Professor Kerry Brown (English 1986) has released a book exploring the history of Britain’s relationship with China, which includes some significant connections to 鶹Ů.
Kerry first visited Beijing while living in Japan in 1990, following the completion of his undergraduate studies. Captivated by this week-long visit to China, he began learning Mandarin at a night school while working in Melbourne, Australia, before undertaking an intensive year-long postgraduate diploma in the language at Thames Valley University in London. He next lived in Inner Mongolia from 1994 to 1996, then returned to the UK for a PhD in Chinese Politics and History at the University of Leeds. Having worked since then in various diplomatic roles engaging with China, he is now Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, a position he has held since 2015.
His new book , published in July by Yale University Press, explores the history of Britain’s relationship with China from the 16th century to the present day. “It’s a long history, and we’ve had a big influence on each other,” Kerry says. “The British drink tea, use porcelain and wear silk. Our gardens are profoundly influenced by China. It’s part of our daily life, although we don’t recognise it much, even today.
“I wrote this book because I thought, ‘Why don’t British people know their history with China?’. It’s not easy to know because it’s not confined to one place. There have been many excellent studies, but none that are accessible, so I thought I’d write a single-volume history of the relationship to help British people know their history.”
The book features some prominent Caians who have played major roles in Anglo-Chinese relations. One of these is Thomas Manning, a 19th-century sinologist who was one of the earliest British people known to speak Chinese. He is also the first British person on record to meet the Dalai Lama.
Significant attention is also given to Joseph Needham, a 20th-century biochemist who raised the still much-discussed Needham Question – that is, the question of why modern science had developed less in China than in Europe, despite China being far more innovative in its early history. Kerry remarks that Needham, Master at Caius from 1966 to 1976, was “probably the most important sinologist Britain has produced in the last 150 years.” He adds: “Because of Needham, the link between Caius and China is a very important one.”
Years after he graduated, Kerry remains keen to maintain his links with Cambridge. He has returned to lecture on many occasions and is an Affiliate of the University’s Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU), a major centre for research on the same area in which he spent two seminal years of his life.
