with China” SACU ChinaChat series in which SACU Archivist Linxi Li will interview members about their own experiences of China and SACU.
If any members would like to share their story of China, please contact our archivist Linxi Li: archives@sacu.org.uk
We launched the fifth SACU-PKU Essay/Art Competition online on 5th December, this year online due to the unprecedented global pandemic. SACU members, schoolteachers and students as well as some non-members from both China and the UK attended the event.
The event opened with remarks by SACU Chair Zoe Reed and Professor Sun Hua of Peking University. Both expressed their encouragement to the younger generation of the UK to learn more about China and to promote further understanding between the two countries in the future. Professor Sun Hua also took the opportunity, with the forthcoming 120th anniversary of Joseph Needham’s birthday on 9th December, to express his admiration and gratitude to the founder of SACU for his foresight and pioneering perspective on the importance of building bridges between the two nations. Through his exploration of China’s science and civilisation, Needham not only revealed the secrets of such an ancient nation but also initiated research into it for the benefit of humanity.
The launch ceremony was hosted by SACU Vice President and historian Dr Frances Wood. The highlight of the event was the talk by Richard Morel, Curator, The British Library’s Philatelic Collections, entitled “Paper Ambassadors from China: The Life and Stamp Designs of Mrs Lu Tianjiao (from 1955 to 2001)”. Richard Morel described the amazing life of the designer who worked for over five decades, producing hundreds of brilliant artistic designs for postage stamps. He presented many illustrations of her work, which encapsulated the history of China after 1949, its public policies and foreign relations. Richard’s interpretation of Lu Tianjiao’s work inspired the audience to better understand China and Chinese history from her stamp designs. The Q&A session enabled interaction between the audience and the speaker and some of the audience presented their stories with China through their stamps and collections.
A recording of the event is available on SACU’s YouTube channel here
Professor Sun Hua’s Speech at the Launch Ceremony in full:
THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA
Dear Zoë, Dear Frances, Dear friends,
I am very honoured to be here with you. It is very pleasing that we set out today on the 2021 SACU/PKU Essay/Art competition. We have cooperated on the essay competition in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020. We have reached out to more than 50 schools for this 5th competition starting this month. The aim is to encourage and consider ways of promoting friendship and understanding between the peoples of the UK and China, by providing young people with the opportunity to think about how they might contribute. I would like to thank you all for your hard work.
I would also like to thank the co-founder of SACU, in whose steps we just follow: Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, once the world’s most technologically advanced country.
In Science and Civilisation in China, Volume IV, Part 3, Joseph Needham wrote: “Foreign admirers of Chinese bridges could be adduced from nearly every century of the Empire. In AD 838 Japanese Monk Ennin never found a bridge out of commission, and marveled at the effective crossing of the Yellow River. In the 13th century Marco Polo speaks at length of the bridges in China, though he never mentions one in any other part of the world……the early Portuguese visitors to China in the 16th century found most extraordinary bridges existed along the roads often far from any human habitation, just like Gaspar da Cruz, the Dominican wrote in 1556.”
Joseph Needham was a man highly regarded for his ability as a builder of bridges: between science and faith, privilege and poverty, the Old World and the New, and, most famously of all, between China and the West. Next Wednesday, December 9, is the 120 years anniversary of Joseph Needham’s birth. In China 120 years means two cycles transmigration or two sixty years rotation in traditional Chinese chronology. Needham lived a life of grand adventure, as he said: “I had at one time hoped to be with you when the last volume of Science and Civilization in China was published, but I promised that even if I was not on the bridge the ship would sail safely into port……I am sure that day will come”.
His concluding thought is that by an extraordinary series of events modern science was born, and swept across the world like a forest fire. All nations are now using it, and in some measure contributing to its development. We can only pray that those who control its use will develop it for the good not only of mankind but of the whole planet.
Through his extraordinary achievements in helping the world understand the enigma that is China, Needham should by rights be a vastly famous man. But most people would look back blankly on being asked what do you know about Joseph Needham? I have come to realize the magnitude of the task that lies ahead of us: to help to make him just as well-known as his achievements suggest he deserves.
