Peking University, June 22, 2026: The ninth SACU-PKU Essay/Art Competition, co-organized by the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) and the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies at Peking University, held its awards ceremony on June 20 at King's College London, following a year of selection and judging across multiple British secondary schools. SACU members, prize-winning students, their parents, and supervising teachers attended the ceremony.



The day's program was divided into morning and afternoon sessions. The morning session comprised SACU's 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM), incorporating the 9th Essay/Art Competition awards ceremony. The meeting was jointly chaired by SACU's new chair, Pete Jarvis, and chair emerita, Zoe Reed. The AGM adopted the 2025 Annual Report and Accounts, elected new council members and Charitable Incorporated Organization (CIO) Trustees, and received an update on the SACU Forward Plan 2026-2031.

During the awards ceremony, SACU Vice President Frances Wood, former head of the Chinese Section at the British Library and a Peking University alumna, reviewed the students' entries and announced the winners of all eight prizes. This year's competition featured two categories: Essay and Art. The Joint First Prize for Essay was awarded to Lewis MacTaggart from Marlborough College and Reilly Olsen from King's College School Wimbledon. The Second Prize went to Bernice Tso from The King's School Canterbury. Third Prizes were awarded to Isaac Liow and Sana Majdalani from King's College School Wimbledon, and Marli Olton from Highgate School. In the Art category, the First Prize was won by Harry Sheldon from Marlborough College, and the Third Prize was awarded to Bob Cham from The King's School Canterbury. SACU Council Member Fang Wang presented an overview of this year's competition and reported on preparations for the next edition.

Following the awards, two former prize-winning students who had been selected for the "Knowing China" in-depth research program shared their experiences of visiting China. Eileen Wang, currently a Year 9 student at King Edward VI High School for Girls, presented her research project on elderly care homes in Tianjin; Desmond Zee, a first-year engineering student at the University of Cambridge, shared his project on traditional calligraphy tool artisans in Huangshan. Both gave vivid accounts of what they saw, heard, and experienced in China, generating enthusiastic responses from the audience. Each year, the competition sponsors two prize-winning students to undertake a month-long research visit to China, deepening the outcomes of the essay competition.

Professor Sun Hua, Director of the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies at Peking University, delivered a video address on behalf of the Chinese co-organizers. In his remarks, Professor Sun reviewed the competition's nine-year journey from its modest beginnings to broad participation by leading British schools, and highly commended the efforts and enthusiasm of British secondary school students in deepening their understanding of China through writing and artistic creation. He told the story of George Hogg, a British journalist and headmaster of the Bailie School -- noting that SACU's new chair, Pete Jarvis, is Hogg's grandnephew. Hogg graduated from Oxford in 1937 and traveled to war-torn China, joining the Gung Ho movement and later becoming headmaster of the Bailie School in Shuangshipu, Shaanxi Province. He wrote I See a New China and died in China in 1945 at the age of just 30. As President Xi Jinping emphasized during his 2015 state visit to the United Kingdom, when recounting the stories of George Hogg and the rescue of the Lisbon Maru, the bonds of friendship forged between the peoples of China and Britain in the fires of war will never fade and remain a precious asset of the bilateral relationship. Professor Sun encouraged more young British people to follow in the footsteps of Hogg and Edgar Snow by visiting China in person, and to become new ambassadors for friendship and mutual understanding between China and the UK.



The afternoon session was open to a wider public audience. Michael Wood, SACU President, distinguished British historian, and professor of public history at the University of Manchester, delivered a keynote address. Professor Wood is a renowned television presenter and founder of Maya Vision International. His acclaimed documentary series, including The Story of China and Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet, are well-known among British audiences interested Chinese history and culture.

This was followed by a keynote speech by Farooq Chaudhry OBE, a British-Asian dance producer. Chaudhry co-founded the internationally acclaimed Akram Khan Company in 2000 and established Feng Ling Productions in 2021. He was awarded an OBE for his outstanding contributions to the British arts, served as a Trustee of Tate, and received the UK-China Cultural Exchange Award in 2025. In 2026, Chaudhry serves as international artistic director of the Shenzhen Opera and Dance Theatre and visiting professor at the Beijing Dance Academy, making him a significant figure in promoting cultural and artistic exchange between China and the UK. In his address, he shared his experiences and reflections on fostering cross-cultural dialogue through dance.

The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding was founded in London in 1965 by the noted scientist and sinologist Joseph Needham, with the mission of promoting understanding and friendship between the peoples in the UK and China. Peking University's China Center for Edgar Snow Studies has maintained a long-standing cooperative relationship with SACU. In 2015, the two organizations launched the first UK/China Friendship and Understanding Essay Competition at Oundle School, Joseph Needham's alma mater. St. George School, the alma mater of British journalist and Bailie School headmaster George Hogg, joined the second edition. To date, dozens of British secondary schools have participated. This year's competition introduced a new Art category alongside the established Essay category, further broadening the ways in which British young people can engage with and express their understanding of China. Many former participants have gone on to study China-related subjects at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics, and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.

To further deepen research collaboration, the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies at Peking University and SACU launched a joint research project in 2020 entitled "What's Past is Prologue -- China-UK People-to People Exchange Research Project," which systematically catalogues and studies the extensive archive of documents, audiovisual materials, books, and artifacts accumulated over SACU's 60-plus years of operation. The resulting database, now publicly accessible via the websites of both the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies (cces.pku.edu.cn) and SACU (sacu.org), includes over 9,000 bilingually captioned photographs of China-UK people-to-people exchange, nearly 10,000 articles from SACU's historical journals, and Joseph Needham's manuscripts and correspondence.

Source: China Center for Edgar Snow Studies, Peking University