 Madam President, ladies, gentlemen, and colleagues, it is an honor and a great pleasure to present to you Mr. Bing Zheng Tong. Mr. Tong is a dedicated teacher who has made valuable contributions in the field of Chinese language teaching. With the basic building blocks his training has provided, students have been enriched by the access through language into Chinese culture. And numerous graduates of the Chinese section at SOAS have gone on to become leading scholars in the field of Chinese studies. Born in Beijing in 1938, Mr. Tong's early schooling was disrupted by the turmoil affecting China in the 1940s. It was not until he moved to Taiwan in 1950 with his uncle's family that he received an uninterrupted quality education. While still an undergraduate reading history and geography at Taiwan Normal University, he was recruited as a part-time teaching assistant to coach American post-graduates at the university's newly established Mandarin Chinese Training Center. He soon proved himself a gifted teacher and was very popular with his students. Hence after graduation in 1959, he was appointed as a full-time instructor at the center and set the sights on a language teaching career. The center very quickly became a magnet for foreign students who wish to study Mandarin in Taiwan. In 1963, SOAS talent scouts noticed the glow in the eastern sky and Mr. Tong was offered an overseas lectureship here. He soon settled down in London and adapted to a new academic life in the Chinese section of the school where he remained for 35 happy years. In 1985, he was promoted to senior lecturer, a position he held until his retirement in 1998. At SOAS, Mr. Tong was instrumental in transforming the teaching of spoken Chinese enthusing his students with warmth, wit, interest, and humor. Together with Professor David Pollard, he developed a new beginner's textbook Colloquial Chinese. Published in 1982, it immediately received excellent reviews and was adopted by many universities around the world. This liveliest of primers has gone through about a dozen reprints and is still in print, making it far and away the most influential British textbook for the study of Mandarin Chinese in the UK and elsewhere in the English speaking world. At a time when Chinese language pedagogy was not yet an established academic subject, Mr. Tong was generally acknowledged as the UK's most effective, knowledgeable, and productive Chinese language teacher. A whole generation of students of Chinese in the UK have had their first introduction into the language through the uniquely captivating and pedagogically effective dialogues and exercises that he provided for colloquial Chinese. SOAS students in particular are still reaping the benefits of his method. And SOAS language teachers continue to consult him on a regular basis. On the theory and practice of Chinese language teaching. And it was not only in his teaching that he excelled. His unfailing good humor and punctilious concern for the welfare and progress of his students and indeed his colleagues have won him lifelong friends and the esteem and affection of all. Mr. Tong also taught intensive short courses for SOAS external services. In collaboration with Professor Hugh Baker, he produced a self-learning course Chinese in three months in 1993. An updated and enlarged version was later published under a new title Speak Chinese with Millions in 2010. Now in his mid-70s, Mr. Tong has continued to have an input into the SOAS diploma course for Chinese teacher training. The first such course to have been offered in the UK. Mr. Tong was a regular contributor to international conferences on teaching Chinese as a second language. And the importance of his work in this field and the respect in which he was held by colleagues throughout the world were recognized when he was elected vice president of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching for the years 1990 to 2005. He is, as one colleague put it, a truly revered figure in the circle of Chinese language teaching worldwide. SOAS's recognition of and excellence in the field of Chinese language pedagogy owes much to the pioneering efforts of Mr. Tong. Students have had their learning of Chinese made interesting through the thorough, accessible and dryly humorous text of colloquial Chinese. In the same way that those who have read Charles Lam's essays of Iliad cannot forget his quirky dissertation upon roast pig. So no one who has studied Mr. Tong's text will ever forget the right contempt with which he treats the Chinese word San Mingzhi, sandwich in lesson 12. Mr. Tong may have retired but the dissertation upon the sandwich and many other memorable texts go on working to inform and delight a new generation. Madam President, it is my privilege now to present Mr. Bing Zheng Tong for the award of Doctor of Literature and I invite him to address this assembly. Madam President, Dr. Miller, Professor Welbley, my old colleagues and fellow graduands, ladies and gentlemen, it's pure delight and a great honor to come back to sell us and to receive this honorary degree. I was lucky enough to spend almost my entire teaching career at the school but never expected to be given such a special recognition. While I accept this honor with humble gratitude, I would like to think that it symbolizes how much emphasis the school has placed on language teaching. I was first came to sell us in 1963 as an overseas lecturer through the recommendation of Mr. George Waze who also helped me to settle down in this new environment. I'm so pleased that Mr. Waze is able to come here today. In the early 60s, the school was a much smaller and a quieter place than it is now. I found this ideal for someone yearning for a quiet academic life and fell in love with it immediately. The Far East Department had a big Chinese section where aridite colleagues were always kind and helpful. In those good old days, I was given time and the freedom to explore and develop in the field of Chinese language teaching. I learned a lot from colleagues around me and I learned even more from my students. The commitment to studying a language as difficult as Chinese always inspired me and the problems they encountered at every stage of the learning were a rich source of material for my research work. During my 35 years of service at the school, I witnessed the many changes in the field of foreign language teaching but it's only through the progress of the students, their reactions in the classroom and their achievements in the exams that one can judge whether the material prepared or the teaching method adopted were successful. It is true that teaching benefits teachers as well as students. So it's not an overstatement to say that I owe everything to my students. I was brought up in the society where teachers usually enjoy high respect but this treatment, this special treatment was not unconditional because incompetent teachers were subjected to cruel and degrading curses. A well-known general in the Qing dynasty had a couplet outside his family's school. It raised in Chinese. The translation, those who don't respect their teacher stand condemned by heaven and earth. Those who let down their pupils are just like thieves and prostitutes. I don't know if I was a good teacher but they're not let down those who came to my class. I don't know if I was a good teacher those who came to my class. My former colleague Professor Lo has just mentioned the two books I co-authored. One with Professor David Pollard and the other with Professor Hugh Baker. I'm so glad that both of them are here today with us. If anyone has benefited from either of these two books I can at most only claim half of the credit. To collaborate with two of my best friends and the colleagues were enjoyable experiences. I will treasure forever the happy memories of our endless discussions during the course of writing them. May I take this opportunity to thank my wife, Huang Yi, without her support and help for the last 50 years. I would not have been able to stand here today. I also want to say sorry to my son Robin for not spending enough time with him when he was little. He used to complain. I would rather be daddy's student than his son. And finally, I would like to extend very warm congratulations to those who graduate with me this morning. I wish every one of you a very happy and bright future. Thank you very much.