That is the task of the essay competition. Please join us. Thank you all again.
Professor Sun Hua joined from Beijing
The Opening Ceremony was reported by Peking University:
The opening ceremony of the competition was a success by inspiring the audience with another way to understand China and to echo the mission of SACU.
THE ESSAY COMPETITION
The theme of the competition 2020-2021 is “How can we achieve a better understanding of China?” We aim to invite the students to explore the development of the two nations through any aspect that is of interest: culture, art, science, philosophy, literature, social practices, etc. We are looking for responses with wide ranging perspectives that have considered views, grounded analysis and imaginative responses.
Further details of the competition are as below:
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
The submissions could be an essay or an artistic form, which could involve for example photography, other visual art, choreographed dance, etc.
We suggest essays should be a maximum of 2, 000 words and videos no longer than 5 minutes.
THE ENTRY PROCESS
Entries will be considered in two categories: 16 years and above; below 16 years.
Each school will run its own internal process in order to select up to 3 entries for each category – 16 years and above; and below 16 years.
The closing date for submissions for judging will be the end of April 2021.
Each school will be encouraged to forward their views on their entries via their SACU member link to the judging panel.
Schools will be asked to submit the email addresses for all entrants [not just the shortlisted 3 for each category] as all entrants will be given a free student membership of SACU for one year as a thank you for entering.
THE AWARDS
The awards will be sponsored by Peking University with three prizes of £100 / £50 /£25 in each category.
The judging panel, chaired by Dr. Frances Wood, renowned author on China and former head of the British Library China Collection and SACU Vice President, will give their views on the entries.
There will be an Awards Event for all the shortlisted entrants on 15 June 2021 hopefully in London but if not on-line, involving Dr. Frances Wood and Prof Sun Hua of Peking University – an expert in historical figures who have contributed to building friendship between the peoples of China and the West.
SUPPORT FROM SACU
With the mission of SACU to improve understanding of China and its culture, we would like to offer talks to the schools in the UK under the title of “China in the World”. Members of our Speakers Bureau are all established writers and speakers on China with many years’ experience of living and working in the Chinese world. It is hoped that the talks on China will bring more thoughtful and insightful perspective to the students who are interested not only in the competition but in the promotion of UK-China relationships in the future.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
All competition entries and any accompanying material submitted to SACU will become the property of SACU, which endows SACU to use it for the purpose of promoting the friendship between the UK and China in the future.
CONTACT
Wang Fang as Essay Competition Co-ordinator will be happy to talk through the entry process with any SACU members interested in becoming a school link and she can make school visits either physically or virtually to introduce the competition.
Schools/Teachers who wish to participate please contact SACU and discuss how they would like to proceed at EssayCompetition@sacu.org.uk.
Posted for WANG Fang, Essay Competition Co-ordinator, 7 December 2020
Michael Wood, SACU’s President, gave a special online talk to the joint HSBC China Connect Group and SACU members on 19th November 2020 on the subject of his new book The Story of China.
Michael has the gift of summarising not only his own book but the whole history of China and its people in a short vivid talk, gripping our attention by focusing on some key episodes and outstanding characters in the long saga of Chinese history and culture.
In the discussion, he mentioned that he is basically a film-maker, which is obvious when he ‘zooms’ into these scenarios and animates these personalities. He is also like a classic Chinese painter who paints his Chinese-style ‘painting’ in a few bold brush strokes. His history is rooted in the inspiring writing of the early classics, such as the ancient ‘Book of Songs/Poetry’, the wisdom and humanity of the still-acclaimed philosopher, Confucius, the ‘Records of the Historian’ by the Former Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian, and the poetry of his favourite Chinese poet, Du Fu of the later Tang Dynasty.
He admires the outward-reaching, eclectic culture of the famous Emperor of the last Dynasty, Kang Xi, of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. He waxes lyrical about his treasured town of Kaifeng, a medieval capital which was illustrated in the famous Qing Ming Spring Festival scroll. He opens the scroll of Chinese history up to present days, but hesitates to respond to questions about China’s future trajectory and role in the world.
