Book review: The Life and Times of Hu Wenzhong at Beijing Foreign Studies University

Foreign language education

Prof. Hu was admitted to Beijing Foreign Languages Institute or Beiwai for short (now Beijing Foreign Studies University) in 1951 when he was 16 and was chosen to be trained as an English teacher. His teachers included Chu Dagao, Wang Zuoliang, Xu Guozhang, Shui Tiantong, Margaret Turner, David and Isabel Crook, all distinguished professors of English at Beiwai. In September 1957, Prof. Hu started his career in English teaching. In the years to come, he became a distinguished professor of English.

The most successful English learning program in China has been perhaps Follow Me, a series of TV programs originally produced by the BBC in the late 1970s to provide a crash course in English. In 1981, Prof. Hu was asked by China Central TV to host the adapted Chinese version of Follow Me with the British teacher Kathy Flower. The program was so successful that it made Prof. Hu a TV star and household name in China. It was reported that in 1983 alone, around 100 million Chinese watched Follow Me. Four decades later, some people in China still remember Follow Me and recognize Prof. Hu in public places.

Beiwai has played a leading role in foreign language education in China. After he became an English teacher, Prof. Hu and his colleagues experimented with different teaching methods and compiled several sets of textbooks. English textbooks that Prof. Hu compiled or jointly compiled include: English Book1-4 (Commercial Press, 1975-1979); College English Book 1-2 (Commercial Press, 1983); College English (Revised) Book 1-2 (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1992); Gateway to English Book 1-2 (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1996); and English for Chinese Civil Servants (Higher Education Press, 1997).

In the 1980s and 1990s, Prof. Hu held the positions of director of the National Editing Committee on Textbooks for Foreign Language Majors under the Ministry of Education, and director of the National Advisory Committee on Teaching Foreign Language to Majors in Higher Education under the Ministry of Education. He was tirelessly devoted to China's language education and earned wide appreciation. He wrote dozens of papers on foreign language teaching, foreign language education, foreign language planning and language policy. In 2001, he was elected president of the Chinese English Language Education Association (CELEA). In the same year, the CELEA decided to join the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) and was accepted as a member association the following year. In addition to organizing international conferences on English language teaching in China, one of the extraordinary feats of the CELEA was hosting the 16th AILA World Congress 2011 in China under the leadership of Prof. Hu. The AILA 2011 was a great success and attracted 1,480 participants from 63 countries, providing a rare opportunity for Chinese language educators and researchers to engage with international colleagues.