| The 15th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia was held in a cold but fine Canberra from 29 June to 2 July 2004 at the National Convention Centre. By all accounts it was a huge success. Apart from some musings as to the prohibitive cost of registration, accommodation and travel that must have daunted even institutionally sponsored attendees, the conference appears to have been viewed by many as one of the most successful conferences in recent times. The Conference was intentionally "untitled", and did not nominate a specific theme nor feature any keynote speakers. The aim of the organisers was to attract as wide a range of papers and scholars as possible. In the words of one of the Conference convenors, Dr. Robert Cribb, the event was "to showcase current work in any aspect of Asian Studies …[and] address a wide variety of themes, including religious change, political authority, migration, terror and violence, architecture, poverty and wealth creation, gender, bilateral trade agreements and the state of the profession." From the number of participants (close to 500) and papers (over 300) it is obvious that the conference achieved its aim. Conference delegates came from virtually every corner of Australia and overseas and the papers covered such diverse topics as Teaching East Asian Languages in Australia, Getting published in Asian Studies, New Religious Formation in Asia, Islam and Politics and Filming the Gods: Religion and Hindi Film. Most sessions offered 14 concurrent panels making it very difficult for enthusiastic attendees to choose between them. The Conference was opened by the Governor General of Australia, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffrey who emphasised in his speech Australia’s growing interaction with Asia, and the importance for Australia to foster Asian studies and gain a deeper understanding of the countries of Asia. His strong remarks supporting the importance of Asian studies contributed much to setting a positive tone at the start of the Conference and attributing a purpose and relevance to Asian studies beyond pure academic enquiry. It was gratifying to see that the occasion received coverage in the Canberra Times and on ABC Radio. Another event that affirmed the importance of Asian studies to government and policy makers was the launch of the International Centre of Excellence in Asia Pacific Studies (ICEAPS) at a reception in the Menzies Building of the Australian National University Library. This Centre established through substantial Federal Government funding has as one of its aims the enhancement of Asia Pacific studies in Australia through building and strengthening the linkages between tertiary, government and business sectors within Australia and with institutions overseas that have an interest in the field. The Centre will be based at the ANU and Professor Kam Louie, from the ANU was named interim Director of the Centre. [Editor's note: Professor John Fitzgerald, formerly of La Troub University, has subsequently been named the Director]. It is expected that the Centre will provide support for the ASAA. As a feature at the launch of ICEAPS, the ANU Library in conjunction with the Australian War Memorial (AWM) and the ANU Archives arranged an exhibition in Menzies of a selection of unique items held in their respective collections. The coup of the evening was the display of the original diary and photographs of Lancelot Giles, son of H.A. Giles, and survivor of the Siege of the Peking Legations in 1900. Other rare items from the AWM included diaries of Japanese prisoners-of-war from the Second World War and Australian propaganda posters of the same period, and hand-painted illustrations from the military manuals of Li Hongzhang’s modernized army. The conference was peppered with an array of significant book launches such as Philip Taylor’s Goddess on the Rise, Anne-Marie Brady’s Making the Foreign Serve China, the Asiarights Journal, and works by Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen, Anne McLaren, Amarjit Kaur and Tamara Jacka. Many scholarly associations and groups found time to hold their annual meetings, including the ASAA Editors, SEAPS board, and others. Other events included the Conference Dinner held in the Members' Dining Room of Old Parliament House, two films Black Nazarene and Dharma River, a National Press Club Luncheon with Professor John Yu, Chancellor of University of New South Wales, and other attractions. As on past occasions, the Asian Studies librarians took the opportunity to hold a dinner and catch up with colleagues both past and present. The Menzies Library at the ANU remained open on the Saturday following the conference to allow attendees to avail themselves of its services whilst in Canberra, and a local antiquarian and specialty book dealer, the Asia Bookroom, invited guests to morning tea in their rooms after the conference to browse their shelves for bargains. Of the many sessions attended by the authors, both interesting and otherwise, only a few are highlighted in this report for obvious reasons. The full program can be found on the ASAA website. One of the most stimulating sessions was a workshop called The Future of Asian Studies: Institutional Choices and Strategies, chaired by Kam Louie. The 4 speakers, Professors