Chris Nash first visited China in 2008 as a guest of the BBC and it was “love at first sight.” Nash, now the new chair of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU), is an old friend of the Chinese and has long been engaged in international education in China.

Integrating Chinese and Western Ideas 

A postgraduate in education, Nash was a school headmaster in England for 10 years, when he introduced many innovative ideas, especially e-learning and international partnerships.

In 2013, he was delighted to accept an invitation from Hao Shaolin, a renowned Chinese educator, to open a new international school in Beijing based on his education philosophies. That venture has become today’s Beijing Xinxuedao Education Group, which runs a network of 30 schools across China.

“What attracted me to work in Beijing was the experimental educational thinking of Hao Shaolin,” Nash told China Today in an exclusive interview. “Like me, he believes in the value of life-long learning.” Nash supports his graduates all “through the university, not just to the university.”

As Nash sees it, international education methods do not mean abandoning traditions. Chinese culture values the cultivation of character traits such as integrity and perseverance, providing students cultural soil for life-long development and making their growth more resilient. “Traditional Chinese values on education enable students to adapt more easily to the challenging new environment and thrive on an overseas campus.”

He also doesn’t think harmonizing Chinese and British educational ideas is a problem at all. “As an international school leader, you have to abandon all ideas of ‘cultural imperialism,’ and be humble, engage deeply with Chinese thinking and be constantly looking for bridges of understanding,” Nash said. 

Exploring China’s Vast Culture and Diversity 

While working in China, Nash has visited many cities. International teachers in China should love and learn about the whole country, he told China Today, not just the cosmopolitan areas of Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, but also cities with their own characteristics such as Nanjing, Chengdu, Kunming, and Dunhuang located in the central, western, and southwestern regions of China. This will help them to have a more comprehensive and complete understanding of the country, as well as a deeper understanding of China’s vast and diverse culture.

He watched the 2020 film My People, My Homeland, five poignant tales about people living in different parts of rural China and striving for their communities’ economic and social welfare, and was moved, especially by the story of family reunion. “So I became determined to use my Spring Festival (holiday) to travel to remote areas of this beautiful country,” Nash said. He went to Yunnan in southwest China and said he was grateful to the local residents there for their kindness.

“I am expecting to learn from the ethnic minority communities who have their own special role in the national life of China. I particularly admire the way their lives are organized in harmony with nature, for example houses that are made entirely from natural materials. And of course, everywhere you travel in China there are delicious local cuisines to explore and enjoy. I have to admit that many times in Beijing I find myself craving a bowl of simple but utterly satisfying Yunnan rice noodles!” he said.

Nash is inspired by young people. Every summer, his Beijing students are given the task of organizing one-week classes for a remote school’s students. The Beijing students must discover the educational needs of the local students and design teaching methods and a meaningful curriculum by themselves. More challengingly, they must adapt to the living conditions of the local school and teach in a meaningful, relevant and professional way.

So far, the responses from the local students have been inspirational, but even more impressive has been the Beijing students’ journey into maturity and responsibility. They learned firsthand that the best life is a life of service to others.

Chris Nash (left) and Michael Crook, founder of Western Academy of Beijing, exchange ideas and experiences about international school education.

A Community of Shared Understanding 

Nash considers it an honor to chair SACU, especially after 14 years of exceptional leadership by his predecessor, Zoe Reed. He also feels it is inspiring to think that he can help “in a small way” to keep alive the legacy of SACU’s founding chair Joseph Needham and his devotion to China’s history, culture, science and technology. SACU is today increasingly known to British youth.

Nash calls British historian Michael Wood, who is the president of SACU, his mentor. Wood’s documentary In the Footsteps of Du Fu that chronicles the life of arguably China’s greatest poet Du Fu (712-770) made him marvel at the long and profound history of Chinese culture. “I can only aspire to have a fraction of Wood’s knowledge and insights into China,” he said.

Nash believes in the power of stories to change minds. Therefore every week, in his Chair’s Blog he writes a “people to people” story illustrating how the people of Britain and the people of China have far more in common than differences. “I hope to pass on the spiritual and cultural heritage of SACU so that more British people can understand China’s history, culture, science and technology,” he said.

This June, the award ceremony of the seventh China-U.K. Friendship and Understanding Essay Competition was held at King’s College London. The competition was jointly sponsored by SACU and the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies at Peking University. The winners were high school students from both the U.K. and China. The topic was “How do you see harmony in the cultural context of China and/or the U.K.?”

“In fact it’s not just an essay competition. We encourage young people in both China and Britain to communicate on the theme they share the same interest in,” Nash said. Last year the theme was “sustainability” and Nash said the participants did impressive, eye-opening research on the green initiatives in both countries, including projects in which teams from the U.K. and China are cooperating, sharing expertise and knowledge.

This year, he said it was especially pleasing to see the efforts of young Britons to research and understand “harmony,” a foundational idea in Chinese culture. Next year will see the 60th anniversary of SACU itself. Nash said as part of these celebrations, they will invite young people from China and Britain to work together, telling the stories of the two old friends of China – U.S. journalist Edgar Snow and British educator George Hogg.

“I have adopted the Chinese philosophy ‘Within the four seas, we are all one family’ as a slogan for SACU, because for me it perfectly expresses the spirit of internationalism, which a divided world needs now more than ever,” Nash said. “The environmental problem is a very important factor in the crisis humanity is facing today, which threatens the very planet where we all live. Therefore, we should build bridges of cooperation.”

Nash encourages his students to go as “civil ambassadors” into their international universities to share their thinking and ideas, including traditional Chinese values of pursuing harmony and building a community of shared understanding.

He echoed Chinese President Xi Jinping, “We have learned that humankind is a community with a shared future. China can do well only when the world is doing well. When China does well, the world will get even better.”