Preface

It is a considerable honour and pleasure to contribute a preface to this stimulating collection of essays and academic articles in the field of Australian Studies. Professor Hu Zhuanglin is prominent among the founders of Australian Studies in China and from the 1980s has played a pivotal role in the development of the Australian Studies program at Peking University.His ongoing contribution is evident from recent presentations at Australian Studies conferences including the 2014 biennial Chinese Australian Studies Association Conference hosted by Mudanjiang Normal University and at the third Foundation for Australian Studies in China（FASIC）conference hosted by East China Normal University,Shanghai,in October 2015.For a man now in his early 80s,Professor Hu retains a keen interest in Australian society,culture and politics and has an impressive grasp of recent developments across the Pacific.

This all began in 1979 when Professor Hu was selected to go to Australia for further study as one of the earliest Chinese faculty members studying abroad after the“Cultural Revolution”（1966—1976）. Professor Hu joined another eight young Chinese scholars studying English language and Australian literature at the University of Sydney.They have been known affectionately ever since as the“Gang of Nine”.One of the professors teaching him at the University of Sydney was Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday with whom Professor Hu developed a longstanding friendship.China had recently opened to the international community and Professor Hu's study program at the University of Sydney was a sign of China reaching out to a neighbouring country in the Asia-Pacific region.Writing as both an historian and as the holder of the first Chair of Australian Studies in China,at Peking University,it is now very clear that these nine Chinese scholars who studied in Australia in 1979—1980 built the foundation on which our current network of Australian Studies Centres in China is based.That network now extends to more than forty centres and programs across China and is continuing to grow strongly.The recent signing of the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and China and Australia's founding membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank underlines both the strength of the relationship and the great distance bothsocieties have travelled in the last thirty years.Professor Hu is an informed eyewitness to that momentous history and a good friend to Australia in China.

On returning to China from Australia,Professor Hu and his colleagues began building an Australian Studies network across China. In March 1988，the National Australian Studies Association of China was established in Beijing Foreign Studies University.Professor Hu Wenzhong（a Gang member）became the first president of the new association.Professor Hu Zhuanglin delivered a paper on Australian English at the first conference convened by the new association.Professor Li Yao,the leading translator of Australian literary writing into Chinese,was in the audience and remembers the talk very clearly.He believes this may have been the first time that Chinese scholars learnt that such a subject existed.In coming years new Australian Studies Centres were established by Professor Huang Yuanshen,Professor Wang Guofu and Professor Du Ruiqin,all of whom had gone to the University of Sydney in 1979.The Australian Studies Centre at Peking University was established by Professor Hu in 1996.Individually and collectively the Gang of Nine established an enduring presence for Australian Studies in China both institutionally and as a new and distinctive research field.Among the papers in this collection is an account of the Gang of Nine first delivered in 2002 at the University of Sydney.It provides an historic account of the academic training the group received in Sydney along with a summary of Australian Studies Centres that had been formed in China by 2002.

Professor Hu's field of academic specialty is linguistics and,as the opening article in this collection makes clear,there are some very particular methodologies relating to the structure and use of language that permit cross-cultural analysis. The article examines the questionnaire responses of Chinese students studying English in Northern China in 1978 and compares these to the responses to the same questions given to Australian students studying psychology in New South Wales.Three questions were analysed in depth from six male and six female students from each country.An in depth analysis of experiential,interpersonal,textual and logical components of student answers reveals some interesting differences in how Chinese and Australian students use language.A further article exploring the nature of“Australian English”examines a number of features of modern Australian usage including the Rising Terminal（the use of a rising tone at the end of a sentence）；Americanisation especially in singing；social variation in Australian expression；issues in standardising written Australian English and the emergence of Australian lexicography with the publication of the Macquarie Dictionary.

While it would have been entirely understandable for Professor Hu,as a renowned linguist in China to confine his studies to formal linguistics,this collection shows that over the years he has ranged widely in his explorations of Australian society and culture. He has interpreted Australian Studies broadly to include a range of interdisciplinary studies.He examines questions of identity,immigration and Australian responses to Asia.There is a consistent interest in the higher education sector in Australia,including the Chinese student experience.In the period since Professor Hu's first visit to Australia the nature,meaning and impacts of globalization have attracted considerable scholarly commentary.Professor Hu discusses how the Australian economy is being restructured；the development of free trade agreements with New Zealand,Singapore,Thailand and the United States；and past trade and future prospects of trade with China and other Asian countries.He addresses from the complexities of globalization and canvases the criticisms that have been made of free trade agreements.

Taken as a whole,this collection of essays maps many of the key developments in the study of Australia in China and in doing so demonstrates the expanding range of topics and research fields that are now included within an Australian Studies framework. I welcome the publication of this wide-ranging collection of essays.I thank Professor Hu for his sustained interest in Australian Studies,for his energy,commitment and infectious enthusiasm.He remains an inspiration to Chinese students.The Australian Studies project in China is now firmly established and much of the credit for that goes to Professor Hu and fellow members of the“Gang of Nine”.Sending them to Australia was a brilliant initiative.Many Chinese students and academics have visited universities across Australia in the years since,but the decision to send nine young scholars to Australia in a group in 1979 was an important milestone and one that should be repeated.

David Walker

BHP Billiton Chair Professor of Australian Studies

Peking University,Beijing

Alfred Deakin Professor of Australian Studies

Deakin University,Melbourne