Bridge Builders:
David Ferguson
The Scottish writer telling China's story to the world
"The most curious thing about British culture is that there is in fact no such thing."
It's a bold statement, but David Ferguson is a man comfortable in his considered opinions. He is also, as will quickly become clear, Scottish.
"What people think of as British culture is essentially English culture, because English people tend to think that Britain and England have the same thing and there's a lot more English people than anybody else. So English culture tends to dominate other people's perceptions of what British culture is."
As is the case with around 20 million of the UK's 67 million population, Ferguson is not English. As such, he's not keen on being lumped in with the loudest constituent part of that confusing and curious union on a North Atlantic archipelago, the country officially known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
In fact, for a world traveler like Ferguson, you could say it's a source of embarrassment.
"There are some important differences between English and Scottish people – for example, in their attitudes to foreigners," he continues. "When English people travel around the world, their objective is to show other people that the English are much better. When Scottish people travel, our objective is to show other people that we're just as good as them."
As he speaks, a smile plays around his lips; the words are delivered with more humor than malice, but there is clearly a great pride for the homeland Ferguson left many years ago.
"Scottish culture? We have a lot more culture than the English do. We've got our own national dress, which English people don't have…"
Given his jocular demeaning of the English, it's perhaps ironic that the word appears in his job title. For Ferguson is the Honorary Chief English Editor for Foreign Languages Press, part of the China International Communications Group.
As we shall discover, it's not what he set out to do, but it's something he's clearly very good at. He has won several major awards, and perhaps even more notably he was entrusted with no less a task than working on the English-language version of President Xi Jinping's Governance of China books.
But how did he end up moving from Scotland to China?
Life before China
Ferguson studied in his birth city of Edinburgh. /VCG
Ferguson studied in his birth city of Edinburgh. /VCG
Ferguson (center) with friends in Edinburgh.
Ferguson (center) with friends in Edinburgh.
Three Fergusons – Jim, David and (center) Sir Alex, former Manchester United manager, 2003.
Three Fergusons – Jim, David and (center) Sir Alex, former Manchester United manager, 2003.
David Beckham and David Ferguson at Real Madrid training ground in 2003.
David Beckham and David Ferguson at Real Madrid training ground in 2003.
David and his wife, Li Muqun.
David and his wife, Li Muqun.
Born in Edinburgh, Ferguson grew up in rural Scotland, then returned to Edinburgh to study law at university. But he quickly began to question whether this was really where he wanted to make his career.
"I took a year off to think it over," he says. "This was before 'gap years' were a thing. So I went to Germany and worked as a laborer for a year."
Although Ferguson came back to Edinburgh and completed his degree, he then went to work as a teacher in the city of Lecce in the south of Italy.
Later on, he became a management consultant. For the next two decades he found himself traveling to all corners of the world, working in a multiplicity of industries.
"I worked in something called change management. I learned a huge amount – not only about business, but more importantly, about the dynamics of human organisations. What makes them function, and what makes them malfunction."
"I met my wife and my life was completely changed"
After more than 20 years in consulting, Ferguson wanted to try something different and more creative. He and his brother Jim, an experienced TV producer, set up a media production company – Ferguson Brothers Ltd. Their most prestigious client was Manchester United TV, and for work reasons David became a qualified FIFA football agent. The most famous person they ever interviewed was another David – David Beckham, then at Real Madrid.
"We were reasonably successful, but there's no point in being 'reasonably successful' in the media. We almost got a huge break in TV drama, but it didn't happen."
By then, Ferguson had married Li Muqun, from Jilin in North China. They met while she was studying in Hull in the North-East of England.
"It was pure chance, and it completely changed my life," Ferguson says. "I stopped by to say hi to a friend, and bumped into Muqun. If I had been 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later I would never have met her, and I would never have had any reason to come to China."
It was the dawn of 2006. In search of a new future, the couple turned their attention to China, the land of opportunity in the East.
A different China
"I came to China for my first visit in 2004, and I came to live and work here at the start of 2006."
