Chinese Students - Seven of the Gang of Nine

Seven members of the 'Gang of Nine' – the first students permitted to enter a postgraduate program abroad after China's Cultural Revolution – pictured in the Quad at their graduation ceremony in 1981, from left: Hiu Wei Rui, Yang Chao Guang, Wang Guo-Fu, Huang Yuan Shen, Hu Wen Zhong, Qian Jiao Ru and Du Rui Qing.

All nine were tertiary teachers of English, and all were enrolled in a masters program in English and linguistics developed by Emeritus Professor Leonie Kramer and pioneering linguist Emeritus Professor Michael Halliday.

Not only did they pave the way for tens of thousands of Chinese students who have attended Sydney since those days, they had a huge impact on English and Australian studies in China.

They carved out distinguished careers in English and the eight surviving scholars from the group maintain close contact with Australia as visiting professors and through collaborative work with Australian colleagues. Professor Ho Weirui, a former vice-president of Shanghai International Studies University, died in 2001.


Qian Jiao Ru taught at Nanjing University after returning from Sydney and became chair of the English department from 1988 to 1992. Was a visiting scholar at Cornell University in 1986-87, and had experience with UNESCO from 1983. Was appointed in 1993 as a regular staff member in UNESCO's translation division, where he served until he retired in 2003. He then taught again at Nanjing University and currently serves as chair of the English Department of a private university.

Wang Guo-Fu was professor of English, then vice-dean and dean of the foreign languages department of Soochow University from 1983 to 1991. Was the founder and chairman of the Australian Studies Centre of the university from 1991-2002, is now the honorary chairman of the centre and a council member of the China-Oceania Friendship Society. He has visited Australia six times. Has translated the Macquarie Concise Dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary of Australian Education and A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language into Chinese as well as compiling and publishing An English-Chinese Dictionary of Australianisms.

Hu Zhuang Lin is a tenured professor at Peking University; director, PKU Australian Studies Centre; chairman, China Language and Semiotics Association; honorary chairman, China Functional Linguistics Association; honorary chairman, China Stylistics Association; vice-chairman, Beijing Linguistics Association; and chairman of the Academic Committee of the Foreign Language Education Research Centre in the Ministry of Education.

Yang Chao Guang, on return to the University of International Business and Economics in 1981 was immediately assigned to run an English course in linguistics, gradually breaking away from the traditional approach to language teaching which starts with the study of forms and ends up with the study of meaning. Instead he focuses on the study of meaning, then on the specific realisation of meaning by words, sentences and speech sounds. Now 12 years past retirement age, he still teaches a full load and works as an education inspector. "I go on teaching because each semester offers an opportunity for reading and writing, research and reflection."

Long Ri-Jin returned to China to teach at the South-West China Teachers' University in Sichuan, where he remained until 1993 when he joined the English department of the Sichuan Foreign Languages Institute. He is now a professor in the English department and teaches linguistics, discourse and analysis to post-graduate students.

Huang Yuan Shen mainly supervises PhD and Masters students in Australian Literature at Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade and is Professor of English at East China Normal University, where he has taught for 44 years. After his return he published an anthology of Australian literature in 1987, followed by a History of Australian Literature, the first of its kind in China, in 1996, when he also updated the anthology. These are used as text books in Australian literature courses. He has also translated several Australian authors into Chinese, including Miles Franklin, Martin Boyd, Peter Carey, Henry Lawson and Alan Marshall.

Hu Wen Zhong is president of the Chinese English Education Association, which oversees English language teaching in tertiary institutions and at primary and secondary school level. English language teaching in China is booming - 300 million people are learning English. He is also a member of the International Association of Applied Linguistics, president of the China Association of Intercultural Communication and editor of Foreign Literature, a bi-monthly journal that publishes translations and critical articles on foreign literature. He has occasionally returned to Australia, most recently in 2003. After his Australian studies he returned as Professor of English at Beijing Foreign Studies University, where he still does some teaching.

Du Rui Qing, with an MA in literature, he returned to Xi'an International Studies University to teach. He initiated classes in American and British literature to English majors and served as vice chair of the English Department. He then spent three years (1987-90) at Brigham Young University in Utah in the USA working for his doctorate in educational leadership. Upon completion of this program he returned to work at the same university, teaching as well as taking administrative responsibilities as chair of the English department, vice-president and president of the university.