{"id":12179,"date":"2023-05-03T10:35:51","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T10:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=12179"},"modified":"2023-05-03T10:35:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T10:35:51","slug":"chinas-changemakers-antarctic-explorer-songqiao-yao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/chinas-changemakers-antarctic-explorer-songqiao-yao\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Changemakers: Antarctic Explorer Songqiao Yao"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we catch up with Songqiao Yao she is in Cambridge, fresh from the Skoll World Forum in Oxford and heading to London for yet more meetings and to see more friends. The truth is, even the most intrepid Chinese entrepreneurs have been grounded for the last three years \u2013 victims of China\u2019s extremely strict zero Covid policy<\/a> \u2013 and now, finally, things can get moving.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s no exaggeration to say that, in the case of Yao being allowed to travel, the world will quite literally be better off.<\/p>\n

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\u201cComing back this time is quite nostalgic for me\u201d she says when asked whether she has a long history with the UK. From the moment she was handed an Oxford English textbook as a schoolchild, to studying geography at Cambridge<\/a> \u201cbecause it has a long tradition\u201d, to finding inspiration in its Scott Polar Research Institute, the country should be flattered that it\u2019s one of the first places Yao is visiting now she has the chance.<\/p>\n

Yao is a pioneer in every sense of the word. Not only did she join 76 scientists on the largest ever all-female expedition to Antarctica in 2016, but the trip was so impactful that she wanted others to share her experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the only Chinese in the first cohort and for the second cohort I helped fundraise so that more Chinese could go. Now we have around 20 women who have been on this journey,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

The trip was, unsurprisingly, life changing for Yao. She stayed on afterwards, acting as an expedition guide on cruise ships going to Antarctica and said she noticed that people were \u201ccompletely transformed\u201d when they made the journey, but that they were mostly older: \u201cThey would want to do something for the environment after their experience but usually they were quite late in their careers. I felt there weren\u2019t enough young people appreciating and learning about these things, so I saw a huge need for that, especially in China.\u201d<\/p>\n