Michael’s enthusiasm for the world of China and its peoples permeates his talk and equally his book, which should become a landmark film
– Report by SACU member Michael Sheringham, December 2020 –
The Story of China: A Portrait of a Civilisation and its People, by Michael Wood (2020), published by Simon & Schuster
A video recording of Michael Wood’s talk is available on SACU’s YouTube channel here
SACU Public Event: Tuesday 1 September 2020, 17.30pm by Zoom.
This was SACU’s first webinar by Zoom and was a great success!
US-China relations are deteriorating alarmingly and the UK government has allowed itself to get drawn into the growing crisis. Yet over recent decades, relations of cooperation between the UK and China have grown firm roots, building interdependencies across many fields, to the great benefit of both sides.
SACU invited a panel of speakers with differing areas of expertise, but all with long-standing experience of working with Chinese counterparts, to discuss their experiences and their views on the value, the challenges and the benefits of cooperating with China, as well as the prospects, in these problematic times, for their continuing cooperation into the future.
Our Panellists – Professor Kerry Brown, Professor Michael Wood, Graham Perry and Dr Ruby Wang – were chaired by Dr Jenny Clegg, SACU Vice President, and gave excellent presentations, and questions from the Attendees stimulated a good discussion.
We were very pleased that so many people attended the event. However, for those who missed the live session or want to watch it again, you will find the video recording of the webinar on SACU’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/VM2qHFjCy8U
This SACU ChinaChat was a members-only discussion meeting on Hong Kong, where members shared their thoughts and experiences of Hong Kong in an informal setting. SACU members Andrew Hicks and Barnaby Powell, who both have extensive experience and knowledge of Hong Kong, introduced the discussion with their own thought-provoking ideas and perspectives. SACU members then had the opportunity to join the conversation to share their own thoughts and experiences on the topic.
The recording of the discussion will be made available to all members by email.
SACU’s first Virtual ChinaChat, Thursday 25 June 2020, 6.00-7.30pm by Zoom.
Dr Jenny Clegg led the discussion on the Opium Wars based on the American historian, Stephen Platt’s Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Golden Age (2018). With the first salvos of the first Opium War in 1839, Britain opened China to a ‘Century of Humiliation’ where the once mighty Qing dynasty faced internal rebellion and rapacious imperial powers. Platt sets out both the British and the Chinese sides as events moved inexorably to war. This potent turning point in China’s history ‘stands for everything that today’s China seeks to put behind it’, giving Platt’s narrative ‘important implications for today’s uncertain and ever-changing world.’ While happening nearly a century and a half ago, the topic of Platt’s book has a contemporary resonance in light of recent political developments.
Jenny shared her thoughts and impressions of Platt’s book, followed by a short presentation by Walter Fung, China Eye Editor. There followed a stimulating discussion on this defining moment in Anglo-Chinese history which has repercussions to this day. Our British, Chinese and British Born Chinese members shared wide-ranging views and experiences in an informal and relaxed setting.
Over the course of the debate, a wide range of topics and perspectives were present. These included the politicisation of the history of the Opium Wars and the Century of Humiliation by both sides as well as the controversies over the nature of the imperial policies in the wake of the Opium War and the role they played in China’s long term reform and opening up. This comes at a time where Britain’s imperial history has come under renewed scrutiny as a result of the toppling of statues of major figures from this period. It is this aspect, alongside the parallels between the language of the imperial agents of yesteryear and the China hawks of today that has underlined the continued relevance of Pratt’s book.
Upon reflection of the topic in light of recent events, it is necessary to re-evaluate the Opium Wars as part of the wider debate regarding the controversies of Britain’s imperial history. This has been particularly notable in Gladstone, one of the rare dissenting voices at the time, who called the conflict “a most infamous and atrocious war, more calculated in its progress to cover this country in permanent disgrace”. As we face a changing era in the relations between Britain and China, Gladstone’s words now have a particular significance to today’s listeners.
A recording was made and the link has been made available to SACU members though the members’ newsletter.
This SACU ChinaChat was a great success, enabling members to take part from all over the country and as far away as Xian, even though it was 2.00am there! Any future SACU ChinaChats will take account of the time difference between the UK and China.
