China & ANU at 75

Exhibition Dates

5-29 July 2022

Opening Hours

Weekdays: 9am-5pm
Selected weekends: Saturday 23 July, 11am-3pm

Gallery

Australian Centre on China in the World
Building 188, Fellows Lane
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2601

In April 1948 Sir Douglas Copland finished up a two-year tenure as Australian Ambassador to China, returning to Canberra to become the first Vice-Chancellor of the new ANU. Along with other academic planners, over the following years Copland established Chinese Studies as a key area of ANU research. While Australia's experience of the Pacific War - and the imminent Cold War - were crucial in shaping these developments, Chinese Studies evolved to encompass a wide range of humanities disciplines, including ancient and modern history.

Drawing on a previous CIW exhibition and featuring photographs, films, and material from the ANU archives, China & ANU at 75 charts the origins of Chinese Studies at ANU, and introduces the scholars who worked at the university in its early decades.

There will be a series of lectures and floor talks during O-Week in the CIW gallery space.