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As China grows in international importance and influence, more and more countries worry about how it will behave, and are preoccupied with the hard question of how to tame it. As a middle power Australia has sought ways to influence the thinking and behaviour of Chinese policymakers. The Australian approach to taming China represents an academically puzzling and politically intriguing case, which, unfortunately, has not been studied in detail. The paper has argued that the concept of taming offers significant intellectual advantages in its reconsideration of Australia's China policy and has called for Australian scholars and policymakers, to critically rethink unspoken and understudied Australia's taming practices and policies. To this end, this paper has proposed an experience-based theory of taming as a key research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to investigate how innovative, small‐to‐medium enterprises (SMEs) internationalize through utilizing wholly foreign‐owned entities (WFOEs), as there is a little research explaining this. This paper presents the findings from in‐depth case studies with 14 SMEs that internationalized to China as WFOEs. The SMEs internationalized as WFOEs in order to tap into opportunities and develop presence. WFOEs were developed either proactively or reactively, which provided a catalyst for internationalization. SMEs mostly used radical, game‐changing product innovations. However, findings from the case studies revealed that the Chinese market did not always accept western innovations, and adaptations had to be made. A new conceptual model with a range of theoretical propositions for future researchers is developed, based on the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how Australian fashion designers perceive the impact and opportunities offered by the Chinese textile and clothing industry. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative research design used personally administered, semi-structured interviews. A purposeful sample used interviewees drawn from proactive fashion business owners. The sample covered four clothing categories. Thematic data analysis was used, and data integrity was assured, using well-recognised techniques including triangulation and constant comparison. Findings - The Queensland fashion designers are experiencing significant impacts from the current economic and manufacturing situations and the challenges presented by developments in China. They respond to their operational concerns, but do not deal strategically with contemporary challenges. They are unaware of opportunities that the Chinese textile and clothing industry offers, struggling with a global perspective. Although they are aware of issues with intellectual property, they have little experience in protecting their intangible assets. Research limitations/implications - Future research could link the proposed scenario building with interviews, to develop an even more robust research design. Extensions to other Asia Pacific countries could reveal common issues and any unique perspectives. Practical implications - Application of the proposed model and the pursuit of the scenarios for future development could assist fashion designers in the formation of a sense of community. A return to craftsmanship could nurture the local fashion design community, and create offshore links and relationships, facilitated by technology. Originality/value - The empirical study proposes a new model, suggesting approaches and solutions, not previously considered in the context of fashion designers and their opportunities in doing business with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1969 and 1979 the Australian women's liberation movement was richly entangled with Vietnamese and Chinese Communism. While this social movement has been substantially critiqued for its privileging of white women, this article considers a moment when women did work across racial and political difference, albeit imperfectly. Australian socialist feminists were directly inspired by Vietnamese and Chinese women, considering them tantalizing evidence of a woman-friendly communist utopia. But other feminists were entangled in ways that were less tightly woven and more surprising; for example, through the technique of consciousness-raising. Feminists also projected their desire for global sisterhood onto Vietnamese and Chinese women. Yet face-to-face visits reveal that East Asian feminists were not just a site for Australian feminist projections. As representatives of state women's organizations, East Asian Communist women acted strategically to construct Vietnam and China as gender equal in the eyes of Australian visitors. This assertion of equality went largely unquestioned due to the revered place testimony occupied in the women's liberation movement. Yet women's differences were exposed in moments of bafflement during these visits. These are animated as moments of productive confusion; they are productive because they reveal the differences between women. Finally, Communist state feminists are not exceptionalized and are compared to Australian state feminists or "femocrats." I find their agency similarly limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 1911, as a revolution continued to unfold in China, the secretary of the Melbourne-based revolutionary group the Young China League wrote a scathing letter to the Chinese Consul General in Australia criticising the consulate for raising the 'hateful flag' of the Qing Dynasty, and showing sympathies with the 'despotic' Manchu government. At the centre of this letter was a clear frustration at the Manchu ethnic group that then ruled China. This article examines this letter as a case study in the development of anti-Manchu rhetoric among Chinese people all over the world, revealing its impact on Chinese Australians' changing concepts of loyalty during the Qing Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses trends in Chinese–international marriages and divorces, using Australia, a major migrant-receiving country, as a comparative case study. In exploring the recent rise of 'Chinese–foreign' marriage in the People's Republic of China (PRC), we show that Chinese–international marriage within mainland China is a small, gendered phenomenon that largely involves Chinese women marrying men from other Asian societies. By examining unique data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we reveal that most marriages involving PRC-born people in contemporary Australia are between two people born in China. But the displacement of Chinese intimate relationships to a non-Asian country results in significant behavioural divergences from couples 'at home', especially regarding prior cohabitation. Marriages solely involving PRC-born couples in Australia are also typically less enduring than marriages to non-Chinese. We argue that these differences underscore the roles of country-specific immigration policies and labour mobility patterns in shaping unpredicted family formation behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gradual transformation of Australia's relationship with Asia over the past half century has been accompanied by major shifts in public opinion. These changes have been prompted by numerous changes in the social composition of the electorate, by globalisation which has brought many foreign firms to Australia, and by the political elite's changing approach to engagement with Asia. There is, however, considerable elite anxiety concerning the economic and military rise of China, and these concerns are expressed in public debate and attitudes. Using opinion surveys collected over half a century, the first part of this article examines the trends emerging from debates over Australia's economic and political relationship with China. In the second part, we use the 2018 and 2020 Lowy Polls to explain who changed their views of China and why. The results suggest that the dramatic shift in attitudes towards China between 2018 and 2020 was mainly driven by concerns about foreign influence in Australian politics. Overall, public opinion towards China has become more polarised, between economic opportunity on the one hand and fear of an authoritarian neighbour on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the formalisation of Australian studies in China in the early 1980s, over 30 Australian studies centres are now spread across China, with a lively network of scholars, exemplified by undergraduate and postgraduate enrolments of principally Australian literature, a Chinese-based Australian studies journal, and a large biennial conference. The success of Australian studies in China is the result of many interweaving threads: commitment of Chinese higher institutions, prominent individual sponsors, people-to-people ties, university-to-university relationships, and diplomatic creativities. This article argues that the success of Australian studies in China is underpinned by its indigenisation: the process by which Australian literature is reframed and textually reinterpreted as an indigenised form of humanism to suit the Chinese literary sensibilities and the political environment in which they operate. In particular, the article highlights how this indigenisation or Sinicisation of Australian studies creates cross-cultural complexities and tensions that have prompted the Australian side to adapt to a unique form of Australian studies that conforms to Australian norms and the aims of diplomatic soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alan Dupont, Bob Carr The Hon Bob Carr, former NSW premier and author and Dr Alan Dupont, founder and CEO of Cognoscenti are both close watchers of Australian-Chinese relations. For Carr, the fact that a Lowy Institute poll, on 20 June 2018, showed that 82 per cent of Australians saw. [Extracted from the article]

