An article about how Japanese understandings about Tibet and colonialism transformed Qing China’s policies on Tibet by Dr Fei Chen of Shanghai Normal University has won the Wang Gungwu Prize for the best article published in Asian Studies Review in 2020.

The President of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA), Professor Kate McGregor, announced the winner of the annual prize, which was established by the ASAA in 2013 to recognise and encourage scholarly excellence in the Asian Studies Review.Chen’s article, ‘Transforming an Imperial Frontier: Japanese Knowledge and the Qing Empire’s New Tibet Policy’, explores the impact of Japanese views of imperialism on Chinese thinkers and officials during the decades either side of 1900. The article places Tibet at the centre of a pan-Asian story in which the Qing embraced Japanese ideas about colonisation in the face of British and Russian designs on Tibet. Using a rich array of Japanese, English and Chinese sources, Dr Chen’s article provides new insights into the evolution of imperialism and nationalism as well as the extension of colonialism in Asia.

The article appeared in volume 44, issue 3, 2020 of the Asian Studies Review edited by David Hundt of Deakin University.
The Wang Gungwu Prize is named in honour of Professor Wang Gungwu, the distinguished historian who has contributed enormously to scholarship not only in Australia but also in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Professor Wang was also a key person behind the formation of the ASAA in 1976 and has served as its president.
The Wang Gungwu Prize is an award of $1,500 to the author and the winning article is free to access on the journal’s homepage.
In May 2021 the ASAA made a submission to the Australian Strategy for International Education 2021-2030 consultation on behalf of the Asian Studies Association of Australia.
The submission was based on the Forum on International Education and Asian Studies held by the ASAA earlier this year, and can be dowloaded from our advocacy page.