How Australia Is Studied in China

China has arguably the largest community of Australian studies in the world. However, not much is known about this phenomenon, including its emergence, rationale, interests, influences, and the implications for strategic Australia-China engagement in a region of increasing challenge and uncertainty. This volume unpacks how Australia is taught, learnt, researched, communicated, and promoted in the Asian giant as well as its largest trade partner. In doing so, it penetrates the representation and essence of this phenomenon to seek both the ’Australianness’ and the ’Chineseness’ in it.

This volume collects contributions from a group of leading and emerging Chinese and Australian scholars--who are members and insiders of this community--to jointly debate on this intellectual entity and its significant influences and implications. Produced at a critical moment of commemorating half a century of China-Australia diplomatic relations and four decades of formalised Australian studies in China, this volume provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and insightful examination of this Australia-China engagement.

It will be of interest to scholars, students, policymakers, and general readers in areas of Australian studies, Chinese studies, Asia-Pacific studies, China-Australia relations, and international relations.

Richard Hu is a professor at University of Canberra. He is the author of Reinventing the Chinese City (Columbia University Press, 2023) and the editor of Routledge Handbook of Asian Cities (Routledge, 2023), among other books.

Diane Hu is an assistant professor and the deputy director of the Australian Studies Centre at Beijing Foreign Studies University, as well as the deputy general secretary of the Chinese Association for Australian Studies. She is also a research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne.