An event organised by the China Institute of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) I attended this month (November 2017) had San Diego University’s Victor Shih present his analysis of the consolidation of the power of Chinese premier Xi Jinping in the aftermath of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s 19th national congress. Victor’s […]

  Living not that far from the centre of London, it is relatively easy for me to get into town to attend regularly at the London Mandarin Learners Meet-up group. Here I get to meet up with others to attempt translation from Chinese into English of a piece of text. Last time we tackled a […]

Chinese people sometimes exclaim “Great name!” upon hearing my Chinese name is Gongsun Hai. Gongsun is a rarity amongst Chinese surnames, and has the distinction of being one of those few formed by two characters, rather than a single one. Noteworthy Gongsuns? There was Gongsun Chou who couldn’t get enough of the wise words of […]

I’ll kick this ChinaChris.co.uk blog off with ‘Why I study Chinese’ – one of the two speeches I prepared for the oral ‘paper’ of my final exams in 1999. I am often asked “Why are you learning Chinese?” It’s not an easy question to answer as there is no single straightforward reason. There must be […]