Oliver Steeds

Explorer and investigative journalist Oliver Steeds has reported from more than 100 countries. A year at the People’s University in Beijing as part of his BA in Politics and East Asian Studies at Newcastle University in the late 1990s helped him prepare him for an international career.

Oliver’s work has been broadcast by networks including Channel 4, NBC, ABC and Al Jazeera and he is also director of Digital Explorer, an educational organisation that promotes global awareness and discovery. UK Students Abroad asked him why he went to China as part of his studies.

‘I was originally doing a straight Politics degree and then I changed to include Mandarin having travelled in China during my gap year. To be honest, when I left China [after that trip] I thought I’d never go back. It was a difficult place if you didn’t speak the language and it wore me down.

‘Then I started thinking. I realised that it was an extraordinary country with great complexities and contradictions and I needed to learn more about it. It was clear it was going to be a country of our future and that very few people outside China knew much about it. Ultimately, I wanted to try and understand what it was like to see the world through the eyes of people who are Chinese and that was why I wanted to learn the language.'

‘On arrival you have the feeling of your first day at school. All the foreign students were put in the same building, so there were students from all around the world there. There were eight from the UK and then students from loads of countries in Africa, a couple of Americans, South Americans, a North Korean – there were all sorts. So it was great to meet them and hang out and learn about their cultures. We all came together under that umbrella of being like kids at a new school. It was a great way to make amazing new friends.

‘The advice I was given by my father before I went over was that the way to learn a language is to get a girlfriend in the country. I had a Norwegian girlfriend, so I didn’t take that advice, although I’m sure there is some logic to that.

‘Learning the Chinese language is a particularly structured process. The Chinese have an expression, ‘a dripping stone penetrates rock’, and it’s just that: repetition is how you learn it. It’s not a particularly creative process. You have to learn three languages: you have to write it, you have to read it and you have to speak it. To me, speaking was more interesting and I wasn’t a particularly good student so [I learnt Mandarin] through getting out there and doing things that I enjoyed.'

'I helped coach the rugby team at the Agricultural University, which had quite a lot of the national team in it. The national team was really just starting when I was there. I used to play at Newcastle and so it was a good opportunity to have a bit of fun and learn the language and come up with new words in Chinese for rugby. If you’re doing things you enjoy you’re going to want to speak, you’ll meet people you like and through that process you can be more connected to a language.

‘I discovered Szechuanese food when I was there and I developed a distinct hatred of something called Baijiu (white alcohol). It’s a disgusting drink but lots of people enjoy it! I also studied Shaolin Kung Fu, which has come in useful on a couple of occasions when self-defence was required in my work.'

Beginning to understand the complexities 

‘The most important things I gained were friends and contacts and having a shared experience with the international students and the Chinese students. There’s also a sensitivity that comes from spending a long period of time in one place. If you see four seasons in a country you can start to understand its complexities.

‘Now going back to the country a lot through work, I find people in China have a far deeper respect for me than if I hadn’t learnt the language. I can talk to them on a different level and they see me differently because they know I was a student like them. I’ve been through the Chinese education system as well.

‘I came to journalism a few years after graduating. I was working for ABC News, an American network, in London. They needed someone to go and run the bureau in Beijing, so I said ‘I’ve got a bit of experience out there, can you send me?’ They said ‘Yes, go on, have a go.’ It was a lucky break, but it was certainly because I had the language – without that, I wouldn’t have stood a chance!

‘As a journalist my job is to work out what’s going in places and understand the complexities and sensitivities. I also need to get people to open up and talk to me. My year in China provided the foundations and the learnings for the things that I apply in my work. Everything there is different and challenging and alien and inspiring. That’s the thrill of it. That’s what makes it exciting and that’s why I think people should go.’

As told to Ann Morgan