China Studies at the ANU

Overview

The Australian National University is one of the foremost institutions in the world outside of China for research and teaching about China. The university's academic staff includes close to fifty China specialists in the social sciences and humanities, a number of whom have major international reputations. (Information about each of the academics is provided below.)

China studies at the ANU is concentrated in the Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies (RSPAS), the Crawford School of Economics & Government, and the Faculty of Asian Studies. All of these are components of the ANU's overarching College of Asian & Pacific Studies.

Undergraduate Programs

The ANU enables students to major in China studies. The Centre for Asian Societies and Histories in the Faculty of Asian Studies is the principal location for undergraduate teaching about China, while the Faculty's China & Korea Centre supports a large Chinese language-learning curriculum. To provide in-country learning experiences for students, the ANU also maintains study-abroad exchange programs at Fudan University and People's University in China, the University of Hong Kong, National Taiwan University and Sun Yatsen University in Taiwan, and National University of Singapore.

Masters Programs

The Faculty of Asian Studies runs programs leading to Masters degrees in Asian studies, with specializations in China. Other Masters programs in a number of disciplines can also include a China component.

Research toward a PhD

Internationally, the ANU is one of the premier universities for Doctoral studies about China. Approximately a hundred PhD students currently are engaged in research. All Doctoral students receive fieldwork funding and close personal supervision.

In the Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies, China specialists are spread across more than half a dozen academic departments, with particular concentrations of senior researchers in the History Division, Economics Department, International Relations Department, Anthropology Department, and Political & Social Change Department. In addition, the Contemporary China Centre has its own academic staff and Doctoral students, and has a particular research focus in sociology, anthropology and political science. The Crawford School of Economics & Government is active in research and supervision of Doctoral dissertations on the Chinese economy and political economy. The Faculty of Asian Studies specializes in supervising Doctoral dissertations in history, literature, philosophy, and classical Sinology. China specialists at the ANU in demography, gender studies, linguistics, Overseas Chinese studies, religion, and security studies are also available to supervise Doctoral students. See below for detailed information about each of the China specialists at the university. A potential applicant should contact one or more of these academics who have a similar research interest.

Doctoral students benefit from academic exchanges and collaborative arrangements that have been officially established with many Chinese universities and research institutes, including Beijing University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Academia Sinica in Taipei.

Library holdings

The ANU library and nearby National Library of Australia house two of the largest Chinese-language collections outside China. The ANU has approximately 160,000 Chinese-language volumes and 6,400 sets of Chinese journal serials in its stacks, plus very extensive electronic resources. The National Library in Canberra has 250,000 books in Chinese, 5,100 Chinese-language serials, and 250 Chinese-language newspaper subscriptions.

Publications

The China Journal

The China Journal, which is published by the Contemporary China Centre, enjoys a major international reputation. Journal Citation Report every year ranks all of the world’s leading area studies journals on their impact and relative importance, and has ranked The China Journal as the No. 1 area studies journal in the world for the second year in a row.

East Asian History

East Asian History regularly carries important articles on China. It is published by the Research School’s History Division.

China Heritage Quarterly

This is an e-journal that focuses on issues related to China’s cultural heritage and its protection in the People's Republic of China. China Heritage Quarterly is published by the History Division.

Contemporary China Books Series

This book series is produced by the Contemporary China Centre. To date, 26 books and monographs have been issued. Since 1991 the series has been published through M.E. Sharpe Publishers in New York

Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies

This is a new e-journal. It is in the midst of being established by the ANU’s Centre for the Study of the Chinese Southern Diaspora, which specializes in Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.

Morrison Lectures

Each year, an internationally distinguished senior China specialist delivers a major paper as part of this series. Originally, the papers were published annually in printed booklets. Starting with the 58th Morrison Lecture in 1997, the written texts of these distinguished Lectures are available online free of charge.

ANU academics who specialize in China

Anthropology

Tamara Jacka

(Gender Relations Centre RSPAS) Gender relations in contemporary China; women in rural-urban migration; Chinese women's NGOs; approaches to gender and development; gender and suicide; and social differentiation in official and popular Chinese discourse.