Tom Harper, SACU Council Member, 29 June 2020
SACU members are invited to suggest further topics for SACU China Chats, emailmembership@sacu.org.uk
This online article was updated 29 June 2020.
Postscript:
The Opium War Museum in China’s Guangdong province “focuses on the Opium trade, its suppression by the official Lin Zexu, and the two Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1856–1860, respectively)”:
SACU and Peking University’s joint UK/China Friendship and Understanding Essay Competition 2020 has taken place and the winners were announced online in a Zoom ceremony on Wednesday 17 June 2020. Zoe Reed, SACU Chair, hosted the Awards Ceremony which this year was moved online because of the current pandemic crisis. The entrants joined the event from as far away as Shanghai.
Zoe Reed, SACU Chair
There were 27 entrants from 7 schools who submitted entries on this year’s theme of ‘Overcoming the Cultural Gap between China and the West’. The schools taking part were Marlborough College; King’s College School (Wimbledon); Highgate School (London); Charterhouse School; Cheltenham Ladies’ College; The King’s School, Canterbury; and Oundle School.
Dr Frances Wood, SACU Vice-President, expert and renowned author on China, and former Head of the British Library Chinese Collections, was chair of the Judging Panel. She announced the winners and discussed their essays, saying she was “massively impressed” with the very high standard of the entries. She found all the essays to be fascinating and very thoughtful; students had really engaged with the problem and offered very good examples of how cultural differences can be overcome. She also thanked the students’ teachers for their huge contribution to their students’ learning and understanding of Chinese language and culture.
Dr Frances Wood
The winners were:
16 years & over category:
1st Eliot Haywood, Highgate School
2nd Amelia Green, Marlborough College
3rd Selina Shi, Charterhouse School
Up to 15 years category:
1st Wendy Lian, The King’s School, Canterbury
2nd Tyan Lee, Oundle School
3rd Lily Pfaffenzeller, Cheltenham Ladies College
Multimedia Award:
Annabel Cohen, The King’s School, Canterbury
Highly Commended Entries:
Daniel Culham, King’s College School
Louis Dessalles, Marlborough College
Dr Fang Wang coordinated the Essay Competition and explained the awards to the winners. There were money prizes (1st £100, 2nd £50 and 3rd £25 in each category for the essays and £50 for the multimedia category) and prize certificates for all winners. All participants are also offered one year’s complimentary student membership of SACU, including the quarterly magazine China Eye, monthly eNewsletters and access to all SACU events.
Professor Sun Hua offered his “heartfelt congratulations” to the entrants. As Director of the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies, Peking University, he has hosted commemorative and academic events for college and high school students in conjunction with foreign universities and institutions and has worked hard to encourage young people to get involved in people-to-people exchanges. He outlined the progress of the SACU/Peking University Essay competition which began as part of the marking of SACU’s 50th Anniversary in 2015 to continue the mission started by Professor Joseph Needham who founded SACU, with others, in 1965. That first competition was held in Oundle School, Joseph Needham’s former school. The second competition in 2018 saw increased participation with Oundle School and St George’s in Harpenden, the former school of George Hogg, who worked in the co-operative movement in North West China during World War II. This year’s competition was the largest yet with seven schools taking part and the introduction of a multimedia category. Professor Sun Hua was pleased that some winners of previous competitions have since enrolled at Oxford University, LSE or SOAS to study Chinese history or culture and looks forward to welcoming some of this year’s entrants to study at Peking University!
Professor Sun Hua in Beijing
Rounding off the Awards Ceremony, SACU’s President, film maker and historian Michael Wood, Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and creator of the BBC TV’s ‘The Story of China’ series of films, congratulated all the students for their essays which showed such understanding at such a young age and urged them not to “lose that passion” but to “keep that intense affection and understanding that you have for Chinese civilisation and cultivate it. It is really important now that we understand each other better in east and west and we build bridges…”
Michael Wood, SACU President
SACU thanks Peking University for generously sponsoring this event, the schools for their commitment during this demanding school year, the Essay Competition Judging Panel for their hard work and most of all, thanks to all the students who took part – congratulations to them all.
What a stimulating and uplifting occasion it was!
