Books - Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU)

Sir Vince Cable

The Rt Hon Sir Vince Cable was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats 2017-2019. He served as Member of Parliament for Twickenham 1997-2015 and 2017-2019; Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (2010-2015); Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems 2007-2010; and Shadow Chancellor 2003-2010.

Vince is currently a Visiting Professor in the School of Public Policy, London School of Economics (LSE); A Visiting Professor in the School of Economics, University of Nottingham; A Visiting Professor in the Institute of Business, Law and Society, St Mary’s University, Twickenham.

Zoe Reed

Zoe Reed has been SACU's Chair since 2009. She has a direct interest in building links and understanding with China as her father was Chinese - however she did not meet him until the 1990's when she traced him to his home town of Lanzhou, Gansu province. Her father came to UK under the sponsorship of Joseph Needham and hence Zoe's commitment to building SACU. Zoe is a Director in an NHS Foundation Trust which provides mental health services and is married with two grown up children.

Dr Kerry Brown

Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London. He is an Associate of the Asia Pacific Programme at Chatham House, London, an adjunct of the Australia New Zealand School of Government in Melbourne, and the co-editor of the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, run from the German Institute for Global Affairs in Hamburg. He is a committee member of the British Association of Chinese Studies and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Studies in Denver, US, and Asian Affairs, the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and also sits as a trustee of China Dialogue, and the Kent Archaeological Society. He sits on the Editorial Board of the China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies, Shanghai, and sits on the board of advisors to the Young China Watchers. He is also one of the British Council `Leading Lights' for Generation UK, promoting the study of China and Chinese in Britain.

From 2012 to 2015 he was Professor of Chinese Politics and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Prior to this, he worked at Chatham House from 2006 to 2012, as Senior Fellow and then Head of the Asia Programme. From 1998 to 2005 he worked at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing, and then as Head of the Indonesia, Philippine and East Timor Section. He lived in the Inner Mongolia region of China from 1994 to 1996. He has a Master of Arts from Cambridge University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Mandarin Chinese (Distinction) from Thames Valley University, London, and a Ph D in Chinese politics and language from Leeds University.

Professor Brown directed the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN) giving policy advice to the European External Action Service between 2011 and 2014. He is the author of more than 20 books on modern Chinese politics, history and language. He has been a member of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding since 2010.

Dr Frances Wood

Frances’s professional life was summarised by her colleague Beth McKillop on the occasion of her retirement from the British Library. This excerpt is taken from Beth’s tribute.

“Frances Wood retired in 2013, after more than 30 years first as curator, and later lead curator, of the British Library’s outstanding Chinese collections. She has overseen momentous changes in the understanding and treatment of the collection for which she has been responsible, as well as the physical moves of the collection from Bloomsbury to Blackfriars to St Pancras and (in part) to Boston Spa.

As a young curator, her exceptional energy and intellectual curiosity were already apparent. While researching and writing independently, she also shouldered responsibility for collective and departmental projects, including the British Library’s substantial contribution to the 1984 British Museum exhibition ‘Buddhism Art and Faith’……………….

…………………..As her colleague between 1981 and 1990, and again from 1993 until 2004, I would regularly accompany Frances to Guanghwa Bookshop in Soho to select new publications for the collection. Frances had the true bibliophile’s conviction that examination of the copy was the way to buy well. Before the advent of machine-readable cataloguing, we would carry heavy boxes of catalogue cards in a taxi, checking carefully to avoid selecting duplicates. We also worked doggedly through the boxes of Hong Kong copyright publications that arrived in the Library with depressing regularity until 1997. These had to be sorted into material for full cataloguing, and other publications like children’s literature and other genre publishing which was assessed and forwarded to public libraries……………..

After the India Office Library and Records joined the British Library in 1984, and particularly after 1992 when the former British Museum Oriental Collections left Bloomsbury to join the India Office library at Blackfriars, Frances diligently catalogued the Chinese Buddhist texts in that collection. Her contribution to the exhibition 'Chinese Printmaking Today' (2003), the first major Chinese show in the St Pancras exhibition galleries, led to continuing support for the Muban Education Trust, the lender to the exhibition.

This brief note barely scratches the surface of Frances’ interests and generous contributions to Chinese studies, which are familiar to scholars and students around the world. ……….. Her stewardship of the collection leaves an impressive legacy"

Books written by SACU members

Sir Vince Cable

Zoe Reed

Andrew Hicks

Dr Kerry Brown

Dr Frances Wood

Professor Gregory James