Suez to Suva - Research Network

Australian Research on Asia by Region

CHINA

Australian scholarship on China first came to world attention with the publication of CP FitzGerald's Revolution in China in 1952 (republished as Birth of Communist China in 1964), one of the most widely read and cited works on the Chinese revolution to appear in print. The book came out of the new China program of the fledgling Australian National University. Within two or three decades, the ANU had developed into one of the most comprehensive and highly-regarded centres for international research on modern and contemporary China in the world.

"The ANU is one of the handful of the best modern China centers in the world. No country in Europe can match it."

- Ezra Vogel, Endowed Chair at Harvard University and former Director of the Harvard Center for East Asian Research

The Journal of Oriental Studies appeared around the same time at the University of Sydney, giving prominence to that university's research into the literatures and cultures of East Asia. Sydney's distinguished place in international scholarship on China was confirmed in 2000 by the award of the Nobel Prize to Gao Xingjian for Soul Mountain, a novel translated by Prof Mabel Lee of the University of Sydney. By the early 1960s the University of Melbourne had commenced programs in Chinese history, culture and language, establishing the foundations of an impressive institutional commitment to Asia-area studies that culminated in the creation of the Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies in the late 1990s.

Over the decades that followed these early initiatives, Chinese studies programs were created in metropolitan and regional centres around Australia. Today, Australia's capacity for China-area research embraces all universities in the national system. In twenty-nine universities this research capacity is supported by Chinese-language programs.⁶ The universities with the largest numbers of China researchers are the ANU, Melbourne, Monash, and Sydney. The ANU has the largest cohort, with over forty research specialists on China spread across campus.

In terms of the national research effort, Australian research on China is extensive, vigorous, and highly regarded. At present, Australian universities employ at least 400 China specialists, possibly as many as 600. Outside China itself, only the United States, with a massive tertiary sector, can claim to have a larger body of research expertise on China. It could reasonably be argued that Australia has a larger and stronger contingent of China specialists than all of Western Europe combined.

The strength of the China field is reflected in this website's survey of Asia-Pacific specialists at Australian tertiary institutions. The survey reveals that close to a quarter of the specialists focus primarily on China. Many of them are actively and productively engaged in research, and thus have been awarded with Australian Research Council Fellowships and Discovery grants. An examination of current ARC grant-holders reveals more than 30 separate research projects regarding Greater China (the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong) currently under way, with more than 50 active participants in these.

A fair number of senior academics in China studies are internationally eminent. This can be seen graphically by examining the Social Science and Humanities Citation Indexes for the most recent complete year, 2002. The Indexes reveal how often a scholar's writings are cited in the world's leading academic journals. The numbers of citations were counted for half a dozen Australian China scholars over the age of 50 who have expressed a very strong interest in the proposed Network. The six averaged 30.8 citations in 2002, with a high of 44 and a low of 19. This compares to about 5 citations for the average full Professor in the social sciences and humanities in Australia. Over the past five years, Australian China scholars have also been awarded three of the premier international prizes for their research and scholarship on China.⁷

"I have often heard the names of Australian China scholars cited at international conferences - not just the big names either - and more often than not in their absence. This holds true for the largest international conferences, such as the US Association for Asian Studies Conference, as it does for smaller workshops and seminars. In 2003, for example, I attended a seminar at one of the top five US universities given by a prominent American China scholar. In the course of the presentation the speaker mentioned seven or eight researchers whose publications had contributed in important ways to research on the topic of the presentation. Four of them were Australians. The speaker did not think to mention that these four had all studied for their PhDs in Australia and now worked at Australian universities. Nobody else in attendance seemed to take note of their nationality. Perhaps this as it should be. Australian research on China operates - even thrives - at the highest levels of international scholarship. Still, as a visiting Australian who happened to wander unannounced into the seminar, I felt someone back in Australia should be taking note."

- SRI Network Asia Survey Respondent January 2004

However, the China field's strengths are accompanied by weaknesses. Many of Australia's experts on China currently feel separated by distance and by the rigidities of disciplinary boundaries. A great many work in near-isolation from others who share similar interests. Unless they are located at one of the handful of universities with a sizeable academic program on China, they rarely hold an opportunity to share ideas and knowledge outside the biennial conferences of the China Studies Association of Australia and the Association of Asian Studies of Australia. Most of Australia's Doctoral students who conduct research on topics relating to China have even less contact with peers and potential mentors outside of their own institutions.

In keeping with Australia's prominent international role, the country is the base for several of the leading journals on China. The China Journal, which is published by the ANU's Contemporary China Center, is widely considered the world's premier China studies journal. The Journal Citation Report, which annually ranks all of the world's leading journals on their impact and relative importance, has ranked The China Journal as the No. 1 area studies journal in two of the past five years, has ranked it as No. 2 in the world in two of these years, and as No. 3 one year. No other area studies journal in the world can match this record. The journal Provincial China, which is edited at the University of New South Wales and is published on behalf of UNSW by Routledge/Curzon Press, has developed a cutting-edge reputation on issues relating to China's ongoing political change and economic development. East Asian History, published at the ANU, is the only journal of its kind, and has a particular emphasis on modern Chinese history. Other journals that carry frequent articles on modern China are Asian Studies Review, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature and Development Bulletin, all of which are edited at the ANU.

⁶ Maximising Australia’s Asia Knowledge (2002), Chapters 2 and 3 passim.
⁷ International prizes include Best Research Article to appear in The China Quarterly, and the Levenson Prize for Twentieth Century China. Mabel Lee was associated with Gao Xingjian’s Nobel Prize for Literature for her translation of Soul Mountain (2000).