China - People

In the mid-1990s, fewer than 100 students from China (including Hong Kong and Macao) studied at Oxford. By 2011, this number was over 800. China, Hong Kong and Macao jointly make up the second largest source of international students at Oxford.

The majority of Oxford’s Chinese students are studying for degrees in mathematics, science or social science. A number of Chinese students hold prestigious Oxford scholarships, such as the Clarendon Scholarship, now open to all postgraduate students and funded by Oxford University Press. They also benefit from scholarships created specifically for Chinese students by the China Oxford Scholarship Fund, the KC Wong Education Foundation, and the Chinese Ministry of Education together with the University of Oxford. There are a range of student societies and support groups available to Chinese students at Oxford. 

The Oxford University Chinese Society, the Oxford Chinese Affairs Society and the Oxford University Hong Kong Society (OUHKS) provide opportunities for those linked to China via heritage, research or just interest to meet, socialise and network. For students interested in engaging with China in its regional context, the Oxford Majlis Asian Society is the oldest Asian student society in the world and the second oldest student society at the University. It brings together students from all over Asia, the Middle East, Iran and Central Asia, or China and the Far East. The Chinese Students and Scholars Society (OXCSSA) holds regular social events, lectures and seminars, and recently published 'Oxford people, Oxford words: Chinese Scholars' Lectures in Oxford'.

There are nearly 140 Chinese academics at Oxford, one of the largest contingents from any country. They include lecturers, professors and full-time researchers.

Professor Zhou Xunyu
Professor Zhou Xunyu is the Nomura Chair of Mathematical Finance and Director of the Nomura Centre for Mathematical Finance at Oxford, which promotes research in mathematics and finance, with a special emphasis on approaches that combine practical relevance with mathematical interest. He has recently engaged in mathematical-behavioural finance research. He is also on the editorial board of a number of prestigious journals in mathematical finance.

Professor Zhou studied for his BSc in Mathematics and his PhD in Applied Mathematics at Fudan University, China.

Professor Lu Xin
Professor Lu is the director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Oxford, the largest international academic institute dedicated to understanding and controlling cancer. Dr Lu's research is focused on understanding the body's mechanisms of tumour suppression at the molecular level.

Professor Lu was born in Guiyang, Guizhou province and studied for a BSc in Biochemistry at Sichuan University. She subsequently obtained her MSc degree from the Cancer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical School in Beijing before obtaining her PhD at the Clare Hall laboratories of the former Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UCL and London University in the UK.

The University has more than 2800 alumni in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao – the sixth largest concentration in the world.

• Qian Zhongshu, literary scholar
• Yang Xianyi, literary scholar
  
• Guo Shuqing, Chairman of the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission
• George F Gao, Professor and Director-General, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Zhang Weiying, Professor and Dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
• Peng Sen, Vice-Minister, National Development and Reform Commission
• Yu Yongding, President of China Society of World Economics. 

Oxford has active alumni groups in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong.