Over the last century and a half the competing merits of withdrawal from and connection to Asia—and the related vocabularies of separation and engagement—have been defining themes in Australian history. Experiencing Turbulence brings together a selection of publications on Australian representation of Asia, published in various journals and books in the last ten years that follow the publication of Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850 to 1939. Collectively they address key themes in the Australian response to Asia: survivalist anxieties, climate and race, population and immigration, empty Australia, gender and bush mythologies, and regional identities. These essays reveal the central, often constitutive role that Asia has played in the formation of ideas of nation and identity in Australia from the late nineteenth century to the present. The collection underlines the often unpredictable character of engagement and the fluid nature of fear and fascination, proximity and distance in the Australia-Asia relationship. With the recent publication of a government White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century there is a new determination to persuade Australians that “rising Asia,” turbulent though it may be, is an opportunity for Australia more than it is a threat.

About the Author

David Walker is Alfred Deakin Professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University, Victoria. He is a leading cultural historian with a special interest in Australia’s relationship with Asia. His best-known book is Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850 to 1939 published in 1999 and winner of the Ernest Scott prize for History in 2001. Anxious Nation has been translated into Chinese and was released in China in 2009 and an Indian edition was published in the same year by SSS publications, New Delhi, under its CLC Series. A Hindi translation will appear in 2013. His recent book Not Dark Yet (2011) examines sight, memory, family and history. His latest book co-edited with Agnieszka Sobocinska is Australia’s Asia: From Yellow Peril to Asian Century (UWA Publishing, 2012). Professor Walker has extensive experience in the development of Australian Studies programs in the Peoples Republic of China, India, Japan and Indonesia and held the Distinguished Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen in 2010. He is a Visiting Professor in the School of Foreign Studies, Renmin University, Beijing and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. From 2013 he will take up a new position as the inaugural BHP Billiton Chair of Australian Studies at Peking University, Beijing.