So began an extended and, as Ferguson frankly admits, educational time in a new culture.
"As a management consultant for 25 years, I traveled a lot all over the world," he says. "But I'd never been to China, and China was never really on my radar screen.
"I didn't really know anything at all about China, apart from the usual Western stereotypical ideas – I had this notion of China as an enormous poor country with one or two outposts of modernity, like Beijing and Shanghai, and the rest of the country I imagined to be poor peasants in grey suits toiling in the fields."
"My notion of China was completely wrong"
The preconception didn't survive contact with reality.
"The first thing I saw was that China bore no resemblance to what I thought. Jilin, although it's a small city by Chinese standards" – its current population is 3.6 million, roughly similar to Berlin, Los Angeles and Milan – "it was a modern place where people were wearing the same kind of clothes that I wore, and to the streets and shops and malls and brands like the brands that I had back home. So I realized that my impression or my notion of China was completely false."
Showing his books during Beijing International Book Fair.
Showing his books during Beijing International Book Fair.
With friends at a Scotland-themed function.
With friends at a Scotland-themed function.
'I was almost football's Mr China'
Ferguson is often asked to speak at conferences.
Ferguson is often asked to speak at conferences.
Ferguson is a respected expert in his field.
Ferguson is a respected expert in his field.
Ferguson immediately realized he had a lot to learn. Fortunately he was cosmopolitan rather than close-minded, but he still found cultural differences difficult to overcome in some lines of work.
"I worked as a management consultant and in media production," he recalls, but "I learned fairly quickly that Chinese people had a different set of expectations. In the West, particularly in America and in Western Europe, it's easy to work as a freelance consultant and work on your own – you can work directly with a client or you can subcontract to another consulting firm.
"In China, it didn't really work out that way. The Chinese had an expectation of some kind of big song and dance show from a consultant, and I wasn't really in a position to deliver that because I was just working on my own. We did achieve some results, but it wasn't completely satisfactory."
Ferguson had a Plan B, intended to capitalize on one of the world's most popular pastimes: football.
"When I first came to China, I was a registered FIFA football agent, so one of the things I tried to do was work as a football agent in China. At the time, there wasn't much money in Chinese football – it was really about finding a talented Chinese player to take them back to Europe.
"I had a couple of things that almost came off," he notes. "If they had come off, it would have set me up, but things just didn't work out and I decided to give up being a football agent, which from a financial perspective was probably the worst decision I ever made in my life."
After Ferguson had left football, the money in the game kept on rising – and in the 2010s, the Chinese Super League became a strong force in the market: In the space of just two months during the 2016/17 winter transfer window, its clubs spent a total of €388 million (now around $377m) on players.
Many agents get rich, and Ferguson allows himself a rueful reflection on what might have been. "If I'd just stuck in from back in 2006, I would be Mr China in the football world," he smiles. "I speak French, I speak German, I speak Italian – I could deal with all the major clubs in the major leagues and I would be Mr China."
Instead, he had a different path to follow – one that eventually would take him right to the top in China.
Working with words
There's an old English-language saying that "When one door closes, another opens." Ferguson wasn't destined to become football's Mr China, but instead he got to know the country far better thanks to his new career as a journalist and an editor.
He looks back particularly on two defining events – one horrifying in its consequences, the other eye-opening in its possibilities – that drew him closer to his new 'beat,' as the old newspaper phrase would put it.
In 2008, he covered the devastating Wenchuan earthquake. Occurring 80 kilometers north-west of Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, the quake was strong enough to be felt thousands of miles away in Shanghai, Bangkok and Hanoi. It caused the largest number of geohazards ever recorded, including 200,000 landslides and more than 800 quake lakes – and it killed tens of thousands of people, as well as leaving millions homeless.
In 2010, he reported on the Shanghai Expo. In sheer scale, this became a record-breaker – the largest World's Fair site (503 hectares), hosting the most countries (246) and the most visitors (73 million). Denmark brought the Little Mermaid statue, Israel displayed part of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, Japan employed violin-playing robots, Spain brought a 6.5-meter animatronic baby called Miguelin.
