About Us

The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) was founded in 1965 to promote understanding and friendship between the British and Chinese people.

It is open to all who subscribe to these aims.

SACU’s mission is to promote understanding and advance the education of the UK public in all aspects of China and the Chinese people by:

  • providing facts and analysis about China – not uncritically but always from a firm base of friendship
  • helping the British people to understand the meaning of China – past and present
  • promoting friendship and mutual respect between the peoples of China and the UK

 SACU aims to promote understanding:

  • to help the UK flourish in a world increasingly influenced by China
  • to help overcome misplaced suspicion and increase understanding of China within the UK
  • to help members progress their China-related interests and so to help SACU thrive

SACU's logo is the Chinese character for friendship 'you'. It is made up of two elements both representing hands and so forms an appropriate character to represent friendship through the joining of hands. The character is usually seen in conjunction with other characters giving the word an association of friendship. For example  peng you - 'friend' and  you ai - 'friendly affection'. The character 'ai' means 'love' or 'affection' and itself includes the friendship character.

SACU is a registered UK charity (294651)

Essay / Art Competition 2016/27

The SACU/ Peking University Essay/Art Competition was launched as part of SACU’s 50th Anniversary in 2015. During SACU's 60th anniversary in 2025, we set "The Environment" as one of the main interest areas for the next decade, so the competition in the future years will continue encouraging young people to explore the topic of ‘Environment’.

 THEMES

What Can Young People in Britain and China Do Together to Make the Global Environment Better?

You are encouraged to explore the topic of environmental development of China and/or UK and how we could learn from each other. You might consider one of the following approaches:

  • focused inquiry on a city/country or a period in history;
  • developing a study of the environment from the angle of the social sciences or sciences or technology or the digital era, including but not limited to, climate change, urbanization, digitization, diversity, socio-economic challenges, extractive practices etc.;
  • describing your personal experience under the umbrella of environment in the global context;
  • reflecting the meanings and significance of mutual understanding between the two countries through historical figures;
  • proposing new ideas or solutions to environmental challenges;
  • exploring the material documented on SACU’s online archive at https://archive.sacu.org/ ;
  • expressing your view or your proposal in either an essay or an artistic way.

THE AWARDS

  • Three prizes, sponsored by Peking University, will be awarded of £200 / £100 /£50 in each age category [16 years and above; below 16 years].
  • The judging panel, chaired by Dr. Frances Wood, renowned author on China and former head of the British Library China Collection and SACU Vice President, will give their views on the entries.
  • There will be an Awards Event for all the shortlisted entrants in June 2027 in London, involving Dr. Frances Wood and Prof Sun Hua of Peking University - an expert in foreign friends of China who have contributed to building friendship between the peoples of China and the West.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

  • The submission can be in an essay or an artistic form, for example photography, other visual media, choreographed dance, etc with a short description of the artwork, no more than 1000 words.
  • Essays should be a maximum of 2, 000 words and videos no longer than 5 minutes.

 THE ENTRY PROCESS

  • Entries will be considered in two age categories: 16 years and above; below 16 years.
  • Each school is asked to run its own internal process in order to select up to 3 entries for each category – 16 years and above; and below 16 years.
  • The closing date for submissions for judging will be 14th May
  • Each school will be encouraged to forward their views on their entries via their SACU member link to the judging panel.
  • Schools will be asked to submit the email addresses for all entrants [not just the shortlisted 3 for each category] as all entrants will be given a free student membership of SACU for one year as a token of gratitude for participating.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

SACU is a registered charity in the UK. All entries, including any accompanying materials, submitted for this competition will become the property of SACU. The entries will be used for the purpose of promoting friendship between the UK and China.

SUPPORT FROM SACU – SPEAKERS BUREAU

SACU’s mission includes improving understanding in UK of China, its people and culture. It offers talks to schools in the UK under the title “China in the World”. Members of our Speakers Bureau are all established writers and speakers on China with many years’ experience of living and working in the Chinese world. The aim of the talks on China is to bring a more thoughtful and insightful perspective to the students who are interested not only in the competition but in the promotion of UK-China relationship in the future.

SACU CONTACT FOR THE COMPETITION AND TALK ON “CHINA IN THE WORLD”

Schools/Teachers who wish to participate are asked to contact the SACU Coordinator of the event and discuss how they would like to proceed. Please contact

Mrs. Fang Wang, EssayCompetition@sacu.org.uk