SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Michael Natzler's report for the Higher Education Policy Institute of March 2022 entitled “Understanding China: The Study of China and Mandarin in UK Schools and Universities” surveyed the provision of Chinese Studies in Britain since the Second World War and pointed out Britain's slow progress and current unpreparedness to cope with the new role of China in world affairs. In reviewing his very valuable contribution a longer-term perspective is adopted, going back to the nineteenth century, to explore the repeated failure of attempts at improving the situation as the background to a current almost complete failure to cope with the complexities of the Chinese cultural tradition, the understanding of which requires much more than a short course in Mandarin. Ignorance of Chinese culture is an insult to persons of Chinese heritage whatever their political persuasion, but under current circumstances educating Britons in this area after decades of ignorance and prejudice is not going to be easy.