£I don't know how many of you here know the name of Katherine Flower. When I was a little girl, she was a house-hold name in china. Being the first foreign TV presenter, she was well respected. I used to watch her English teaching program religiously. Now she is about to host a new series of "Follow Me", and the following is what she wrote for bbc.com on her return to china.
ĦĦĦĦEarly morning in Beijing and the pale winter sun is shrouded in smog.
ĦĦĦĦThe newspapers publish daily air pollution figures for the major cities and Beijing is top of the league today. Ceaseless traffic hoots, going nowhere. 
ĦĦĦĦWhen I first came here two decades ago, the melody of Beijing was played by millions of bicycle bells with percussion provided by horse-drawn wagons.
ĦĦĦĦWhen I go for a walk today round these noisy, bustling streets, there are still people who give me a look which clearly says: "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"
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ĦĦĦĦIn 1981, with only three television channels, I was China's television English teacher.
ĦĦĦĦFor a while I shared with Mrs. Thatcher the role of the most recognized Brit in China, a position now held by David Beckham.
ĦĦĦĦBy the early 1980s, the Cultural Revolution had torn China's education system to pieces.
ĦĦĦĦFew people knew any foreign languages apart from Russian and certainly not English, the language of the hated imperialists.
ĦĦĦĦChina's then leader, Deng Xiaoping flung open China's doors. English was seen as the key to modernizing the run down country and using television to teach the language was the way forward.
ĦĦĦĦSo we set to work in dark,  cold studios staffed by people who had never met a "foreign devil", let alone allowed one near a television screen.
ĦĦĦĦThe morning after the first show, the program director waited in fear, trembling in anticipation of his bosses' reaction.
ĦĦĦĦWould they be pleased that he had taken Deng Xiaoping at his word, or would he be sent to the dusty wastelands of Mongolia for "re-education"?
ĦĦĦĦHe was lucky.
ĦĦĦĦHe and the program survived and our series - Follow Me - ran for eight years.
ĦĦĦĦThe other two television channels showed films about tractors and coal-mining, so the ratings war was not hard to win.
ĦĦĦĦAt 6.30pm entire villages would gather round their one and only black and white television set.
ĦĦĦĦTogether they would chorus useful phrases such as "Good morning, how are you?" or, perhaps less usefully, "Would you like a gin and tonic?"
ĦĦĦĦChina fell in love with our lead actor Francis Matthews, the "perfect English gentleman", and with the actress playing his beautiful blonde girlfriend.
ĦĦĦĦIn the 1980s sexy girls were never seen on Chinese television screens; it was far safer to look frumpy.
ĦĦĦĦOur new production team spans the generations, each one shaped by the last 60 years of Chinese history.
ĦĦĦĦMy colleagues, in order of appearance, are first Mrs. Hu, the graceful 62-year-old makeup artist. She spent 40 years with the Chinese Army film studios, churning out the kind of revolutionary films no-one wants to see any more. 
ĦĦĦĦThe studios have closed, leaving thousands of actors, dancers and film directors unemployed.
ĦĦĦĦSo Mrs. Hu is grateful for this job.
ĦĦĦĦShe is longing for the birth of her first grandchild. When her two sons were born, she sent them to relatives in a distant province for three years.
ĦĦĦĦServing the party was more important than family life.
ĦĦĦĦBy the time the little boys were old enough to rejoin her, they barely knew her.
ĦĦĦĦHe, too, started life acting in those unloved revolutionary films, playing roles such as Peng De Hai, one of China's most famous generals.
ĦĦĦĦThen there is the 40-something human dynamo, Mr. Li, who runs this television production company.
ĦĦĦĦHis publishing empire is vast but he comes from a poor family and his widowed mother had to take in washing to support her six children.
ĦĦĦĦHis politically correct class background did not, however, stop him from being persecuted.
ĦĦĦĦAnd perhaps because of these earlier humiliations, the walls of his grandiose office is lined with photos of him meeting famous visitors.
ĦĦ ĦĦMy favorite is the photo with the caption: "President Li briefs British Prime Minister Tony Blair ".
ĦĦĦĦAnd Mr. Blair is indeed listening intently in the photo, as well he might. The company sold over 20 million books last year, 95% of them in English.
ĦĦĦĦThe remaining 5% accounts for the 30 other languages in which it publishes. There is not much call for Russian language books nowadays.
ĦĦĦĦFinally there is 20-year-old Miss Wang, my co-presenter, a willowy beauty with ambitions to be a television "hostess".
ĦĦĦĦIn between filming she poses for the young cameramen. There are certainly no frumpy clothes for her.
ĦĦĦĦBy the time I'm back in London, two more television stations have offered Miss Wang a job.
ĦĦĦĦMost of China's 300 TV channels employ beautiful young women to front the quizzes and chat shows that make up their staple diet, and there's not a tractor in sight.
ĦĦĦĦFor Miss Wang's generation, cherished by their parents, spurred on by their teachers, Mrs. Hu's tales of her devoted service to Mao's China have little meaning.
ĦĦĦĦFor them, the past is another country.
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Chinese Culture
