女性领导力对话是英国大使馆和领事馆在中国开展“Be Yourself”活动的一部分，重点讨论性别工资差距和女性领导力等议题。在近期的活动上，围绕女性领导力的重要性，英国与华南地区的关系以及领事馆在2018年的计划，DB有幸与英国驻广州总领事Karen Maddocks女士进行对话。
DB caught up with Ms. Karen Maddocks, Consul-General for the United Kingdom in
Guangzhou, at the recent “Be Yourself” Women in Leadership Workshop. The event was part of the British Embassy and Consulate’s China-wide “Be Yourself” campaign, and focused on topics like the gender pay gap and women in leadership positions.
Ms. Maddocks spoke about why this type of event is important to her, the UK’s relationship with South China, and what the consulate is planning in 2018.
DB:您在去年九月份被任命为总领事，至今，您在这个职位上感觉如何？You were appointed to the role of Consul-General in September last year. How have your first few months on the job been?
作为英国外交部的一员，我赶上了来中国的好时机。 英国和中国的关系日益友好，不论是两国政府，双边贸易或者两国人民之间的联系都在不断增强。
It’s a really exciting time to be in China, particularly as someone working for the British Foreign Office. The UK and China consider this golden era of their relationship, and this means we are really increasing our links between our governments, our businesses, and our people.
刚接手总领事职位时，有很多工作要完成。 在我担任总领事之前，恰好前广东省委书记胡春华带领了企业代表团访问了英国，所以一到中国，有很多新的合作需要跟进。 目前，在华南地区已有超过三十个新的英中合作伙伴关系。
My first few month in the job as Consul-General have been busy – there’s a lot going on. Just before I started as Consul-General there was a visit by the former Guangdong Party Secretary Hu Chunhua to the UK. He took a big delegation of businesses. Since I arrived there have been a lot of new collaborations to follow up. There have been over thirty new partnerships between British and Chinese businesses in South China. It’s been quite busy!
除了贸易合作，我们同时注重加强两国人民的联系。 例如，我们举办大型旅游论坛，增强旅游业之间的联系。 事实上，到英国旅游的中国游客大部分来自广东省，所以未来我们会持续关注和发展同该地区的旅游业关系。另外对社会时事，我们也很重视。 去年我们举办了关于一带一路可持续发展的大型会议。 我们希望和中国的合作关系，能促进英国同一带一路沿线国家进行相对可行的贸易实践。在十二月份我们举行了一场相关活动，未来还会有更多。
Beyond business issues we have had time to focus on our people-to-people links. For example, we had a big tourism forum, increasing links between our travel industries. I think the largest source of tourists to the UK from China is from Guangdong province, so that’s an area we’re keen to work on. We work on social issues as well. One of our bigger events last year was a conference on sustainable development along the belt and road. We want to work on some responsible business practices in our partnerships with China in belt and road countries. We held an event in December, and hope to do more in the coming year.
DB:您认为当前英国与华南的关系主要聚焦在哪一方面？How would you describe the current focus of the relationship between the UK and South China?
接下来最重要的事务就是即将在香港举行的英国创新科技节，而且因为深圳是中国的创新枢纽，所以一些相关活动也将会在深圳举行。深圳有众多高科技，先进制造业，金融服务，清洁能源，医疗保健和教育等优势，非常符合英国的创新需求。英国创新科技节将进一步加强英国与深圳的合作关系。我认为这将是我们未来几个月的工作重心。
One of the most important things that we’ve got coming up this year is the GREAT Festival of Innovation. It’s going to be held in Hong Kong, but we are going to hold a lot of linked activities in Shenzhen because we recognise that Shenzhen is a hub of innovation. A lot of the strengths in Shenzhen map quite neatly onto UK priorities. Things like high tech, advanced manufacturing, financial services, clean energy, healthcare, and education. All those things are important to Shenzhen, and also to the UK. We’ve got lots of areas to work on together, and this Festival of Innovation is going to be a chance to really increase our collaboration. I think that’s going to be our main focus in the next few months.
DB:您能讲一下您在中国当海外志愿者的经历吗？You spent some time in the past working for Voluntary Services Overseas in China – could you tell us a little about that?