But more than that, the Expo was also hugely symbolic of China's entry onto the world stage. The 'Better City – Better Life' theme perfectly chimed with China's urban modernization; the successful hosting, perfectly showcased Shanghai and China as leading global forces for the new century.
Joining the Foreign Languages Press has led him to where he is now: a respected author and chief English editor, but also a Westerner happily embedded inside China, and happy to tell China's stories to the world.
"I spend quite a lot of my time writing about China. I've written six or seven books about China now, and I always take the opportunity to try to correct misperceptions when I'm writing. My most recent book was about China's revitalization strategy based on the work that's being done in Gansu Province in terms of poverty alleviation and building a beautiful countryside. And that gave me a good opportunity to present a positive image of China."
Indeed, he lists having had the chance "to travel around and present aspects of China that people aren't aware of" as being among his proudest achievements. Not bad for a man who has won several awards.
Reporting on the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.
Reporting on the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.
The China Pavilion during the Shanghai Expo 2010.
The China Pavilion during the Shanghai Expo 2010.
Ferguson has written widely on China's development.
Ferguson has written widely on China's development.
His latest book on China's rural development.
His latest book on China's rural development.
Researching by interviewing a resident in Gansu.
Researching by interviewing a resident in Gansu.
Understanding governance
With President Xi's Governance of China book. /CGTN
With President Xi's Governance of China book. /CGTN
With his Chinese Government Friendship Award.
With his Chinese Government Friendship Award.
President Xi Jinping's books on China's Governance.
President Xi Jinping's books on China's Governance.
On a field trip in Gansu, learning about China's poverty alleviation programs.
On a field trip in Gansu, learning about China's poverty alleviation programs.
With his book on learning English.
With his book on learning English.
"Being involved in these projects is a source of pride and satisfaction"
It's not a call Ferguson expected to get – but then, it's not every day you get to work on a project with such a high profile.
"We didn't know about it beforehand – we were just informed that this was going to be our next project, and obviously it was a big deal," he recalls of being asked, in 2015, to work on President Xi Jinping's Governance of China books.
As a collection of the president's speeches and writings, the series include the policies and ideas that shape the future of a world-leading nation. Not just your average editing job, then.
"It's more than just another job," says Ferguson. "Being involved in these projects is a source of pride and satisfaction – apart from anything else, it tells me that my work and my abilities are valued here in China, and it means a lot to me."
That job satisfaction helps him to maintain excellence.
"They are very demanding projects because obviously the books have to be delivered to the highest standard possible," Ferguson says. "A large team gets together some of the best translators in China and it is revised and revised and revised. And I'm the English-language editor, so I'm part of the team, and we try to make the books as good as they can possibly be."
'In' or 'for'?
What's perhaps surprising under the circumstances is that Ferguson admits "I can't speak, neither can I read, Chinese." He refutes the idea that he is a translator, insisting he is an editor – choosing words and phrases for the best and most accurate expressions possible.
If that sounds arcane, consider the example Ferguson raises.
"One of the key phrases dates back to the first volume, and is 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.' Originally the proposed term was 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.'"
Spot the difference? Ferguson could.
"We were asked to express our views on the proposed English iteration, and we took it very seriously because it was such an important thought," he reflects. "This is a concept of huge importance and will endure for a very, very long time in China – and we wanted to make sure that every syllable was of value, and that we got it as close to being right as possible.
"One of the things that we looked at was 'in the new era.' We felt that 'socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era' suggested to a certain extent that the new era was something that was being imposed on China, and that China was responding to an external factor – whereas a very subtle but slight change, if you talk about 'for a new era,' the implication is much more that China is actually driving, China is in charge and that China is being proactive.
"So we suggested that change – from 'in the new era' to 'for a new era' – and our advice was taken up. I feel very honored that I was part of a team who actually helped to formulate an expression of the Xi Jinping Thought: 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.'"
