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Professor Jocelyn Chey AM, FAIIA

BA MA Hong Kong PhD
Visiting Professor
Room 739, Brennan-MacCallum Building A18

Telephone: +61 2 9351 5645
Fax: +61 2 9351 2319

Professor Jocelyn Chey’s career has been in the diplomatic service and in academic life in Australia. From a position as Lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Sydney, she moved to Canberra in 1973 when Australia first established diplomatic relations with China. For more than 20 years, she worked on Australia-China relations in the Departments of Trade and Foreign Affairs and was posted three times in China and Hong Kong, concluding with an appointment as Consul-General in Hong Kong (1992-1995). She was the key administrative officer in the Australia-China Council at the time that it was founded in 1979. From 1988-92 she worked outside the public sector, as Director of the China Branch of the International Wool Secretariat. Now retired from the public service, Jocelyn lives in Sydney, where she is a Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney and a consultant on Australia-China relations. She is a frequent speaker and lecturer on Chinese affairs. She has led four study tours to China for the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Sydney.

Research areas

  • Chinese history and philosophy
  • Australia-Asia cultural and trade relations
  • Hong Kong history and international relations

Selected publications

  • “Cultural Diplomacy and Australia-China Cultural Relations” AIIA NSW Branch Charteris Lecture 20 July 2010, www.aiia.asn.au/resources/papers-a-transcripts
  • Review of “Kashgar: Oasis on China’s Old Silk Road” (John Gollings, George Michell, Marika Vicziany and Tsui Yen Hu), TAASA Review Vol. 18, No. 4, Sydney, January 2010
  • “Confucius Redux: Chinese ‘Soft Power’, Cultural Diplomacy and the Confucius Institutes”, Sydney Institute Papers, January 2008, www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au
  • “The Gentle Dragon”, Yale Global, 29 November 2007, www.yaleglobal.yale.edu
  • “From Rosny to the Great Wall: Cultural Relations and Public Diplomacy”, (Nicholas Thomas, ed.), Re-Orienting Australia-China Relations 1972 to the Present, Ashgate, London, 2004
  • Entries on Anson Chan, Dame Lydia Dunn, Sally Aw Sian and Susan Yuen, (Lily Xiao Hong Lee and Agnes Stefanowska, ed.), Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, Vol. 2 (20th century), M.E. Sharpe, New York, 2003
  • “Dai Zhen – A Key Thinker in Chinese Philosophy”, Chinese Studies Newsletter No. 25, CSAA, July 2002
  • “Now and Then: Asian Studies in the University of Sydney in the 1950s and ‘60s”, Matters of the Mind: Poems, Essays and Interviews in Honour of Leonie Kramer, University of Sydney, May 2001
  • Weekly column on Australian/Asian affairs, Hongkong Standard, 1995 to 2000
  • Lodestar China: Navigating the China relationship, Australians in Asia monograph series 21, Griffith University Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations, 1998
  • “Hong Kong-Australia relations 1995-96”, The Asia-Australia Survey, Macmillan Education Australia, 1997
  • “International education: the view from Hong Kong”, Globalisation and Regional Communities: Geoeconomic, Sociocultural and Security Implications for Australia, ed. Donald McMillen, USQ Press, 1997
  • “China, the New Asia and the Implications for Australia”, 1996 Beanland Lecture, Victoria University, September 1996
  • "China Images" (review article), Australian Book Review, June 1996
  • "Hong Kong: the handover", Newsletter of the Centre for Asian-Pacific Studies, Victoria University, June 1996
  • "Hong Kong: constitutional changes and legal developments, with special relevance to their effect on and relevance to Australia as a trading partner", Greater China: Law, Society and Trade, The Law Book Company Ltd, 1995
  • "International education: the Hong Kong perspective", IDP Annual Conference Papers, Sydney 1994
  • "Hong Kong 1992 - 1995", Asialine, Department of Foreign Affairs, Canberra 1995
  • "The later poems of Huang Tsun-hsien", Chinese Literature, Foreign Literature Press, Beijing 1991
  • “Australia and China: The Ambiguous Relationship” by E.M. Andrews (review article), Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, 1985, pp. 165-166
  • "Australia-China Council Retrospective", Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, Vol. 7, 1983
  • “The Role of the Australia-China Council”, Australian Foreign Affairs Record, vol. 52, no. 11, November 1981
  • "Fangcaodi Primary School, Beijing", China in the Seventies, Contemporary China Centre, ANU, 1980
  • “Chinese Cultural Policy”, Australian Foreign Affairs Record, vol. 50, no. 3, March 1979
  • “Some Aspects of Chinese Historiography, 1955-65”, Proceedings of the 28 International Congress of Orientalists, Canberra 6-12 January 1971, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1976, pp. 211-212
  • "Wang Chung on Dragons", Essays in Chinese Studies presented to Professor Lo Hsiang Lin, Hong Kong University 1970
  • "The Reform Thought of Huang Tsun-hsien", Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia, 1968-1969
  • "Huang Tsun-hsien's 'History of Japan'", Journal of the South Seas Society, Singapore 1963
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Conference activities

  • Conference Secretary, “World Without Walls: 21st century perspectives on East and West”, 50th anniversary conference of Oriental Society of Australia (OSA2006), 3-7 December 2006, University of Sydney
  • Participant in panel on Asian humour at OSA2006, contributing paper “Youmo: the Chinese Sense of Humour”

Other professional contributions

  • Founding President, Chinese Studies Alumni Association, University of Sydney (2002-2007)
  • Life Member, OSA (Oriental Society of Australia)
  • Member, Editorial Board, JOSA (Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia)
  • Member, Asian Studies Association of Australia
  • Member, Chinese Studies Association of Australia
  • Committee Member, TAASA (The Asian Arts Society of Australia)
  • Committee Member, NSW Branch, Australian Institute of International Affairs
  • Patron, Australian International School, Hong Kong
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