Australian Centre on China in the World, a Bridge for Sino-Australia Academic and Cultural Exchanges

The Australian National University, or ANU, has now signed an agreement with the Australian government to set up a new centre to lead national research and education on China. The center is set to open early next year. Our Australia correspondent Chen Feng has more from Sydney.

Professor Geremie Barmé, the director of the center, says the idea of setting up such a centre can be traced back a year ago. This April, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the establishment of the center, to be funded with 53 million Australian dollars, or 45 million U.S. dollars, while delivering a lecture on Sino-Australia relations at ANU in Canberra.

As the initiator of New Sinology, or "Hou Hanxue" in Chinese, Professor Barme emphasizes that the Center will not only continue research on Chinese history and traditional culture, but also the study of contemporary China's regional and global engagement in all its dimensions.

"We believe that China is the global presence, and when we consider Chinese presence internationally, we think of all the big issues to do with humankind. Whether it's environment or economics, whether it's trade or security, whether it's culture and thought, whether it's history and lifestyle, there is a Chinese component or we have to consider the Chinese elements of a global situation, and therefore, rather having a center just on China, or a center on China and the world, we believe that it's important to try to speak up the way that China is incorporated into our thinking about all the major issues of contemporary life."

Professor Barme says the international community should look at China's development and China's relations with the world, especially its increasing global soft power, from a new perspective. The international community should not only research China, but also engage with China. The ongoing Australian Cultural Year in China and the Chinese Cultural Year in Australia next year are good examples of this kind of engagement and exchange.

"I assume, like well-known there is a very vibrant relationship between China and the Chinese world. And we shall remember that the Chinese world is not just limited to the People's Republic of China, it involves all of the Chinese speakers and users throughout the global. And Australia has a very vital relationship with that world, and historically has such a relationship for over 130 years now. Academically and culturally, there is numerous exchanges, numerous contacts and numerous JIAO RONG rather than JIAO LIU, a real meeting of people, with a large number of Chinese students studying in Australia and many Australian studying and working in China."

According to the statistics from the Chinese Embassy in Australia, there are now 130,000 Chinese students studying in Australia, making China Australia's largest source of overseas students and Australia the No. 1 destination for Chinese students who are studying abroad.

As Professor Barme told CRI, his center will cooperate with Chinese institutes to expand high-level dialogues between academics and policymakers, and provide academic advice for both governments in the form of co-study.

For CRI, this is Chen Feng in Sydney, Australia.