YCW London is delighted to announce our first event of 2017, in which we will be hosting the winners of the inaugural Lau-YCW Institute Essay Competition. The winning submission by Lauren Dickey, a PhD Candidate in War Studies at King’s College and the National University of Singapore, and the two runners up, Julia Chen and Matthew Phan, will give a short presentation on their essays and then take questions from the audience. The event will be moderated by Professor Kerry Brown, Director of the Lau-Institute at King’s College London and an advisor to YCW London.
The event will also announce the establishment of the YCW London Mentorship Programme, introduce the new YCW London team and give an overview of what you can expect from YCW London throughout 2017. There will also be festive drinks and food available to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Lau-YCW Essay Competition Winners
The first Lau-YCW essay competition aimed to discover the newest young writing on China in the UK, in order to develop the next generation of China expertise. We invited members of academia, the media, government, the private sector or any interested applicants to submit an entry on the inaugural theme: “How Will China Change the World?”
Our panel of judges (from the YCW London chapter leadership and the Lau China Institute at King’s College) in the end blind choose Lauren Dickey as the winner! She wrote an excellent article entitled ‘China’s Water Footprint: An Example for Future Policymakers.’
Lauren submitted an impassioned essay on China’s water security, tracing the growing water crisis from Mao Zedong’s post-1949 development projects to Zhongnanhai’s “sponge city” pilot program. She makes a compelling case for how China’s response to water scarcity will change the world, arguing, “China’s partners and friends can learn from Beijing’s mistakes. But it is the success stories that others will emulate.”
You can read Lauren’s essay here: http://www.youngchinawatchers.com/lau-ycw-essay-competition-winner-chinas-water-footprint-an-example-for-future-policymakers/
The second and third places were tied between Julia Chen and Matthew Phan who wrote respectively about China and climate change and China and bond markets.
YCW London Mentorship Programme
YCW London is also delighted to announce the establishment of the YCW London Mentorship Programme. The first YCW Mentorship Programme was established by YCW Beijing and the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre in 2015. The programme pairs young people who are interested in pursuing a career in or on China with a mentor from the local YCW community. Through the programme, interns and their mentors have had many opportunities to develop new friendships and to attend events such as a private dinner with former US Ambassador to China, J. Stapleton Roy.
The YCW-Carnegie Tsinghua Mentorship Programme has been a tremendous success, and we are looking forward to introducing this programme in London. YCW London are also excited to welcome our new London Mentorship Programme Manager, June Sun, to the team, who will be responsible for the programme.
We invite Kerry Brown, Director at Lau China Institute, King’s College to discuss.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/publish?crumb=fa8016cf5f8689&eid=31789296642
In Partnership With The Lau China Institute at King’s College London Lau China Institute, King’s College
Kerry Brown
Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. Prior to this he was a diplomat, working for the British Foreign Office in London and China from 1998 to 2005, and then Senior Fellow and Head of Asia Programme at Chatham House from 2006 to 2012, when he became Professor Chinese Politics and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He is the author of more than 10 books on modern China, including “CEO China: The Rise of Xi Jinping” to be published in April 2016. His first book of poetry, `Lost Calls’ was published in the US in January 2016.
