Feature: 70 years on, a British hero's WWII adventure in China still inspires pupils at home

At St. George's School in the small British town of Harpenden, almost each and every pupil knows the story of George Hogg, an Oxford graduate and legendary British journalist who helped save dozens of war orphans in China during World War II (WWII).

"I think most pupils were inspired by what he sacrificed, because China was in a difficult period, and he's from a very wealthy background, and he decided to give all out for Chinese people," David Waters, head teacher of history at St. George's School, said in an interview with Xinhua.

Hogg was born in 1915 to a middle-class family in Harpenden, a town located in Hertfordshire just outside of London. He attended St. George's School from 1927 to 1934 and was the school captain. He went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University.

A fresh graduate of Oxford, Hogg embarked on a round-the-world tour in 1937, visiting the United States and Japan before he finally landed in China the next year as an independent reporter.

He left Britain at the age of 22 and never came back. Having witnessed the brutality of the war staged by Japan in China, Hogg decided to stay in the country and help alleviate the sufferings of the Chinese.

Hogg helped establish a school for war orphans in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 1942, and was appointed its headmaster in 1943. The school was later relocated to the remote town of Shandan in neighboring Gansu Province to evade the Japanese army's advancement.

The journey saw Hogg and his pupils trekking nearly 700 miles on foot under harsh winter conditions, assisted by seven mule carts, before they finally arrived at Shandan and settled down in a damaged temple, where he rebuilt a school for the children.

Hogg taught the pupils English, sports and singing, and adopted four of the Chinese boys as his sons. Just four months after their resettlement, the young headmaster tragically died from tetanus at the age of 30 in July 1945, after injuring his foot when playing basketball with the students.

James MacManus, a British journalist who reintroduced Hogg's heroic adventure to Western audiences in the 1980s, described Hogg's story as one in which a "quintessential middle-class, rugger-playing Oxford graduate...becomes a hero almost by chance in the Chinese war of liberation."

MacManus' accounts of Hogg, which had long captured the attention of Hollywood, were eventually adapted into a 2008 film named "The Children of Huang Shi" starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and directed by Roger Spottiswoode.

Hogg's story is now a popular subject of study for students at St. George's School, where his name is engraved on the walls of the school's Old Library honoring its most distinguished alumni and student leaders.

Much of the history of Hogg is still living and he now stands as a good example to the students, said David Waters, now a leading educator and researcher of Hogg in Britain.

"Because he is a local person, I think he is more inspiring. He is local history. It gives you a sense of place and connection to where you live, and it shows what they can do as individuals. You can relate it to today," he said.

Waters, an experienced history teacher, noted that Hogg's stories have widened the school's teaching of WWII by providing more local connections.

He added that Hogg's legendary experience has been incorporated into the school curriculum for Year 9 students at St. George's.

"When the students are 13 or 14, we teach about the Second World War, and we look at what happened in China through the stories of George Hogg, say, we look at events in Nanjing, and so on.

"It helps to illuminate the global nature of the Second World War. It also helps them really understand the Second World War in much more depth than they need to do and it helps to broaden their understanding in more international context," he said.

Waters believed that Hogg's life story is a very useful means of teaching students about WWII.

"I think history is taught most effectively through small stories," he said, adding that connecting the small stories to the bigger narrative is the best way to teach history.

The legacy Hogg left to his old school now extends beyond classrooms, and helps foster new ties between China and Britain.

"For our school, he provides a bridge between us and China, and allows us to find a lot of links and associations with Chinese institutions and schools. He's not the only way in the Chinese relationship we have here, but he's an important building block in consolidating things," Waters said.

In 2008, the school sent a group of students and staff to trace Hogg's life in China. They traveled to the town of Shandan where he died, visited memorials and statues dedicated to the great Englishman, and met with his adopted Chinese sons and former pupils.

The experiences were carefully collected and made into a DVD, which further enriches the teaching resources for pupils at St. George's.

In 2010, the school hosted a "George Hogg Week" to celebrate the ex-pupil's life and legacy. Two of Hogg's adopted children, Nie Guangtao and Nie Guangpei, came to Britain to join the commemorations and meet with Hogg's relatives and friends who traveled from as far as New Zealand, Finland and the United States for the gathering.

St. George's now has its own Confucius Classroom and Mandarin teachers and boasts a wide range of exchange programs in partnership with China. The pupil's sample works of Chinese calligraphy, paintings and drawings can also been seen on the windows and doors of some school venues.

Every year, the school hosts a "China Day" to delight the pupils with a whole day of China-related activities, including drama, dance, language learning, art, music, food and sharing stories about Hogg, Waters said.

The school's sixth-formers can also enjoy an annual trip to China, where they visit China's capital Beijing and an additional city to learn Chinese culture and interact with local Chinese pupils.

"Some of them got on to learn Mandarin and Chinese studies in a university and pursue this as a career. I think there are a lot of links with China," Waters said. Endi