Andrew Kipnis

(Contemporary China Centre/Anthropology, RSPAS) Postsocialism and postsocialist societies; anthropology of Chinese education; processes of subjectification; kinship and gender; language and culture

Nicholas Tapp

(Anthropology RSPAS) Chinese ethnic minorities and the state, popular religion, poverty and underdevelopment among the Hmong, Miao, Dai and Tai-speaking peoples of Yunnan, Sichuan etc.

Demography

Zhongwei Zhao

(Demography RSSS) Health transition and mortality changes in China; past fertility behaviour in China.

Economics

Jeff Bennett

(Crawford School) Land and water degradation in China.

Chunlai Chen

(Crawford School) China's domestic grain marketing reforms; the impact of WTO on China's agriculture; foreign direct investment in China

Elliott Fan

(Economics RSSS) China's elderly

Ross Garnaut

(Economics RSPAS) China's economic reforms and internationalisation; privatization of state-owned enterprises; trade

Jane Golley

(Economics and Commerce Faculty) Chinese regional development, industrial agglomeration and regional policy; 'New' economic geography (applied to China)

Xiaodong Gong

(Economics RSPAS) Income, nutrition and health in China; rural household consumption

Warwick McKibbin

(Economics RSPAS) Asia-Pacific economic interdependence with a focus on China and Japan; role of international capital flows in China; Chinese energy issues; globalization and disease.

Xin Meng

(Economics RSPAS) Migration within China, labour markets, income distribution, savings behaviour, and poverty. Demographic change and its impact on pension reform in China.

Ligang Song

(Crawford School) China's international trade; economic development and policy; privatisation of Chinese state-owned enterprises; regional disparities in China; Chinese telecommunications

Qun Shi

(Economics & Commerce Faculty) China's aging population; the social security system, especially the old age pension scheme.

Rod Tyers

(Economics and Commerce Faculty) China's exchange rate policy; trade reform; effects on the labour market

Xiaolu Wang

(Crawford School) Impact of the WTO on China's agricultural sector; development of the private sector and reform of the state industrial sector in China; regional disparities in China; marketisation of China's provinces

Jun Yang

(Crawford School) China's agricultural economics; international trade of China and ASEAN countries, with GE modelling.

Environmental Studies

Jeff Bennett

(Crawford School) Land and water degradation in China.

Mark Elvin

(Pacific & Asian History RSPAS) Environmental history of China.

Katherine Morton

(International Relations RSPAS) Environmental politics in China; international environmental aid projects; the role and influence of rural NGOs.

Gender Studies

Tamara Jacka

(Gender Relations Centre RSPAS) Gender relations in contemporary China; women in rural-urban migration; Chinese women's NGOs; approaches to gender and development; gender and suicide; and social differentiation in official and popular Chinese discourse.

Geng Song

(China and Korea Centre FAS) Gender and sexuality in Chinese literature and culture; masculinity and nationalism in contemporary China.

History

Geremie Barmé

(Pacific & Asian History RSPAS) 20th century Chinese intellectual and cultural history; modern historiography; Ming-Qing literature and aesthetics; and Cultural Revolution history.

Dai Qing

(Contemporary China Centre/History Division, RSPAS) Communist Party history.

Mark Elvin

(Pacific & Asian History RSPAS) Chinese history; the environment, economy, demography, proto-science, geography, emotions.

Colin Jeffcott

(Centre for Asian Societies & Histories, FAS) Social and economic history of China (especially during the Song Dynasty); Neo-Confucian philosophical history; comparative social history of Japan and China.

Narangoa Li

(Japan Centre FAS) History of Northeast China (Manchuria)

John Makeham

(China and Korea Centre FAS) Chinese intellectual history, philosophy and traditional scholarship; the relationship between traditions of Confucian commentaries and cultural memory; the historical and social roles of intellectual orthodoxies; the formation and development of modern academic disciplines in China

Benjamin Penny

(Pacific & Asian History RSPAS) Chinese religion; Taoist philosophy

Timothy Yun Hui Tsu

(Pacific & Asian History RSPAS) Japan's Colonial Rule of Taiwan; religion and society in Late Imperial China

Aat Vervoorn

(Centre for Asian Societies & Histories, FAS) Pre-Tang intellectual and social history; current environmental issues; education, science and technology policy; ethnic minorities.

