About the Chair

    
       BHP Billiton Chair Professor of Australian Studies at Peking University in Beijing, People’s Republic of China (the “Chair”) was created by Peking University, Australia-China Council, and Foundation for Australian Studies in China in 2011 to enhance Australian Studies at Peking University and to support Australian Studies Centres located at other Chinese universities and institutes.
   
       The Chair programme was created with generous support of Peking University, BHP Billiton and the Foundation for Australian Studies in China (FASIC). The Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Australia China Council (ACC) and Universities Australia acknowledge and support the Chair program. Professor David Walker is the inaugural BHP Billiton Chair Professor of Australian Studies at Peking University, who came to his position in February 2013. 

        As a well-established professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University, Professor Walker has written extensively on Australian representations of Asia. His prize-winning book Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850 to 1939 (UQP, 1999) has been translated into Chinese and published by China Renmin University Press (2009). An English edition was published in India in the same year and a Hindi translation was published in 2014. He is the co-editor with Agnieszka Sobocinska of Australia’s Asia: From Yellow Peril to Asian Century (UWA Publishing, 2012).

       A collection of his Asia-related essays has been published under the title Encountering Turbulence: Asia in the Australian Imaginary (Readworthy, 2013). His recently published personal history, Not Dark Yet, was translated into Chinese by Professor Li Yao and published by The People’s Literature Publishing House, Beijing, in 2014. Professor Walker is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

ACC & Australian Studies in China

 
     The Australia-China Council (ACC) has been supporting Australian Studies in China for over two decades and provides funding to a network of over 40 Australian Studies Centres across China. The network is one of Australia’s leading public diplomacy and education engagement platforms, which is set to grow in importance for Australia-China relations.
      In 2003 the ACC partnered with a consortium of Australian universities, led by the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Queensland together with the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, to promote Australian Studies in China.

 
      The objectives of the ACC Australian Studies Program are to:
        Enhance the range, volume, quality and value of research on Australia, and promote the dissemination of research outcomes in China through publishing, conferences and other means.

   Promote greater Australian content in teaching at all levels of the Chinese educational system.

 
     In 2011 the Australia-China Council established the Foundation for Australian Studies in China (FASIC). The Foundation is an independent non-profit foundation in Australia created to support Australian Studies Centres and to provide funding and other support to the BHP Billiton Chair Professor of Australian Studies at Peking University in Beijing. The BHP Billiton Chair Programme was officially announced by the Prime Minister Julia Gillard in April 2011 and Professor David Walker was selected and appointed the Inaugural Chair in November 2012.

 
     The key objectives of FASIC are to:
       Bridge two Countries: Support programs or activities that enhance the mutual understanding and engagement between people of Australia and China;
       Enhance Understanding:Enhance the understanding of Australia in China through funding and other support provided to Australian Studies centres;
       Sponsor Educational Activities: Provide scholarships for educational exchanges between Australia and China as well as funding support to a Chair professor of Australian Studies.

Major Partners
 

The Australia-China Council

The Australia-China Council has been supporting Australia Studies in China for over two decades and provides funding to a network of over 40 Australian Studies centres across China.  The network is one of Australia’s leading public diplomacy and education engagement platforms, which is set to grow in importance for Australia-China relations.  Click here to see their website.
 

FASIC

The Foundation for Australian Studies in China is an independent non-profit foundation in Australia created to support Australian Studies Centres and to provide funding and other support to the BHP Bulletin Chair of Australian Studies, located at Peking University. Click here to see its website.

 

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton is a leading global resources company, whose purpose is to create long-term shareholder value through the discovery, acquisition, development and marketing of natural resources.  Click here to see its website.

 

Australia-China Youth Association

ACYA is a vibrant community of young Australians and Chinese with hundreds of events annually across Australia and China, unique internship, study and volunteer opportunities, a diverse range of publications, and over 5000 members spread across 20 Chapters. It is the first port of call for any young person interested in Australia and China. Click here to see its website.