Swire Chinese Language Foundation conference 2025

On Friday 21st March 2025, MGS hosted the annual Swire Chinese Language Student Conference for the fourth consecutive year. The event is aimed at secondary school students (Y9 to Y13) who are studying Chinese in the Swire Chinese Language Programme (SCLP) and who have a keen interest in China. 

The SCLP currently educates approximately 22,000 schoolchildren, with just over a quarter from less privileged backgrounds, across 145 schools within 12 centres nationwide. MGS leads the Manchester Centre and collaborates with seven local schools. This privately funded initiative aims to lay the groundwork for stronger UK engagement with China in the next generation.

The morning keynote – ‘Why bother learning Chinese’ – was delivered by Edward Knight and Ruby Osman from The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Within a wider context of increasing geopolitical tensions and rapid advances in automatic translation technologies, the speakers urged the audience to persevere with their Chinese learning journeys.

Friendships were forged over a buffet lunch, with the obligatory cup of Chinese Bubble Tea proving to be as popular as ever. Conference delegates then reflected upon the future of Chinese language learning with a lively panel discussion featuring Chidimma Anyakora (Second year undergraduate student – Chinese with Business & Management at the University of Manchester), Will Hart (PhD medical student at the University of Manchester and well-known YouTuber), Lewys Thomas (Co-director of the I’m Learning Mandarin blog and podcast) and Rob Neal (Manchester Swire Chinese Language Centre Coordinator).

The final session took the form of an equally lively student debate – ‘this house believes that learning to handwrite Chinese characters is a waste of time’. All six debaters generated very strong audience engagement. Compelling arguments were made on both sides and it was wonderful to see students reflecting on their learning in such a passionate manner. Rosie Keep managed the debate superbly.

Previous Swire student conferences had set the bar extremely high. Yet this conference was arguably our most successful yet. Students from Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford and Sheffield had packed the Mem Hall and been an absolute credit to both their schools and themselves.

Teddy Watson, Executive Director of the Swire Chinese Language Foundation, commented: ‘We are very keen to see Mandarin become a mainstream subject in the state sector’s curriculum and see this conference as a valuable part of our multi-pronged effort, enthusing students to continue with their studies through to university and beyond.’