Ros Wong
20 June 2020
Please find the news on the homepage of Peking University (in Chinese):
We launched this year’s Essay Competition at Oundle School on Wednesday 29th January at the invitation of Ms Shuling Russo-Lai, Head of Chinese, and we thank the school for their hospitality. SACU has close links with Oundle School because our founder Joseph Needham attended the school and SACU’s Archives are stored here.
Interested students gave up their lunchtime to come along to SACU’s presentation in the Modern Languages Building. Zoe Reed, SACU Chair, talked about Joseph Needham’s wartime support of China’s scientists and how he sponsored a young K.C. Sun to study textile engineering in the UK. K.C. Sun became Zoe’s father and Zoe knew Joseph Needham all her life.
SACU member and Essay Competition Co-ordinator Wang Fang followed by telling us about how the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies came to be established in Peking University, named to honour Edgar Snow who was one of the first western journalists to report about the progress of the Communist Party of China in his book Red Star over China in 1937. Professor Sun Hua, Director of the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies, was going to join us for the launch but unfortunately was unable to attend.
Zoe then introduced the theme of this year’s Essay Competition: “Overcoming the cultural gap between China and the West”. The aim is to help young people learn about the development of friendship and understanding between the UK and China, and to consider how this might be further promoted.
THE THEME OF THE ESSAY COMPETITION
Students are encouraged to consider any aspect of differences between China and the West and suggest how building understanding and friendship might help close the cultural gap. The historical development of China seems very different to that of the UK and other European countries, and relations have often been strained. But the growth of modern China has arguably brought countries closer together especially through trade and tourism. Chinese goods are found all over the world but increasingly the USA in particular seeks to impose trade barriers at the same time as welcoming growing numbers of Chinese students and visitors.
What can history teach us about moving forward in a spirit of friendship and understanding? How can we bridge the cultural gap that can be seen in attitudes to work and leisure, relations with authority, arts, sport and social life and so on?
The competition seeks responses from wide ranging perspectives, looking for considered views, grounded analysis and imaginative responses.
Whilst continuing to welcome written submissions in essay form we also wish to encourage more visual responses by still art or video: this could involve photography, other visual art, or choreographed dance. We suggest essays should be a maximum of 2,000 words and videos no longer that 5 minutes.
ENTRIES
Entries will be considered in two age groups: 16 years and above; Under 16s. The closing date for submissions for judging will be the end of May 2020.
THE ENTRY PROCESS
There is still time for SACU members to be involved. If you have a connection with a school in your area you can introduce the Essay Competition to the school this term. Each school will run its own internal process in order to select up to 3 entries (in each category) to the general competition. There will be an awards event in London in late June hosted by SACU. Prizes of £100 first prize, £50 second prize and £25 third prize in each category, generously donated by Peking University, will be presented by Professor Sun Hua. The judging panel, chaired by Dr Frances Wood, SACU Vice President, will give their views on the entries. All entrants will also be offered a one-year complimentary student membership of SACU.
MORE
Wang Fang as Essay Competition Co-ordinator will be happy to talk through the entry process with any SACU members interested in becoming a school link and she can make school visits to introduce the competition.
On 16th October 2019 SACU held a panel discussion to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with an evening reflecting on China’s past achievements and future challenges. More than 70 SACU members, friends and King’s College London students joined us for a stimulating evening of presentations and discussion with our expert panel.
Professor Martin Albrow: SACU member and eminent sociologist and author of many books including China’s Role in a Shared Human Future View summary of his presentation here
Chair of the Panel:
Dr Frances Wood: SACU Vice President, former Head of the Chinese Collections at The British Library and renowned expert on China who has written many books
Photo Display: We also showed a special exhibition of rolling photos from SACU’s Archives which was prepared by SACU member Dr Linxi Li. We are currently seeking funding to develop and research SACU’s unique archive.
Our event was held with the Lau China Institute at King’s College London in the Strand and SACU is grateful for the support of the Lau China Institute for the provision of the venue and refreshments.
The Panel and Chair l-r: Dr Xin Sun, Professor Martin Albrow, Dr Frances Wood (Chair), Dr Jenny Clegg, Minister Counsellor Wang Qi
