The School’s second annual Sixth Form International Conference saw a range of lectures and presentations from an impressive line-up of prestigious speakers.

The subject was ‘China and the World’. The range of talks included burning issues such as the plight of the Uyghur minority, one of many, following the rioting in Xinjiang in July, and, after President Obama’s recent visit, the contentious issue of censorship. 

Other speakers based their talks on their experiences of living and working in China over a number of years, and there was a lesson in Mandarin and a demonstration of sword-form tai-chi. Finally, the performance director of the GB Olympic Team, Bernie Cotton MBE, gave his impressions of the Beijing Olympic Games, perhaps the most spectacular Olympics ever seen. 

Speakers included: Dr Nathan Hill, Senior Lector in Tibetan at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) on ethnic minorities; Tia Chi teacher Veronica Ashcroft, who teaches at Kingston University and elsewhere; author and retired lecturer Reginald Hunt on life in China before the economic boom; consultant, writer, photojournalist and Mandarin teacher Charlotte Shalgosky on change in modern China ‘from Mao to McDonald’s’; Vivien Fu, Head Teacher of the Chinesewise School in Wimbledon, who gave a mandarin lesson; Dr Kerry Brown, Senior Fellow at Chatham House, on the future of political reform in China; Bernie Cotton MBE, Olympic Performance Manager, on the Beijing Olympics; and Prof. Michael Hockx, Professor of Chinese at SOAS, on the internet and China. 

Dr Ross Barrand, Head of Sixth Form, commented that: ‘2009 is a year of anniversaries for China – it is the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, the tenth anniversary of Macau’s return to full Chinese sovereignty, and the twentieth anniversary of the massacre on Tian’anmen Square. It is therefore appropriate to explore some of issues that China confronts today as it emerges as the new superpower. I am delighted that we have been able to assemble such an impressive line-up and would like to thank all the speakers for giving us such a fascinating insight into this enormously powerful and important, but to most of us still largely unknown, nation.’