There were changes as well in career emphasis. Professor Liu’s expertise is drama. He has published widely on Eugene O’Neill, but has developed interests in cross-cultural communication and took a leading role in establishing a School of Business Communication in his faculty. He was also keen to establish an Australian Studies program and Centre at Nanjing, sensing a growing interest in things Australian among staff and students. His interests are broad. He is illuminating on different approaches to advertising brochures, including the promotional brochures of Universities in China, America, and Australia. He believes that we and the Americans make a great show of people scenes and abundant sociability, whereas the Chinese are much more inclined to show impressive buildings and facilities. They assume that their spaces will be peopled.

The Australian Studies that Liu Haiping and his colleagues are developing in Nanjing show every sign of being lively and distinctive. He wants a program that will give Chinese students a clear overview of contemporary Australia, noting along the way some of our manufacturing capacities and intellectual skills. Questions of Australia’s regional identity and cross-cultural communication will loom fairly large. He is particularly keen for the Centre for Australian Studies to develop a sophisticated opinion-surveying capacity, with the first surveys to be based on staff, students, and alumni of Nanjing University. They will soon be presented with a series of questions which probes their knowledge of Australia and the ways in which we are perceived. Australian Studies students at Nanjing University will be encouraged to scrutinise and interpret the results.

There is a lot to be said for doing this kind of thing at Nanjing University. It is ranked third among Chinese Universities and has a solid reputation for academic excellence. Nanjing itself is a major city, the largest inland port in the world and the capital of China’s fastest growing province, Jiangsu. If the prospects of having some impact in Nanjing University are promising, it is as well to remember that others are active in this business as well. Nanjing has strong American, British, and Canadian Studies programs and Centres, not to mention its Jewish Studies program.

While it is possible to get a foot in the door of the Universities, there are very limited options for those who dream of Australia finding a spot in the secondary curriculum. As Liu Haiping noted, the curriculum is crowded and very tightly controlled. Our best option is to develop Australian Studies expertise among well-placed staff in Universities strong enough to develop sustainable programs and with useful links to television and radio.

As others have said before, we stand to gain a lot from having informed outsiders reviewing our culture and commenting upon our customs and practices. We have attracted relatively little outside comment over the last hundred years or so, although that little has often gone a long way, Lawrence’s Kangaroo being a case in point. Over the next century we can expect a range of commentaries from within the region from people who see the study of Australia as an appropriate speciality.