Cartoonist, entrepreneur, teacher win UK alumni awards

A cartoonist, an entrepreneur and a visually impaired English teacher received top honors from the British Council when it handed out the 2016 Education UK Alumni Awards in Beijing on Saturday.

Nine alumni of British universities were among the finalists for the awards, having stood out from more than 800 applicants from across China.

Ling Yifan, a cartoonist who graduated from Birmingham City University, received a Professional Achievement Award. Ling has published more than 20 comic books in China and abroad, and three of the books won international awards. Her online comic story, Guarding, has been read by more than 100 million people and was adapted into a movie.

Ling said she benefited a great deal from her studies in the United Kingdom, which helped improve her artistic skills and added to her confidence.

Xiao Dun, who obtained a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, received the Entrepreneurial Award for his success in co-founding a company that develops educational mobile apps, and for an online homework platform he established for more than 15 million students.

Xiao said his experience at Cambridge enhanced his leadership and sense of business, which played a key role in him becoming a successful entrepreneur. In a short speech after he received the award, Xiao said he was grateful to his parents, who instead of giving him a house or a car, "gave me the opportunity to study in the UK, which is really invaluable."

Zheng Jianwei, a visually impaired English teacher, won the Social Impact Award. Zheng was the first among his visually impaired peers in southwestern China to have taken an English language proficiency test, the International English Language Testing System, and then studied in the UK.

Carma Elliot, director of British Council China, said the excellent alumni shared one similarity: their education experience in the UK laid a solid basis for their success in different fields and enabled them to inspire younger generations.

China now has about 600,000 students who returned from the UK after graduation, Elliot said.