Micro and macro
While editors make tiny decisions with huge ramifications, they must also have a clear overview – and Ferguson is glad to have had the opportunity to see how Xi Jinping Thought works as a whole.
"The most important thing that I've learned was something that I learned from the very first book. The individual bits, the Xi Jinping Thought – they're not just random pieces, they actually fit together in a very clear structure with the Chinese Dream at the top, with the centenary goals at the next level.
"And as you cascade them in each level, you discover that each individual piece actually fits somewhere. Once you present them in a block diagram and once you see where they fit, it makes it much easier to understand."
It's a lesson that Ferguson thinks more people could benefit from – especially those abroad whose opinions inform world events.
"The Governance of China books are a tough read," he admits, but "it's really, really important that people understand where Xi Jinping is coming from and understand where China is coming from in the years ahead.
"Anyone who is a serious political commentator, anyone who is likely to find themselves in any kind of position of leadership in their own country or in any international organization, needs to be looking at the Governance of China, needs to be understanding the underlying messages there."
The series is already at four volumes – "I mean, they cover the whole of President Xi's thoughts on governance" – but Ferguson has a suggestion for anyone wondering where to start.
"What can help is if people look at the more concrete topics – I'm thinking specifically of three that had a particular interest to me, one of them being poverty alleviation and now rural revitalization.
"The second is the Belt and Road Initiative: If the Belt and Road is successful, and I believe it will be, then it will transform the global political scene.
And the third is the environment: Again, China has been conscious of the need to balance economic development with development that respects social and environmental needs."
Writing to the President
Ferguson is clearly a writer, so it's perhaps to be expected that he was involved in the team sending a letter to President Xi. It was inspired, he says, by a number of anniversaries.
"In 2019, we had the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC and indeed the 70th anniversary of the founding of China International Publishing Group, now China International Communications Group. In 2021, we had the centenary of the founding of the CPC and the first centenary goal.
"In 2022, it was the turn of Foreign Languages Press to celebrate our 70th anniversary. So we felt that it was a good time to write to President Xi, because we know that he has always placed a high value on the work of translation.
"One of the strengths of China's system is that ordinary people like myself and my foreign expat colleagues can write to the President, and occasionally he will reply."
Even so, it was a delight to receive a reply. "We were obviously very honored – it's not every day that you receive a letter from one of the most influential personalities on the planet."
And what did the President say? "He emphasized the historical importance of translation, but he also talked about the modern role of translation and communication in terms of things like translating Marx's classics into Chinese and other languages.
"He urged us to carry on our good work and he placed it in a context which is one to which he refers very often, which is about telling good stories about China and telling them well. So he urged us to carry on the good work."
The Chinese Dream
"The Chinese Dream can become a reality for everyone."
Ferguson has seen many changes over the years.
"When I came to Beijing in 2008, there was one high speed rail line in China between Beijing and Tianjin – maybe a couple of hundred kilometers. China is now the world leader in high-speed rail technology, and there's now a network of 40,000 kilometers across China."
In many cases across the world, modernization has led to serious environmental problems. But here too, Ferguson has not just witnessed huge improvement – he's detailed it.
"When I came to Beijing, it had a serious problem of air pollution," he admits. "I've spent ten years working on that – I wrote a book back in 2016 called Building A Green Beijing. I'm conscious of a lot of the specific work that's been done in terms of cleaning up Beijing's environment – cleaning up waste disposal, the waterways, the air. It's been a massive amount of progress."
But you don't have to be a forensic author to notice the difference.
"We used to have terrible sandstorms every spring, at least three or four," he recalls. "I don't remember whether there were any at all last year. These are now rare phenomenon instead of common."
There's an even simpler, everyday way for Beijing's residents and visitors to check the air quality. "The easiest way to see that is just to look up into the skies," he says. "Recently, I went to the western mountains with my son to watch the sunrise. On the outskirts of Beijing, which is a big city with a lot of light, even at night – look up in the sky. I was astonished by how many stars we could see."
