Review Of The China Journal(1979-2018)

The development of Australian Chinese studies has mainly experienced two phases----traditional Sinology and contemporary Chinese studies.Australian traditional Sinology emerged after the First World War,mainly absorbing from the methods and results of Sinology studies in Europe and the United States.After the Second World War,Australian Chinese studies was gradually established.The founding of new China in 1949 attracted many Australian scholars to conduct comprehensive researches on Chinese politics,economy and culture.With the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and the People's Republic of China in 1972,Chinese studies received much attention from the Australian government.China's development after the Reform and Opening up has provided more reasons for Australia to strengthen its Chinese studies.In line with this trend,The China Journal was founded by the Contemporary China Center of Australian National University,making up the fact that there was no academic journal specializing in publishing Chinese studies works in Australia.Since its inception,The China Journal has published a large number of academic articles with high quality on contemporary China issues,reflecting the main trends and academic frontiers of Australian and global Chinese studies.Regarding 626 articles published in The China Journal from 1979 to 2018(excluding book reviews)as the research object,this article adopts philology and cross-cultural research methods to explore the history of development,basic viewpoints,methodologies and main characteristics of Australian Chinese studies by analyzing the authors' countries(regions),departments,occupations,titles and research fields and reviewing the content of all these articles.The paper is composed of five parts.Introduction expounds the significance of the paper,literature review and research method.The first chapter introduces The China Journal in detail.including the background and the profile of the editors;the second chapter explores the research group by analyzing their countries(regions),departments,occupations,titles and research fields;the third chapter classifies all the 626 articles of The China Journal published from 1979 to 2018 in terms of subjects,and analyzes the content of the articles belonging to "Political system and state institutions" theme;the fourth chapter summarizes the trends and characteristics of Overseas Chinese studies from the perspective of The China Journal,and analyzes the journal's limitations.