PhD Candidate, Asian Studies, the University of Western Australia (UWA)

Coordinator, Confucius Institute (UWA) Australia-China Education Fund

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My PhD research is examining the social and economic impacts of government development interventions upon poor, isolated rural communities in southwest China. As part of my PhD research project, I spent more than seven months interviewing farmers, teachers and government officials and observing daily life in Gongshan County – a particularly poor community with a large ethnic minority population located at the northern end of the Nujiang valley, northwest Yunnan. My research focuses specifically on the Sloping Land Conversion Program (‘Grain for Green’), nature reserves and compulsory education.

I grew up in the good company of multicultural Melbourne, surrounded by the tastes, sounds, smells and stories of the Asia Pacific region. Following my study interests, friendships and tastebuds I commenced a BA (honours) in Chinese and Asian Studies at La Trobe University in 1993. During this time, I received a large degree of personal, academic and financial support from the Chinese Studies program. This included a number of overseas trips that complemented my interdisciplinary studies of East Asian history, politics, languages and economics. La Trobe's Chinese Studies program supported two six-month trips to Shanghai's East China Normal University (ECNU) for language study and field research. This was followed by a Taiwanese government scholarship to Tainan's National Cheng Kung University for a year during my honours.