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ACIAC Chinese Australian History Seminar Series (Lecture 5)

Wars & Revolutions (1936 to 1972)

Michael lecture 5 web

DETAILS

Date: Wednesday, 18 November, 2020

Time: 4.00 - 5.00 pm AEDT

Live webinar via ZOOM

RSVP Essential. Please RSVP HERE to receive your webinar link.

Abstract

This is a period of great transition, some rapid, as the Japanese Empire is destroyed and China establishes a new government, and some slow, as Australia gradually, almost agonizingly, sheds its White Australia policy. Changes in class, gender, language, and identity take place as the White Australia policy survivors are joined by a new generation of Australian born Chinese and of Chinese people from outside China. In the process Chinese who drink beer and attend BBQs are granted citizenship, while refugees are disguised as cafe waiters. Chinese Australians begin to be recognised as Australians, while Australia itself recognises China. By the end of the period the stage is set for further transformations in both China, as the Cultural Revolution runs its course, and in Australia as multiculturalism begins.

Biographymichael headshot image

Dr Michael Williams is a graduate of Hong Kong University, a scholar of Chinese-Australian history and a founding member of the Chinese-Australian Historical Society. He is the author of Returning Home with Glory (HKU Press, 2018), which traces the history of peoples from south China’s Pearl River Delta around the Pacific Ports of Sydney, Hawaii and San Francisco. Michael has taught at Beijing Foreign Studies and Peking Universities and is currently Adjunct Professor of the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University. His current research includes the Dictation Test, early Chinese Opera in Australia and a history of the Chinese in Australia.

Seminar Series