Vera Mackie, Peter Drysdale, John Ingleson, and Robin Jeffrey, each gave their own assessment of the state of Asian studies and its likely future. Professor Drysdale provided statistics on the changing demographics of students and teachers in Japanese studies, and pointed to worrying trends of a shrinking and aging teaching staff, lower levels of expertise, and a decline of interest in the area among Australian students. His findings showed that the present statistics on enrolments in Japanese studies are buoyed by overseas rather than local students. By contrast, Professor Ingleson was optimistic and saw opportunities for the expansion of Asian studies within hitherto unfamiliar academic growth areas such as economics, international relations, strategic studies and media studies, to name a few. In part, he saw the decline of the traditional form of Asian studies (dominated by history and literature) as part of the decline of the humanities in general, and warned against Asianists adopting a “mediaeval guild mentality” in the face of the growth of Asian content in other disciplines. Professor Jeffrey was optimistic in terms of what seems to be greater institutional support for Asian studies although he expressed some reservations on mainstreaming Asian studies into other disciplines. The discussions from the floor were equally stimulating. As in previous ASAA conferences, there was a library panel. This year EALRGA teamed up with the National Library of Australia (NLA) and the Australian National University (ANU) Library to jointly convene a session entitled “New Avenues for Academic Publishing”. The session featured four papers examining different aspects of the expansion of electronic publishing. It included analyses of university-based open access repositories at universities as well as commercial ventures in China. Colin Steele (ANU) began the session with his paper "Global initiatives in scholarly information publishing", which offered an overview of the problems facing conventional university presses and the development of free university-based electronic publishing programs in Australia and overseas. Colin’s paper was complemented by an in-depth report from Lorena Kanellopoulos (ANU) on ANU Library’s engagement with e-publishing in her paper "E Press and E Prints: electronic publishing at ANU". Wan Wong’s (NLA) paper "Trends in e-Publishing in China" presented an account of the growth of commercial electronic publishers in China. Wan’s paper was based on information she gathered during her 3-month term as NLA exchange librarian at the National Library of China. The session was rounded up with a talk from Collette Ormond from the Australian Library and Information Association on "Copyright issues for e-publishers and authors" in which she posed some interesting scenarios of the possible impact of free trade agreements on copyright. The ASAA library session drew an audience of around 20 listeners, an impressive figure given the competition from so many rival sessions. “Getting published: advice from publishers and editors” was another interesting session and covered a topic which bridged the interests of publishers, librarians and academics. The session included a discussion on the challenge of turning a PhD thesis into a publishable item and gave insights into how the publishing industry operates. Speakers included senior management from Singapore University Press, NIAS Press, ANU Press and ISEAS Press. In the sessions on Chinese politics, Anne-Marie Brady’s paper on "The Role of the CCP Propaganda Department in the Current Era" was impressive in the details she provided on her pursuit of information in this difficult-to-research area. Tiejun Yang's paper "Evolution of the Residential Registration Regime in Modern China" inspired a lively discussion on how the Chinese government is using or reforming the regime in the light of the forthcoming Beijing Olympics in 2008. To summarise, we found the 15th ASAA Conference a very enjoyable and stimulating event that covered a huge range of topics. If there were one criticism it would be that there were too many concurrent sessions which made choosing which one to attend a difficult matter. The National Convention Centre (NCC) turned out to be a good choice of venue. Despite the NCC being not sufficiently large to hold the record number of sessions, many of which spilled into the adjacent Canberra Institute of Technology campus, it worked well in many other ways. The NCC theatres were well-equipped and large enough to accommodate the more popular sessions, and the huge foyer served as a central gathering place for coffee breaks and lunch, as well as book launches and trade displays. The catering was excellent, and more importantly the queues for food and drinks were well managed. The foyer became a hub for networking, catching up with colleagues and friends, and discussing business with publishers and book-sellers. Canberra actually turned on some real highland weather during the conference with the Brindabella ranges blanketed in snow. However, given the lively program and high attendance figures, it is doubtful whether many delegates had the time to enjoy the spectacle - unless they specifically chose to remain behind and taste more of what the capital had to offer at their leisure. |