Oxford can play a bigger role in reflecting change

Rana Mitter, director of the Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre, says it wants to reflect the modern diversity of China. [Photo/China Daily]

Greater need for a better understanding exists due to bigger economic, geopolitical importance of China in the world, says leading academic

Rana Mitter, director of the new Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre, believes China should now be seen as a plural noun rather than as a singular noun.

He hopes the center, now Europe's biggest and which opened on Sept 8, will reflect that modern diversity of the country.

"China is a whole diversity of different things in terms of culture, identity and direction," he says.

"Asking questions like 'Is China going to do x, y or z?' is so often wrong because there are so many different Chinas. Not just one."

Mitter, 45, was speaking in the lobby of the Regent Hotel in central Beijing. He was on a trip to the Far East, which also took in a visit to Singapore, just before returning to the UK for the launch.

He believes one of the roles of the 21-million-pound ($33.7 million; 26.2 million euros) center - of which 10 million pounds was donated by Hong Kong billionaire Dickson Poon - on the grounds of St Hugh's College at Oxford, will be to make clear that China is very much a living place and not some static entity mired in its history.

"I hope our center will be at the forefront of breaking down and reinterpreting this idea that China, unlike any other country, is supposed to be a fixed and unchanging place. This is clearly not the case.

"There is so much nonsense written and spoken about China's past, in particular, by people who don't necessarily have an understanding of the complexity and richness of the way China has developed over time."

Mitter, unassuming despite rapidly emerging as one of the world's leading Sinologists, says the launch of the Oxford center comes at a "historic moment" - when there has never been a greater need for a better understanding of China since the expertise available in the field of Sinology lags behind the fast rise of the country.

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