Now in her 90s, Mexican academic Flora Botton Beja was one of the first academics in Latin America in the 1960s to focus her research on China. “It has been my life’s work,” she told Xinhua News Agency.
In the mid-1960s, she was awarded a UNESCO scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in Oriental studies at El Colegio de México (Colmex), a Mexican institute of higher education, where she chose to pursue Chinese studies as her research direction. Later, she joined the Center for Asian and African Studies at Colmex, the first department in Latin America to focus on Chinese studies.
She has promoted cultural exchange between China and Mexico through translation, teaching and writing. She has translated Chinese classics into Spanish, and written Spanish-language works on China, enriching the understanding of Chinese culture among Spanish-speaking readers. She has also mentored a number of sociology professionals in Latin America.
“My academic career can be summarized as a love