While that change may be obvious, Ferguson has noticed a subtler but equally important shift.
"One of the other fundamental changes, which is less visible until you go looking for it, is a change in mindset. I'm thinking in particular of poverty alleviation, because even as recently as 10 years ago, there were still large pockets of serious poverty in China – 100 million people were still living in absolute poverty. All of that has gone.
"When all you have ever known for generations in your community is poverty, when you're surrounded by nothing but poverty, it becomes very, very difficult to imagine anything different and you become institutionalized in terms of your poverty.
"One of the biggest achievements over the last 10 years have been to get rid of that mindset. Every single person in the country – with help, sure, but through their own efforts, through their own mindset, they can get themselves out of poverty and stay out of poverty and they can look forward to prospects of a better future."
The Chinese Dream
Ferguson sees this equality of opportunity as one of China's biggest successes.
"One of the great things about China is that the Chinese Dream can become a reality for everyone," he says. "The American Dream is an exclusive dream. Not everyone can achieve the American dream, there are always going to be haves and have-nots. The fundamental difference is that everyone can be part of the Chinese Dream."
How would he classify the Chinese Dream? "It's food on the table, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, a school for your kids, safe streets, health care, social welfare and prospects of a better future.
"Chinese people can all look ahead to the future and say with a degree of certainty, 'My kids' lives are going to be better than my life was, and their kids' lives will be better than that.'"
For Ferguson, poverty alleviation proves the point.
"To ensure that no one single household would be left behind – that was a huge, very ambitious goal to set," he says. "That is a massive achievement. And I don't think any other country could have done that."
However, Ferguson expects further developments over the next five years, at home and abroad.
"Poverty alleviation, the goal has been achieved. President Xi has always emphasized that that is not an end in itself, it is one step in a process which will continue.
"The new target is rural revitalization – to make sure that the rural economy continues to grow and start to catch up properly in terms of the urban-rural gap. Rural revitalization will be a critical part of the next five years.
"China is playing a bigger role on the international stage, and certainly there will be a lot of emphasis on the Belt and Road. There will be more emphasis on environmental matters, a huge effort in terms of renewable energy, shifting away from fossil fuel-based energy. China has set itself specific goals for 2030 and 2050 – becoming carbon-neutral and achieving zero carbon. And that will be their focus for the next five years."
Defending China
Ferguson is more aware than most that China has its critics.
"It's very difficult to find fault with anything that China has done and achieved over the last 10 years – there have been some huge successes," he says. "So they're looking for some thread to pick in the garment, that they can pull it off to unravel it."
On further consideration, this man of words changes his metaphors – from clothing to the visual.
"China is a video, and a video changes as time passes. A lot of Western people treat China as if it was a still photo: They take a still from the video and then they start looking for all the things that are wrong with the photo. They don't look at what it was like before, and they don't look at where it's going.
"I try to see China as a process rather than a fixed point, and I try to identify what's positive about it. And there are a lot of positive things about China."
"There's no reason whatsoever for the West to be fearful of China's rise. China is not an aggressive country. There's a fundamental difference between China and the existing dominant Western powers, and that is that China is a win-win culture.
"China looks at other countries and says 'If you're successful, we can be successful – if we can help you to succeed, then we're helping ourselves to succeed.' And that's what something like the Belt and Road Initiative is all about.
"The Western powers look at it from the opposite point of view. They're a win-lose culture. They're all about zero-sum games: If you're winning. I must be losing; in order for me to win, I must make you lose.
"The problem is that they look at China as if it was themselves. They expect China to behave the way that they do, and China is a different country with a different culture and a different system. It's not an expansionist country; it never has been. It's not a colonialist country; it never has been. It's a country that wants to develop for its own benefit and can see that if it develops, it can help other people to develop."
