As my supervisor, Professor Dagmar Strohmeier, once said, you can’t talk about bullying research without mentioning Professor Peter Smith. His global contributions, including to China, have been remarkable. In 1997, he learned that Wenxin Zhang, a young Chinese researcher, was investigating children’s aggressive behaviour. The next year, he helped Wenxin Zhang obtain a British Council visiting scholarship and invited him to join his cross-national school bullying research project. After returning to China, Wenxin Zhang pioneered school bullying research and conducted large-scale investigations and intervention studies across the country. Since then, they have continued to collaborate closely for over twenty years.

This is a good example of how Peter supported academic scholarships for young researchers, made connections and continuous collaborations, how he inspired people and left marks, and he was especially interested in cross-cultural research.

As part of the PARTICIPATE project, my research on explaining inconsistencies in bullying prevalence built on the work of Peter and his colleagues, who compared several large-scale datasets and identified these inconsistencies. I’m deeply grateful for his contributions and saddened that we can no longer work together.

Earlier this year, Professor Strohmeier and I had discussed inviting him to join our paper as a co-author and would have been honoured to include him, but then we received the sad news. I believe he would be glad to know we are continuing his work and exploring one of the paths he helped illuminate. As Professor Hildegunn Fandrem said in her memorial speech at the World Anti Bullying Forum 2025 in Stavanger: We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Many of my colleagues told me how lucky I was to have had the chance to work with him during his late last year, and I truly was. Over those three months, thanks to his invitation, I gained access to incredible networking opportunities and learned valuable insights from outstanding researchers and practitioners in the field. He helped me see my role and contributions from a much broader perspective. In addition to work, he introduced me to London and the UK, its food, music, and history. My gratitude is beyond words.

Before, when I thought of London, I pictured Sherlock Holmes and Downton Abbey. Now, I think of Peter Smith, and the memories we shared.

May he rest in peace.

 

Shan Hu