It was early autumn in 1981, and Katherine Flower, who worked for English learning programs with the BBC, arrived in Beijing.

Katherine Flower, Presenter of Follow Me, said, "I arrived in Beijing in September 1981, the same month as my birthday. The weather was at its best then. Luckily I'd missed the hot summer. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, quite different from London. I remember getting up very early one morning and going to the Forbidden City on my "Flying Dove" bike. I saw people doing their slow taiji movements. The sun rose beside the Forbidden City, turning its walls red and its roofs gold. My first impression of China had been of a gloomy place, not very cheerful, because the people all dressed in blue, grey, black and green – other colors were very rare. At first, I thought it was a sad place. But once I'd started working here I began feeling more and more excited."

At the time, Follow Me, an English teaching program produced by the BBC, was being promoted all over the world. Katherine, who had previously presented the French version, took over the Chinese version, working with China Central Television.

From the beginning of 1982, Chinese viewers heard some familiar title music at 6:20 pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and at 8:30 am every Sunday.

At a time when TV sets were not so common, this was the first time many people had seen foreigners on television.

Soon after Follow Me began broadcasting, New Nation, a Singaporean magazine, carried a commentary. It read: "Currently in China, the most famous foreigner, or perhaps even the best-known foreigner for the whole 1980s, is not a world leader, or a sports superstar or a passionate artist, but a red-haired London girl with slow speech."

While she was working in China, Katherine went by a Chinese name: Hua Kelin. The Hua, meaning flower, was a direct translation of her family name.

In the early 1980s in China, foreigners in the street were viewed as objects of curiosity. Still, ordinary people gained an impression of how the country was "Opening-up" from the increasing number of foreigners they saw.

But if China was to become more integrated with the rest of the world, more people would have to study foreign languages.

In the early 1950s, New China was desperately in need of expertise to support its economic development. The Soviet Union, as a fellow member of the socialist camp, sent experts to help at the invitation of the Chinese government. On May the 15th, 1953, the two governments officially signed an agreement on 156 joint projects using assistance from the Soviet Union. Many Soviet experts came to China to help carry out these projects. The pressing need for proficient Russian speakers prompted the Chinese government to adjust its policy on foreign language teaching.

Subsequently, many middle schools replaced their English courses with Russian."

As China's relationship with the Soviet Union changed from intimacy to complexity, English began gaining recognition again. In 1957, middle schools resumed English courses, but the lack of English teachers meant that Russian classes still accounted for 75% of language learning.

In early 1978, the Beijing Daily published an article under the headline, Follow the Revolutionary Pioneers to Learn Foreign Languages. It called on Chinese people to "master foreign languages' so that they could "contribute to the construction of our country into a great Socialist power."

Clearly, the status of foreign language learning was changing.
The China National Science Conference opened in Beijing on March the 18th, 1978. The conference dealt with issues such as treating science and technology as the primary productive force, and China embracing what was referred to as ‘the spring of science'. The renewed respect for knowledge spurred widespread public interest in learning. Tian Jinqin, the winner of the prize for his MIDI instrument, was among those who attended the conference.

The launch of the Reform and Opening heralded China's return to the world stage. The country's leaders, now making more frequent trips overseas, became keenly aware of the gap between China and the western world in science and technology.

That year, the Chinese government sent 480 exchange students to 41 countries. From 1978 to 1985, the number of government-sponsored exchange students totaled twenty thousand, among whom science and technology students accounted for 85%. Since they were charged mainly with learning advanced production techniques from the developed countries, North America became their main gathering place.

The Follow Me series, which had been sold for several hundred thousand pounds in Japan, was obtained by China for just 3,000 pounds. The BBC was keen to see what impact it would have, as the first television program imported into the newly-open China.

The manuscript, kept for more than twenty years, is a record not only of the sample sentences in each show, but also of the passion for learning English ignited in an ordinary TV viewer by Follow Me.
On January the 14th, 1981, the State Council issued the Temporary Regulations on Self-funded Overseas Study. The result was a boom in studying abroad, and this fuelled demand for the TOFEL test. In 1981, 285 students took part in the first TOFEL examination held in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The number had risen to 18,000 just five years later. Ever since, Chinese students in their droves have followed those pioneers, and taken the path of English learning and overseas study.

For five years, Follow Me was broadcast repeatedly. The textbooks accompanying the program were republished several times, with millions of volumes sold.

Besides Follow Me, also influential in the 1980s was English Broadcasting Lectures for Amateurs on China National Radio. Radio stations in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai all had special channels for educational programs, on which "English Broadcasting Lectures" featured prominently. Shanghai People's Radio even launched two special programs for English learners.

Sunday English was another CCTV English-teaching program. It was broadcast for an hour every week from November 1979. Designed for intermediate learners, it played English-language films and music.

In response to a demand from viewers, the scripts of Sunday English, containing all the movie lines and Chinese annotations, were published. The end of every script was the same: "Where there's a will, there's a way. Let's work together to learn English and make greater contributions to our country's four modernizations."

The popularity of Follow Me in China attracted the attention of the overseas media. The Sunday Telegraph Magazine wrote: "Katherine Flower's show created a nationwide trend. Chinese leaders realized immediately after China's opening-up at the end of the 70s that English was the world's most widely used language."

English was soon receiving unprecedented recognition under favorable national policies. In 1982, CCTV's main news program featured a soldier from Shenyang General Military Hospital, who was an outstanding English learner, "…Since he enlisted in the army five years ago, Dong Lizheng has devoted his free time to English learning and he has reached the college level. He has become a popular English teacher at the hospital, always willing to help others with their English.

China Daily in 1982, commented: "Follow Me has ten million viewers in China, equaling the number of TV sets in our country. The show not only tops worldwide ratings for educational programs, but can also compare with the popular TV series, Wu Song."

They were just very curious about the strange language, because there wasn't much variety in their farming lives."

It was through Follow Me that the majority of Chinese, who'd never been abroad, got tiny glimpses of a western lifestyle.

In the early 1980s, the annual per capita consumption of pork in China was 11.15 kilos, almost double what it had been in the 50s; one in ten people on average was wearing leather shoes; televisions, which previously could only be purchased with special coupons, were finally in free supply; and Chinese people with money were keen to buy the "Four Big Items": a bicycle, watch, sewing machine and television. The

Four Big Items became the benchmark for what a man could prepare for his bride-to-be.

In the more material society, Chinese people in the 1980s dreamed of a better life.

In the 1980s, when televisions were starting to spread across China, many educational programs were broadcast. After Follow Me, came Yang in Japan and Learning German with Me. Curiosity about life abroad became a driving force for learning languages.

In the early 1990's, when the Asian Games were held in Beijing, English learning reached a peak. People forgot the old adage: "Learn science well and you'll be able to overcome any problems." Instead,

English schools were springing up. "Oral English class" "Listening Class" "Intensive Training" "Crash Course", and all kinds of advertisements for English training could be seen everywhere.

Katherine Flower, having recorded all the Follow Me episodes, had already returned to England.

With time, Katherine Flower and Hu Wenzhong, who had become famous with Follow Me, were replaced by Yu Minhong and Li Yang, the new stars of English teaching, and models for a new generation.

Today, English learning books and materials can be found in every bookstore.

The textbook and video discs for Follow Me now lie quietly on the shelves in the English Section on the third floor of the Beijing Xidan Bookstore. Few people visit this corner. Even those who notice them show no interest. The latest edition, from 2005, didn't sell well. Just 8,000 books and 3,000 discs have been sold in the last two years.

Follow Me is history now. But the passion for learning it ignited in Chinese people is still burning brightly.