Academy Lecture

This year’s Academy Lecture is delivered by Emeritus Professor Louise Edwards FAHA FASSA FHKAH.

'Australians—the aristocrats of Asia'?

Donald Horne dedicated a full chapter of The Lucky Country to challenging Australians to take Asia more seriously. In 1964, Australians clearly needed reminding that, rather than being just off the coast from Portsmouth, in fact, we were just off the coast of Denpasar. In the sixty years since the book’s publication, many of Horne’s ideas have been adopted. Australians regularly live, work and play in Asia. By 2000 we surpassed larger nations in Europe and America in teaching Asian Languages and Studies. Diverse Asian people now comprise a significant proportion of the Australian population. Many more Australians have a “real feel for Asia”, to borrow Horne’s words. He would likely be heartened by each of these developments. But, one of his critiques remains unresolved: Australians, he declared, played an “aristocratic role” in Asia – “rich, self-centred, frivolous, blind”. Despite our celebrated egalitarianism we imagined ourselves to be better than our neighbours. This Annual Academy Lecture explores the challenges the remnants of this aristocratic mentality pose for Australia at a time when Asia is increasingly wealthy, powerful and innovative. It argues that dismantling this lingering superior mindset is crucial to Australia’s future prosperity, social cohesion and capacity to contribute to addressing the global challenges ahead.

Louise Edwards is Emeritus Scientia Professor of Chinese History at UNSW, Sydney. She is also Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures and the University of Technology of Sydney’s Australia-China Research Institute and a Senior Advisor to Asialink at Melbourne University. In 2022 she was appointed as Chair of the Advisory Board to the ANU’s China in the World Centre. Her most recent sole-authored books include Citizens of Beauty: Drawing Democratic Dreams in Republican China (Washington University Press, 2020), Women Warriors and Wartime Spies of China (Cambridge University Press 2016), and Women Politics and Democracy: Women’s Suffrage in China (Stanford University Press 2008). She is a PhD graduate from Griffith University’s Division of Asian and International Studies. Louise served as both President and Secretary of the Asian Studies Association of Australia and on the executive of the Chinese Studies Association of Australia. She uses Modern Standard Chinese in her research.

Event details

Annual Academy Lecture: Emeritus Professor Louise Edwards FAHA FASSA FHKAH
Event Date: 4.00-5.00pm, Thursday 14 November 2024
Venue: Superfloor, Marie Reay Teaching Centre, Australian National University (or online)
Bookings essential

This event is being held in association with the 55th Annual Academy Symposium, The ideas & ideals of Australia: The Lucky Country turns sixty. To find out more and register for this special event click here.

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