This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Ruth Lectures. This lecture in the series

Chinese Vistas, given by Professor Jonathan Spence, was originally broadcast in 2008.

Hello and welcome to the Victorian splendour of St George's Hall in Liverpool.

Built as a concert hall and as a law court, it was possibly the only place in 19th century

Britain where you could listen to Beethoven and be tried for murder under the same roof.

Historically, the port of Liverpool was the hub of much of Britain's imperial expansion and has

many links with China, Chinese merchant seamen, initially hired by Liverpool's blue funnel line,

supported Britain in two world wars, and some then settled here.

Today, it's twinned with one of China's biggest and most important cities, also a great port,

Shanghai. So it's an appropriate place in which to hold one of this year's series of wreath lectures, which is entitled Chinese Vistas.

The lectures have focused on the history and the culture of China, an explanation of how the development of a country that's emerging as one of the world's great economic powers is inextricably bound up with its past. Last week we heard

about Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher, whose ideas still influence his country today.

This week, our lecture is called English Lessons and will explore what happens when Chinese and

British ideas meet.

The relationship between China and Britain has never been an easy one.

Our lecturer is a man who's better place than most to try to help us understand how that

relationship will unfold as our future in the United Kingdom becomes increasingly dependent

on what happens in China.

He's a historian whose books about China are regarded as the leading works in their field.

It's his belief that the country's history holds the key to its present.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the BBC's Reith Lecturer 2008, Professor Jonathan Spence.

Thank you, Susan, for that wonderful introduction and welcome everybody.

...