Dr John Wong

BA (Hong Kong) DPhil (Oxford)
Reader
Room 840 Brennan Building

+61 2 9351 2856

Dr Wong is Reader in History. He completed his doctorate at Oxford University in 1971, was a research fellow at Oxford University in 1971-4, and has been teaching at Sydney University since 1974. In English, he has written four books, all published by Oxford or Cambridge and three have been translated by scholars in China. He has edited three books. He has also written three books in Chinese, and 55 articles (in both English and Chinese) in leading refereed journals and refereed conference proceedings. In 1978 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK). In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA).

In 2004 the Century Group of Pubishers in Shanghai decided to launch an Academician J.Y. Wong series, translating all his books into Chinese as well as publishing all the books he decides to write in Chinese after the usual rigorous refereeing process. Two volumes in that series appeared in the same year

• 19th and 20th China's international relations
• the rise of modern nationalism in China
• the Opium Wars and Chinese society
• Sun Yatsen
• the impact of British Hong Kong on China.

His specific research projects for the near future include four books. The first is on ‘The Shaping of Sun Yatsen’s Early Political Ideas, 1879-1895. The second is ‘The Powers and Sun Yatsen, 1879-1925’. The third is 'Hong Kong in Modern China 1839-1997: A chapter of British Imperial History'. The fourth is ‘The Rise of Modern Chinese nationalism, 1644-2000’, a phenomenon which is shaping China's destiny and affecting not only the countries in the Asia-Pacific region but the whole world.

Yeh Ming-ch'en: Viceroy of Liang-Kuang, 1852-1858. Cambridge University Press, 1976. (xiv + 260 pp). [Chinese translation: Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984].

Anglo-Chinese Relations, 1839-1860: A Calendar of Chinese Documents in the British Foreign Office Records. Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1983. (xv + 398 pp). [Chinese translation: Taipei: Academic Historica, 1998].

The Origins of an Heroic Image: Sun Yatsen in London, 1896-1897. Oxford University Press, 1986. (xxii + 330). [Chinese translation: Beijing: Guoji zhanwang chubanshe, 1991].

Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism and the 'Arrow' War (1856-60) in China, Cambridge University Press, 1998 (xxvii + 542 pp). [Chinese translation: the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press has expressed an interest to have it translated].

Edited books in English

Sun Yatsen: His International Ideas and International Connections. Sydney: Wild Peony, 1987. (xviii + 218 pp).

Australia-China Relations, 1987: Business and Management. Canberra, Australia-China Business Council, 1987 and Beijing, China Enterprise Management Association, 1987. (xv + 165 pp).

Australia and China, 1988: Preparing for the 1990s. Canberra, Australia-China Business Council, 1987; and Beijing, China Enterprise Management Association, 1988. (xiv +176 pp).

Books written in Chinese

Liangci yapian zhanzheng yu Xianggang de gerang (The Two Opium Wars and the Cession of Hong Kong). Taipei: Academia Historica Press, 1998. 574 pp.

Sun Yixian Lundun mengnan zhenxiang (The Truth About Sun Yatsen's Kidnapping in London). Taipei: Lingking Publishing Co., 1998.

Zhongshan xiansheng yu Yingguo (Sun Yatsen and the British, 1883-1925). Taipei: Xuesheng Shudian, 2005.

Sun Yixian zai Lundun, 1896-1897: Sanmin zhuyi sixiang tanyuan (London and the Chinese Revolution: Exploring the London Origins of Sun Yatsen’s Three Principles 1896-1897). Taipei: Lingking Publishing Co., 2007.

Dr Wong pioneered the teaching of Chinese history in Sydney University in 1974. To date he has designed, either single-handedly or jointly with colleagues, 28 innovative units of study in as many years to meet changing times and student demands. He aims at introducing his students to an appreciation of the more profound aspects of Chinese civilization and values, so different from their own, and of recent scholarship. Consequently most acquire a keen awareness of cultural differences.
He aims at realizing the full potential of students and training them for organizational, analytical, and communicative skills. He has produced many first class honours students who have been offered research scholarship at Oxford or Cambridge; others are now working in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, of Defence, of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, of Agriculture Fishery and Forestry, Parliament; banks, law firms and the media; or teaching in universities or schools.

• Australia-China relations
• 19th and 20th century China
• China's international relations
• topics related to Hong Kong
• topics related to Taiwan

Dr Wong has received visiting appointments at Cambridge, Stanford, Hawaii, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Zhongshan and Chengchi Universities. He has given invited seminars in leading academic institutions around the world, including Oxford, Cambridge, London, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, Geneva, Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, and keynote speeches at international conferences. He has received 22 competitive research grants from Australia, Britain, Singapore and Taiwan.

Dr Wong has acted as a referee for the world's major publishers such as Oxford University Press and journals such as Bulletin of the Academia Sinica Institute of Modern History, as well as the Australian Research Council. He has also reviewed books for the world's leading journals such as the China Quarterly, the English Historical Review, and the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. His second book being an important research tool, he has received expressions of appreciation from researchers around the world.

He is invited regularly to appear in TV and radio interviews to comment on current affairs. He has given numerous public lectures to the wider community. His experience of many years as Vice-President of the Australia China Business Council gives a sense of reality to his scholarly interpretations of contemporary issues. In appreciation, the wider community always responds enthusiastically to his appeals for sponsorship for such activities as an international conference he organized (1986), and a book-launch (1998) which filled the Great Hall of Sydney University with academics, diplomats, lawyers, business executives, journalists and civil servants.