Issue: May/June 2007
News
Australia’s first joint Centre for China Studies
New light on Sino-British history
 La Trobe University and two of its associate institutions in China – Peking University and the Beijing Foreign Studies University – launched the first joint Centre for China Studies in Australia at a ceremony held recently on University’s main Melbourne campus at Bundoora.
The Centre was established by the three universities as a resource for academics, students, and the public, to engage in joint research related to China, and to promote Chinese language and culture in Australia.
Located at the Michael J. Osborne Institute for Advanced Study, the Centre was opened by the leaders of the three universities, La Trobe University’s (then) Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Roger Parish, Peking University’s President Professor Xu Zhihong, and the President of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, Professor Hao Ping.
Professor Parish said La Trobe University had developed significant academic links with China over the past fifteen years, resulting in a range of cooperative programs at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
‘The Centre provides a unique opportunity to expand our collaboration with two of China’s leading universities, and will play an important role strengthening links between China and Australia.’ The ceremony also celebrated the launch of the first two volumes of historically significant documents jointly edited by the Centre and the First Historical Archives of China, in the series The Diplomatic Relations Between China and Foreign Countries in the Qing Dynasty – Correspondence Between China and Great Britain.
Their publication brings many aspects of diplomatic relations into the public arena for the first time, opening a new window on Sino- British history. They contain correspondence relating to the development of the railways in China, mining, and education.
Further volumes will cover trade issues, banking, missionary activity and international affairs.
Most of the documents had been effectively buried among more than ten million archival documents covering the correspondence of China’s Ming and Qing Dynasties housed in the First Historical Archives of China in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The Chief Editor of the Qing Dynasty publications is Professor Michael Osborne, former Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe, currently a Guest Professor at Peking University.
 Other participants are Professor Pei Likun, Executive Director of the China Studies Centre, and La Trobe historian, Professor Alan Frost.
Professor Pei Likun said publication of this collection would generate wide interest among international China scholars. The books are being distributed to major Centres for China Studies, including the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, UK; the School of Oriental and African Studies in London; and Berkeley and Princeton Universities and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, in the United States.
Peking University President, Professor Xu Zhihong, also received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from La Trobe University in recognition of his scientific and academic achievements.
Professor Xu is credited with providing important insights into the action of the plant hormone auxin, which regulates many aspects of plant development. His laboratory has also been in the forefront of protoplast technology in the production of plant clones as a consequence of a technological break-though pioneered by Professor Xu and his colleagues.
|
