Fond farewell to Chris, professional to the end

Chris Peterson, pictured at China Daily London office, passed away on July 28. [Photo/China Daily]

When Chris Peterson joined China Daily's London bureau in July 2015 as European managing editor, he had already notched up a remarkable half-century as a journalist.

He penned what was to be his last column- a typically colorful description of the benefits of London's new Chinese-designed buses - just two weeks before his death on July 28 following an illness. He was 70.

Peterson learned his trade at the Oxford Mail and Times newspaper before joining the sports desk of Reuters news agency in London in 1970. We first met there in 1975 when he returned from a two-year Asian posting that had taken him to Singapore, Phnom Penh, Vientiane and what was then Saigon.

It was the start of a literal love affair with Vietnam. In recent years, he frequently travelled back there to spend time with relatives of his Vietnamese-born wife, Mai.

In the 1970s, print trucks still rumbled along Fleet Street, home to Reuters and most of the UK press, and we still hammered out our dispatches on pre-war typewriters and communicated with overseas bureaus via telex.

By the end of his career, Peterson was juggling social media accounts like a teenager and fronting live Facebook interviews.

His strengths were not only as a consummate editor and reporter but also as a mentor and adviser to young, up-and-coming journalists, not least the enthusiastic team of colleagues at China Daily in London who valued his guidance.

Gao Anming, deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily, said Peterson was a valued member of the staff.

"His short yet successful spell at our Beijing headquarters last year left everyone who met him with feelings of warmth, inspiration and admiration," said Gao.

Peterson's Reuters career included postings in Paris and in Hong Kong, as chief correspondent, before he left the agency in 1992 to take up a senior post at Bloomberg News in London.

Reuters, however, remained his spiritual home. Shortly after he joined China Daily, he told former colleagues:"I find myself drawing on my Reuters experience far, far more than from the years I spent at Bloomberg. Reuters training, back then, was as good as it gets."

Li Wensha, China Daily European editor, said that the benefits of Peterson's experience and professionalism was felt in many ways by his colleagues.

"In an office where many people are working away from their homes in China, he was affectionately known in Chinese as 'grandfather' and played a big role in contributing to the family atmosphere of the office," she said.

Li said his professionalism was felt most keenly during the turbulent events in the UK of recent years. "During the Brexit referendum, he insisted on attending the office through the night rather than working from home. It at first seemed straightforward but then at 3 am, when it became clear that the UK was going to vote to leave the EU, the real work started. Chris must have written a further seven articles that day."

He also took delight in explaining the oddities of British society to his China Daily colleagues.

In one of his last columns -on an unusual heatwave in London- Peterson wrote: "I had a delightful few minutes explaining to a Chinese colleague why it was so dramatic that authorities running Royal Ascot, the five-day horse-racing meeting under the Queen's patronage, had announced it would be okay for gentlemen to remove their jackets. Attendance at Ascot requires top hat and tailcoats for men in the Royal Enclosure, and lounge suits for others."

Among all those who worked with him throughout a career that lasted more than 50 years and almost till the day of his death, his humour and generosity will be sadly missed.