For the past three years, SMU has been sending its students on cultural exchanges to Kashgar. This came about after Ms Christin Tan, a business development manager at the Crown Inn in Tashkurgan, put SMU in touch with Kashgar Teachers College. Just last month, SMU students were in Kashgar to teach trainee teachers conversational English. On Thursday, the two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding to hold the SMU-Kashgar English Festival next year. "The college said they liked the English classes so much that they want us to formalise it," SMU School of Social Science Dean Professor James Tang told The Straits Times at a luncheon that Kashgar party boss Zeng Cun hosted for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.