Author: H-J Colston

144 students took part in a global 6^th form model UN online conference on Friday 28 January 2022 to debate climate change and raise their voice about the resolutions made by governments in Glasgow at COP26. Covering various time zones, almost half the students were from China, with others joining from the UK, Australia and Ireland. The conference was organised by Engage with China, an educational charity that aims to build China literacy in UK schools.

“The standard of debate was really high,” said Theo Innes, aged 15 from The Grange school, Cheshire who acted as President of the conference.

I was particularly blown away by delegate China 4 (himself Chinese) who so eloquently and persuasively spoke about how the fossil fuel resolution to phase out coal would impoverish six million uneducated people in mainland China. It really highlighted the complexities and challenges for governments to reduce carbon emissions.”

A representative from each school was initially asked to talk about climate change and how it affects their home country. A student from King’s School Worcester, spoke about the frequent flooding in the city and how that affects livelihoods and communities locally. A student from Marlborough College spoke of the need in the UK to increase statutes, sanctions and subsidies and to follow through on policies as a matter of urgency.

Guest speakers included Neil Hirst, formerly from the International Energy Agency and representatives from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Chinese Embassy in the UK. Students then spent two hours debating resolutions in three different breakout rooms from the perspective of their allocated country. Common to Model United Nations conferences, this encourages young people to debate from another perspective and builds global awareness. Topics for discussion and negotiation included phasing out fossil fuels, finance for vulnerable communities and carbon tax.

“Students at this MUN embraced the urgency of climate change and spoke with real passion and persuasion,” said H-J Colston-Inge, Director of Engage with China. “What was really encouraging to observe, was the empathy, respect, and connection between the delegates. As our charity aims to build China literacy in schools, one of the outcomes was that western students were able to witness the high calibre of their peers from China. We were encouraged that one native English speaker is learning mandarin for GCSE and wished the Chinese students a happy new year in a pre-recorded speech. A greater global awareness is critical to enable cooperation between nations and to ensure that steps can be taken quickly to save the planet.”

Richard Higgins, Conference Director from the Grange School, said that “it was an amazing event,” and that his “students were buzzing at the end of it.” Changchun Foreign Language School, which fielded a Chairperson, Chen Silin, has already committed to participating in this Engage with China MUN in 2023.

Another student from Shenzhen Foreign Language School expressed her delight at the learnings of the conference.

It provided us with a wonderful platform. It showed us that the more engaged we are individually and the more engaged we are as nations, the better the future will be.

Based on the overwhelming success of the Conference, this will become an annual event. Please contact Engage with China to register early interest to participate in the 2023 conference.

WHO, Covid, space exploration, AI, company listings, big data, environment, world resources, human rights – all of these subjects fill media headlines – so it is no surprise that, “everyone is thinking China, China, China.” As the world’s second largest economy, largely fuelled by globalisation and a decades-long national vision to lift itself out of poverty, China is now firmly intertwined with other nations through logistics and supply chains and boasts the largest population in the world. Add a new-found self-confidence and its actions are bound to have huge global impact and no wonder everyone has China on their minds.

Dame Caroline Wilson, British Ambassador to China, spoke today to the Generation UK: China Network about the importance of building a ‘China-literate’ generation. Elaborating on what this phrase means, she said, “China literacy is not just about history but rather understanding the dynamics of sectors and the interdependencies that we share…it is also about nuance, nous and networks.” She added that demonising China is not helping for finding solutions to global problems.

Engage with China, (EwC) an educational charity building China literacy in schools, has been aiming to build all these since 2018. Founded by two British women who have long experience of engagement with China, EwC’s vision aligns with Dame Caroline’s, enabling young people to build trust and be involved in informed dialogue having discovered what China is like for themselves. Theresa Booth, a former corporate lawyer, took the entrepreneurial route and set up a sandwich deli in Beijing in the mid 1990s. H-J Colston-Inge, studied mandarin at Durham University and worked for Chubb as the only ‘foreigner’ in their network of offices in mainland China. Together they also run the Chopsticks Club, an innovative China-UK professionals’ network, founded in 1993.

“If Global Britain needs a China-literate generation to promote its interests, then starting young is really important,” says Director, H-J. “China has so much to interest young people – from its mythological dragons to food, AI, inventions, values and language – that we can see how easy it is to capture the imagination from a very young age. Our learning resources are designed for primary and secondary school pupils.”

Fostering a global outlook and an understanding of China through age-appropriate, curriculum enrichment ‘Challenge Days,’ EwC enables young people to recognise that China plays a large part in their lives linked to us through history, the things we buy and where they come from, and also to consider the way they interact with the world, for example through TikTok, the massive social media phenomenon utilised by young people that is Chinese-owned. Schools value how EwC brings an international experience into the classroom, that pupils are encouraged to form their own opinions and to see that cross-cultural collaboration is the best way that humanity can hope to solve sustainability goals necessitated by climate change. 

A key learning for pupils is also to understand ‘the how’ of China’s growth and economic transformation and to consider its growing influence and impact. Through activities and learning, pupils discover that China’s unprecedented rise is largely due to its system of government and its vision for itself. Director, H-J continued, “We want young people not only to be ‘thinking China, China, China’ but what does China mean for their future?”

Generation UK is a British Council campaign that has enabled 67,000 young people aged 18+ to study, travel or intern in China since 2016. 

It is some months ago now since Chinese schools reopened. Rather than a blanket, country-wide easing of lockdown, however, re-opening began with a deliberate focus on cities and areas that were classified as ‘low risk.’ In such cases, all age groups were able to go back to school, from kindergarten to senior school. Full virus testing operations were put in place including temperature checks and health passports. As one Mum told us,

“it is the mandatory travel reporting and temperature testing entering every building that have kept a stranglehold on the virus”

and enabled 1.4 billion people the chance to return to life pretty much as normal.

During the online homeschooling phase, which varied from place to place but lasted in the southern city of Guangzhou, for example, from end January 2020 to 01 June, pupils had to wear school uniform and sing the national anthem every day, even at home. The school timetable remained as full-on as ever with regular academic testing. We interviewed one family whose 14 year old daughter was still doing PE following a video made by her teacher, cooking as part of her homework and also learning about the coronavirus.

Despite an extended period of home schooling, a relatively normal life outside school resumed with restaurants and shopping malls open. The public was simply required to have a temperature check when entering a building and wear a mask for the protection of others.

Of course students and parents have, like us here in the UK, experienced delayed exams, class closures and online learning. When schools were reopened, kindergarten and older children were dropped off at the school gates and parents were no longer allowed to accompany children inside. Staggered start and end times as well as social distancing helped to reduce additional risk.

Initially when kindergartens reopened, children had to eat alone but subsequently glass or perspex separator boards were placed on the tables between children. In boarding schools, beds were added and separated 2 metres apart, to enable social distancing during the daily, designated nap time – (yup! that even includes senior school students) – and mixed class activities were reduced.

The overwhelming feeling of being back at school is the happiness of being together amongst friends. It is what our education specialists and SLTs will also say. To be able to “hang out and chat with my friends, to laugh together and to do sport,” said Jia Lu, aged 14, are the things that, like for most children everywhere, enhance the joy of the shared learning experience and improve wellbeing.

Whilst outbreaks of the Coronavirus still occur, as happened in Chengdu City in China’s western interior, just before Chinese New Year, China continues to manage the virus well. Whenever it raises its ugly head, strict lockdown measures are enforced and travel bans implemented to prevent its spread. Adherence to the rules has meant that Chinese people are enjoying ‘a life more normal’ than we are able to experience just yet. We would certainly like a bit more of that!