Alan Dupont, Bob Carr The Hon Bob Carr, former NSW premier and author and Dr Alan Dupont, founder and CEO of Cognoscenti are both close watchers of Australian-Chinese relations. For Carr, the fact that a Lowy Institute poll, on 20 June 2018, showed that 82 per cent of Australians saw. [Extracted from the article]

The majority of today’s authoritarian regimes have little hope of promoting autocracy beyond their own borders, let alone to consolidated democratic countries. However, China and Singapore are two prominent examples of non-democratic countries whose soft power arsenals have given them some global appeal beyond that enjoyed by most authoritarian regimes. But to what extent has China’s and Singapore’s power of example influenced consolidated democracies in terms that the latter wanting to replicate some political practices or even norms in these non-democratic regimes? In this article, we engage recent works to examine this question in relation to how Australians perceive the political example offered by China and Singapore. Focusing our analysis on several prominent polls conducted recently by the Lowy Institute for International Policy, we suggest that at present there is little evidence of a causal impact of the rise of authoritarian powerhouses such as China and Singapore on how Australians view democracy at home. Through these case studies, this article sheds some light on the theoretical as well as practical questions about the inherent impediments of authoritarian diffusion in consolidated democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One in four Australians is born overseas and 47% are either born overseas or have a parent who was. Obstetric and psychosocial risk factors for these women may differ.Method: Data from one Sydney hospital (2012-2013) of all births recorded in the ObstetriX database were analysed (n = 3,092). Demographics, obstetric and psychosocial risk profile, obstetric interventions and complications and selected maternal and neonatal outcomes were examined for women born in Australia and overseas.Results: Women born in Australia were younger, more likely to be primiparous (28.6 v 27.5%), be obese (32.0% v 21.4%), smoke (19.7 % v 3.0%), have an epidural (26.2% v 20.2%) and were less likely to have gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) (6.8% v 13.7% when compared to non-Australian born women. The highest rates of GDM, Gestational Hypertension (GH) and maternal anaemia were seen in women born in China, the Philippines and Pakistan respectively. Differences were also seen in psychosocial screening between Australian and non-Australian women with Australian-born women more likely to smoke and report a mental health disorder. There was an association between having an Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) ≥ 13 and other psychosocial issues, such as thoughts of self-harm, domestic violence, childhood abuse etc. These women were also less likely to breastfeed. Women with an EPDS ≥ 13 at booking compared to women with EPDS ≤12 had a higher chance of being diagnosed with GDM (AOR 1.85 95% CI 1.14-3.0).Conclusions: There are significant differences in obstetric and psychosocial risk profiles and maternal and neonatal outcomes between Australian-born and non-Australian born women. In particular there appears to be an association between an EPDS of ≥13 and developing GDM, which warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surmounting the Manichean logic of the cold war, hundreds of Australians travelled to China during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, to act as eyewitnesses to the progresses made by its Communist regime. Although this phenomenon was the Australian counterpart to the broader Western trend of 'fellow-travelling,' these travellers were not simply intellectuals alienated from their societies. Instead, Australian travellers to China came from all walks of life. They travelled to China partly because of a national fascination with the most powerful player in Australia's region, and partly because of a determination to move beyond the ideological stalemate that had led to the Vietnam War. While there, Australian travellers actively curtailed their criticisms, inspired by a desire for international 'friendship' which was rooted in a tremendous sense of post-colonial guilt. Ultimately, this guilt led visitors to become willing agents in their own deception, rendering them unable to see the sophisticated government mechanisms which fed them fantasies of communist progress. Instead, the fellow-travellers propagated enthusiastic reports of Communist China, thus preparing the public for greater co-operation with the People's Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines travel accounts and experiences in China from Australian perspectives. Background on travel accounts and experiences of Marco Polo; Lectures of biographer George Ernest Morrison about China; Suggestion of Frances Wood about the travel stories of Marco Polo in his book "Did Marco Polo Go to China?"

Focuses on cross-cultural training for intercultural effectiveness of Australian expatriates in firms in China. Benefits of language training for expatriates in the country; Details of a research on the topic.