China Media Centre 2015 Winter Seminar – A journey to the west

Speaker: Mr Shirong Chen
Chair: Professor Hugo de Burgh

Open to all

A visiting scholar from China embarked on a year-long personal journey to England to learn new education technologies that he intended to take back with him. He ended up working for more than a decade as a journalist/editor for the BBC, one of the biggest and most influential media organisations in the world. Now he has turned his energy to China Report, a news magazine he publishes in conjunction with China News Service, one of the two main news agencies in China. The magazine is dedicated to promoting understanding between China and Western Europe. Shirong Chen’s personal journey takes place against the backdrop of a changing and increasingly powerful China, He started his journey almost like Wukong in the legendary Story of the Monkey, overcoming many tests and challenges to get to China’s west for the original Buddhist Sutras. But the journey has turned out to be a lasting quest for journalistic wisdom and skills to stay ahead of the new media wave.

Mr Shirong Chen is the managing editor of Foremost 4 Media, a company that provides media consultancy and project execution service to both British and Chinese clients in designing PR strategy and expanding their market reach and impact. As the China editor for the BBC, he played an important role in planning the BBC coverage of the Beijing Olympics, enhancing in-depth reporting on China across platforms, in English and Chinese, and providing advice on China issues for the management and news teams. As the Online editor for BBC Chinese, he gained first-hand experience in dealing with the Great Fire Wall of China and launched the BBC’s China-facing website BBCChina.com (now relaunched as BBCChinaUK.com).

If you have any inquiry about CMC events, please contact Alja Kranjec at a.kranjec@westminster.ac.uk