First published in 1996 Australia's China explores the multifaceted and dynamic Australian encounter with China from the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 through the Cold War to the Australian recognition of the PRC in 1972. Going beyond conventional policy studies it traces the patterns in Australian reactions to China from the grass-roots to official circles highlighting the centrality of images concerning the exotic disease sexuality the frontier and China as a paradise/anti-paradise. In responding to China Australians revealed something of themselves and this book maps the formation of Australian conceptions of identity in the context of a cross-cultural encounter which was variously cooperative enriching baffling and antagonistic. But there was no single Australian conception of China. Rather competing perceptions jostled in a shifting dialogue. Language: English