Review by Choice Review
Despite recent improvements in relations with Asian countries, Australia, which until recently had the unenviable record of sustaining a White Australian policy on immigration, remains stubbornly Eurocentric. This book explores the history of Australia's ambivalent attitudes toward its near-northern neighbors (still thought of in European terms as the Far East) from the earliest settlement, when convicts thought China was just over the Blue Mountains, to the realpolitik that led to early recognition of the PRC. The author surveys politics, social attitudes, art, and literature to explore and illustrate this uncertainty, and the mistrust that is the child of ignorance. Carried out by period, the study shows how little official, scholarly, and public attitudes have changed; what progress there has been is slow and uneven, justifying the author's claim that Australia will not develop an assured self-image until it defines its role in Asia, most hopefully as the bridge between East and West that Indira Gandhi suggested. Well-researched, and provocative if difficult, the book, in keeping with its theme of interactive images, includes many illustrations, from political cartoons to serious and popular artwork, some in color. A thematic bibliography reveals the breadth of Australian writing about Asia. An impressive study of cultural interaction, essential for Australian and Asian collections or those concerned with changing patterns of world politics. M. S. Martin; emeritus, Tufts University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