二十年前，我曾在安徽省当英语志愿老师，并在合肥住了两年，我与中国的联系也正是从那开始的。这个城市几乎每两年就发生一轮翻天覆地的变化，我从这里感受到了中国惊人的发展速度。作为志愿者，我和当地教师的工作职责相同，所以我能深入了解他们的生活和工作方式。当时安徽的外国人很少，但我的朋友和同事以及我的学生对待我都非常热情，所以到现在，我仍然与他们中的一些人保持联系。
I was in Anhui province as a volunteer English teacher, and I lived in Hefei for two years. It was where my relationship with China began really, twenty years ago. It was a really interesting experience because it was fascinating to see the rates of development in China. Even in a period of two years there were amazing changes in that city. Living as a volunteer I was working on similar terms to local teachers, so it gave me a great insight into how people live and work. It was the kind of experience that you just don’t get when you’re a normal expat anywhere. At that time there were very few foreigners in Anhui province, but my friends and colleagues and my students at that time were incredibly warm and welcoming. I’m still in touch with some of them now in fact.
DB:对您来说，聚焦女性领导者这类的活动有什么重要含义？This event is a workshop for women in leadership roles. Why is this type of event important to you?
当我成为母亲后，我开始欣赏对女性、对所有父母、尤其是对母亲的期望。 有些社会期望并不适从个人的生活方式，所以我敬佩他们能够面对为人父母的职责与工作相碰撞时所产生的压力，那些在我生孩子之前从未遇见过的压力。所以我希望我能够支持其他女性和父母来应对这些压力并倾诉出这些压力，甚至支持他们挑战那些可能不符合自己的期望和设想。我的个人经历让我意识到突破局限自我的设想并支持其他女性和家长也敢于突破陈规的必要性。
When I became a mother I started to appreciate the expectations that are placed on women – on all parents – but in particular mothers. There were social expectations that didn’t necessarily conform with the way I wanted to live my life. It made me appreciate the pressures that parents face when they’re trying to combine parenthood with working, and those are pressures that I didn’t have any visibility of before I had children. It became important for me to be able to support other women, and other parents more generally, in coping with those pressures and being able to speak out about them. To be able to challenge the expectations and assumptions that are made that perhaps aren’t right for them. So it started from my personal experience, and feeling the need to challenge certain expectations and support other women and other parents who need to challenge those expectations as well.
DB:2018年领事馆将会有哪些重大举措或事件？What are some major initiative or events the consulate have coming up in 2018?
创新科技节是我们领事馆接下来的重头戏。另外，我们也有一个专题活动 – 肿瘤学峰会。这个活动将在广东省举行，届时将汇聚七十多位来自英国的医疗保健学者和专家。除了分享肿瘤学——从癌症研究到诊断和治疗的各个方面的经验，他们也希望在华南地区寻找合作伙伴。
The Festival of Innovation is the next thing that will be happening. We also have a sector-specific event – an oncology summit – which we will be holding in Guangdong province. That will be bringing together at least seventy healthcare providers and experts from the UK to set up partnerships and share experiences in South China on all aspects of oncology, from cancer research to diagnosis and treatment.
今年的环球帆船赛将途经三亚，其中将有一艘来自英国政府的帆船。所以我们会在三亚举办一些活动，比如带一些宾客到船上参观。另外我们也会协助威尔士国家队在参加三月份在南宁举行的中国杯比赛。
We’ve also got a few sporting events this year. We have the Clipper Round the World Yacht race stopping off in Sanya. A government Great British Yacht is coming as part of that race, and we’ll be running some events in Sanya like taking some people onto the boats there. We also have the Welsh national football team coming to take part in the China Cup in Nanning in March.
我们也希望继续与当地合作伙伴发展可持续商业合作。在今年年底，我们将联手各个企业、政府合作伙伴和专家联合举办一场大型活动，以促进彼此间的责任感，尤其是展示我们对与发展中国家的合作关系的重视。 在我们的“人文交流”活动中，我们就中英两国人民的联系进行了年度对话。活动中，我们与全国妇联签署了合作备忘录，共同致力于促进赋予妇女权力，妇女权利和解决性别问题。这些活动将在广东省级层面进行，所以接下来将会有更多来自领事馆的消息。
We also want to continue our work with local partners here on sustainable business practices. We want to hold another big event towards the end of this year working with businesses, government partners, and experts to promote responsible business – particularly in partnerships with developing countries. At our People to People Dialogue, which is our annual dialogue on our people-to-people links between the UK and China, we signed a memorandum of understanding with the All China Women’s Federation to collaborate on promoting women’s empowerment, women’s rights and gender issues. We want to worked on that at a regional level here in Guangdong, so you’ll be hearing a lot more from the consulate about that.
