 It is with great pleasure that I present and salute today Rong-Zhan distinguished senior British woman author whose work and success in the last 30 years have inspired and encouraged many a writer of Chinese descent. Born in Sichuan province in 1952, Rong-Zhan lived her young adult life during the Cultural Revolution. First as Red Guard, then as a worker in a rural area, a barefoot doctor, a steel worker, and an electrician. With the death of Maud Zedong in 1976, Rong-Zhan graduated from university and won a scholarship that brought her to the UK in 1978. In the UK, Rong-Zhan continued her studies obtaining a PhD in linguistics from the University of York in 1982. In the second half of the 1980s, Rong-Zhan worked at SOAS as Chinese language coordinator of the Language Center. With the publication of her first autobiographical book in 1991, Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China, Rong-Zhan became the renowned author that she is today, applauded and translated worldwide and like all successful figures, also controversially discussed. Selling over 12 million copies, it is no exaggeration to say that Wild Swans has shaped the public opinion on China more than any other book. It narrates the hardship experienced by three generation of female kin, Rong-Zhan herself, her mother, and her grandmother on the backdrop of China's political upheavals. Spunning from the late Qing dynasty in the first decade of the 20th century to the 1970s, this book is formidable in its scope and in its poignant description of China's crucial historical events, from the fall of the dynastic rule to the republican period, the struggle between the nationalists and the communists, the Sino-Japanese war, the rise of power to power of Mao Zedong, the great leap forward and the 10 years of chaos of the Cultural Revolution. This remarkable document of Chinese history has experienced by ordinary people, presents the reader with unforgettable scenes of injustice and brutality, as well as courage and resilience in a touching portrayal of human despair, heroism, and regained faith. Despite experiencing censorship with Wild Swans, Dr. Zhang has been determined in challenging existing accounts of Chinese history, publishing two more biographical works, both of which draw on extensive research. In 2005, together with John Halliday, Run Zhang published Mao, The Unknown Story, a book she wrote after spending 12 years researching in various countries' archives, painstakingly uncovering and examining records and interviewing hundreds of high witnesses, including Mao subordinates, friends and acquaintances and international statement. This book, too, suffered censorship in China. Her third book, Empress Dowager Tsushi, the concubine who launched Modern China, published in 2013, is also the result of eight-year research into the private and public life of a woman who entered the Forbidden City as an imperial concubine in 1852 and became regent of supreme power at the Qin court for more than 40 years. In contrast with the more traditional portrayal of Empress Tsushi as a cruel, reactionary figure, Run Zhang offers a reading of her life that is more favorable, depicting a woman who had to fend herself against vicious attacks and to pursue the modernization of China in more than one aspect. Thus, Dr. Zhang has shared with the public her life experience and her insider's knowledge of China's most critical modern times. Her efforts have helped crossing geographical and temporal borders, illuminating women's oppression in 20th century Chinese patriarchal and chauvinistic society. Thus, Dr. Zhang stands for freedom of speech, equality and cultural understanding, core values that saw us as committed to promote. During her career, Run Zhang has been awarded five honorary doctorates in the UK and one from the US. Her gripping and detailed biographical works continue to immerse an incredibly vast readership in crucial periods of China's modern history. Madam presiding officer, it is my privilege now to present Run Zhang for the award of Fellowship of the School and to invite her to address the assembly. Very much, thank you. Thank you all, thank you very much. I feel tremendously privileged to be awarded an honorary fellowship from SOAS University of London. I have a special affection for SOAS because it was here, it was while I was working here that I wrote Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China, the book that was largely responsible for me being here today. In the mid-1980s, Professor Pollard, head of the Far Eastern Department, invited me to come to SOAS and take charge of the China part of external services. This began many memorable years in my life. We ran courses for international, courses for Chinese studies, for major international companies like Boeing and the Swire Group and for the British Foreign Office. Some of our former students are now ambassadors and council generals. Once when I was back in Beijing, researching my book, After Wild Swans, The Biography of Mao, the British ambassador, Sir Robin McLaren, gave a reception for me and invited my former students. There were quite a lot of them and we had a very happy reunion. In 1988, my mother came from China to visit me. For the first time in our lives, she told me the stories of her life and that of my grandmother. Once my mother started, she couldn't stop. She stayed with me for six months and she talked every day. When I was out working at SOAS, she talked into a tape recorder. So by the time she left London, she had left me 60 hours of tape recording and I had decided to write Wild Swans. I wrote a synopsis and showed it to Peter Whitaker, Head of External Services at SOAS and he greatly encouraged me. My colleagues were also very, very enthusiastic. They helped me by, you know, helped me doing my job so I could have more time for my writing. And when Wild Swans was published, they immediately organized a presentation at SOAS in one of the seminar groups. It was one of my very first book talks. And after Wild Swans was published, I left SOAS in 1992 to focus on writing. To be a writer had been my childhood dream, but I had not been able to write because when I was growing up under Mao, writing was the most dangerous profession. But still, when I was working as a peasant and spread manure in the paddy fields and when I worked as an electrician and checked electricity supplies on top of the poles, I was always writing in my head with an invisible pen. At last, at SOAS, my dreams were fulfilled and I became a writer. And I shall be forever indebted to this great institution. Thank you very much. Thank you.