High-speed trains in Qingdao, Shandong. /VCG
High-speed trains in Qingdao, Shandong. /VCG
Scenery in Guilin, Guangxi. /VCG
Scenery in Guilin, Guangxi. /VCG
A starry night above Beijing. /VCG
A starry night above Beijing. /VCG
At the opening ceremony for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
At the opening ceremony for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Building bridges
With a portrait of a famous Chinese actress in period costume.
With a portrait of a famous Chinese actress in period costume.
Chinese comedian Xiaoshenyang. /VCG China
Chinese comedian Xiaoshenyang. /VCG China
A typical Chinese dinner for Spring Festival. /VCG
A typical Chinese dinner for Spring Festival. /VCG
Inside of a pub in London. /Sun Lan
Inside of a pub in London. /Sun Lan
"Chinese people are among the most hospitable in the world"
Ferguson is clear as to the cultural differences between China and the West. So how to close the gap? David's first suggestion is to change the way China presents itself. And the key is through 'soft power' – a term coined in 1990 by Harvard University's Joseph Nye. Soft power, he explained, is shaping preference through attraction rather than aggression: think of Italian art, British popular music or the idealization of the U.S. via Hollywood.
"The great thing about movies, for example, is that a movie talks directly to the audience," explains Ferguson. "A movie doesn't get filtered through Western politicians and Western media. So China's soft power can play a much more important role.
In other words, Ferguson is stressing an old journalistic maxim: Know your audience.
"It needs to focus more on stories. It needs to focus less on formal discourse. It needs to focus more on soft power. It needs to focus more on social media. It needs to focus more on different segments of the audience."
The importance of bridge building
"Bridge building is important because we are at a very sensitive point in world history," he says. "We're at a point where there is a transfer of power – and the current powers are not dealing very well with the prospect of no longer owning the whole show. And I think it's really important that China does a good job of building bridges because it's not going to come from the other side."
That said, he sees similarities across the divide.
"The thing that Chinese and British culture have in common, which is something that struck me quite early when I came here, is that we laugh at the same things – things that are funny to Chinese people are also funny to British people."
One example is particularly close to the heart of this kilt-wearing Scotsman.
"There's a comedian in China called Xiao Shenyang, and he always used to sketch for the Chinese New Year show. One year, the sketch was about him dressed up, pretending to be a Scottish man in a kilt – and Chinese people found this hugely entertaining. And I thought it was very funny, too – even though I couldn't really understand what he was saying, he did a great job of making me laugh."
Cultural exchanges
While he may not have got to grips with the Chinese language, Ferguson has found other aspects of his adopted home much easier to adapt to.
"My favorite thing about Chinese culture is family and food," he says. "I really enjoy the Chinese family festivals, particularly Spring Festival and the national holiday in October, and I like the way that Chinese people love to go out and dine.
"Chinese people tend not to invite people around their homes, unless they're actually family for family festivals. And the way that we have dinner parties in the West, Chinese people who want to have dinner with their friends tend to go out to a restaurant, so nobody has to do the dishes…"
It's a similar shared experience that he misses about being back home: "Going to the pub on a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon and watching sport on the TV, it's a very convivial thing to do."
It's also something he may someday do with his Chinese friends who are intrigued by his background.
"But if you really want to know what a place is like, there's nothing like going there and visiting for yourself. If you want to understand Western culture, go and live there."
The same advice applies in the other direction.
"My advice to people who want to know the true China is that you have to come here. You will not learn anything about China from reading about it or watching TV about it back in your own country, because a lot of the messages that you will receive will be rather distorted.
"But if you come to China, you'll find there is a massive place full of fascinating things. And because it's so big, there are multiple contrasts. Beautiful countryside, ancient cities, water towns – just everything you can imagine.
"You will find also that Chinese people are among the most hospitable in the world. They'll be delighted to receive you, and they'll welcome you very warmly."
Credits
Chief Editor Guo Chun
Editor Sun Lan
Writer Gary Parkinson
Producers Sun Lan, Elizabeth Mearns, Wang Meng
Animation James Sandifer
Video Editor Jeongone Park
