While elsewhere the China discourse in the Australian media may have been on geopolitical tensions and defence and security concerns, community leaders, students and academics from seven universities in Australia and 15 universities in China and Taiwan met in Parramatta on the campus of Western Sydney University a few days ago.

Around a hundred delegates gathered for the tenth Australia-China Transcultural Studies Symposium and the ninth Conference of the Foundation for Australian Studies in China. These dialogues have continued despite interruption by the pandemic and tensions in bilateral relations, bringing together people whose main aim is to improve understanding across cultures and political divides.

Many of the papers concerned literature. Wenche Ommundsen of the University of Wollongong spoke about the increasing number of Chinese Australian novels and other works and commended their original and interesting perspectives that are helping to shape the direction of Australian literature. The contribution of Chinese Australians in this and other aspects of the bilateral relationship was one of the themes of the conference, as was the significant deep interest in China in Australian Indigenous culture. Not all discussions were on literature and the arts. Chen Xi of East China Normal University and James Laurenceson, the Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS Sydney, discussed the marked increase in........

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