Literature, Culture, Linguistics and Translation

Geremie Barmé

(Pacific & Asian History, RSPAS)20th century Chinese cultural history; contemporary cultural debates; Ming-Qing literature and aesthetics.

Bruce Doar

(Pacific & Asian History, RSPAS) Editor of China Heritage Quarterly. Specialises in Chinese art, archeaology and heritage issues.

John Makeham

(China and Korea Centre, FAS) Chinese intellectual history, philosophy and traditions

John Minford

(China & Korea Centre, FAS) Chinese literature, classical and modern, especially Hongloumeng and Liaozhai zhiyi; modern martial arts fiction; contemporary Hong Kong literature; translation and history of translation; ancient Chinese philosophy, especially the Yi Jing and Sunzi bingfa.

Philip Rose

(Linguistics, College of Arts & Social Science) Chinese phonetics and phonology, on tone languages, Chinese and Chinese dialects, and forensic speaker identification.

Geng Song

(China and Korea Centre, FAS) Gender and sexuality in Chinese literature and culture.

Tiejun Yang

(China and Korea Centre, FAS) New Chinese language development and its social implications; the Chinese economy; China-Australia bilateral relations.

Overseas Chinese Diaspora

Nola Cooke

(Pacific & Asian History, RSPAS) History and demography of Chinese in 17th-19th century southern Indochina

Ann Curthoys

(History, Faculty of Arts) History of Chinese in Australia

Penny Edwards

(Centre for Cross-Cultural Research)

Tana Li

(Pacific & Asian History, RSPAS) History of China-Southeast Asian relations and interactions; overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.

Craig Reynolds

(CASH, Faculty of Asian Studies)

Timothy Yun Hui Tsu

(Pacific & Asian History, RSPAS) Japan and the Overseas Chinese.

Political Science, International Relations and Security Studies

Christopher Chung

(Security & Defense Centre, RSPAS) South China Sea security affairs; China-ASEAN relations

Stuart Harris

(International Relations RSPAS) China's international relations, especially with the US and Japan

Ben Hillman

Rural Chinese political system; ethnic politics

Ann Kent

(Law School) China and international organisations; human rights law

Katherine Morton

(International Relations RSPAS) International relations of China; environmental politics; development cooperation; the role and influence of rural NGOs

Sally Sargeson

(Contemporary China Centre /Political & Social Change, RSPAS) Rural land issues; collective factory management

Luigi Tomba

(Political & Social Change, RSPAS) Chinese contemporary politics and society, labour markets and labour reform, urban politics, white collar workers, neighbourhood politics and governance, residential segregation, consumption and social classes.

William Tow

(International Relations, RSPAS) China and security politics

Peter Van Ness

(Contemporary China Centre, RSPAS) Chinese foreign policy, Sino-American relations, human rights, security relations in the Asia-Pacific, and opportunities for reconciliation between China and Japan.

Religion and Philosophy

John Makeham

(China and Korea Centre, FAS) Chinese intellectual history, philosophy and traditions

John Powers

(Centre for Asian Societies & Histories, FAS) Tibetan Buddhism

Benjamin Penny

(Pacific & Asian History RSPAS) Chinese religion; Taoist philosophy

Sociology

Anita Chan

(Contemporary China Centre, RSPAS) Chinese labour issues, including Chinese workers' conditions, the Chinese trade union and labour rights issues. Rural social and political change. The Cultural Revolution.

Jonathan Unger

(Contemporary China Centre, RSPAS) Chinese rural social, political and economic change; workers and factory life; urban and rural family change; social stratification; nationalism; Chinese associations and civil society/political corporatism; the Cultural Revolution.