ACIAC Director's Visit to China

Professor Jocelyn Chey visited Beijing and Hohhot from 15 to 22 March in the company of Vice Chancellor Barney Glover and a delegation from Western Sydney University. They visited Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), which has an exchange agreement with WSU, and held talks about how to extend cooperation between the two institutions. BFSU was one of the first universities in China to establish an Australian Studies Centre, and the present Centre Director, Mr Li Jianjun, is completing his doctoral studies at WSU. BFSU each year published a Blue Book on Australia and Professor David Walton of WSU contributed a chapter to the latest issue. Adjunct Professor Li Yao of BFSU is the most prolific Chinese translator of Australian literature. ACIAC will contribute to the cost of republishing a complete set of his translations later this year with a view to making them available to other Australian Studies Centres in China. Professor Li Yao was present at the delegation meeting at BFSU and took the opportunity of discussing with Professor Chey his plan to translate her memoirs into Chinese.

The WSU delegation visited Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU) in Hohhot and signed an exchange agreement. IMNU established an Australian Studies Centre in 2015 and has been working on the study and translation of Australian Aboriginal children's literature. The Centre Director Professor Wu Haiyan will visit ACIAC later this year when she is in Australia as the holder of an Australian Government Endeavour Fellowship. On their second day in Hohhot, Dr Han Jing of WSU and Professor Chey gave some lectures to staff and students of IMNU about translation and subtitling techniques, and about the development of cultural exchanges between Australia and China.

Professor Chey also held several meetings in Beijing with the Cultural Office of the Australian Embassy, with the Chinese Writers Association, and with other relevant scholars and institutions.