Social Activities:

1) Conference Opening Reception

Date: Sunday 3rd December 2006, 17:30PM.

Location: The reception will be held in the Menzies Common Room, Womens College, University of Sydney. To be officiated by the Chancellor of the University of Sydney, the Hon Justice Kim Santow.

18:00PM, Prof. Soumyen Mukherjee, President of the Oriental Society of Australia welcomes guests and invites the Hon. Justice G.F. Kim Santow, Chancellor of the University of Sydney, to open the Conference.

18:10PM, Address by Chancellor
18: 30PM, Refreshments

19:30PM Close

2) Book Launch Dr Kok Hu Jin

published by the Golden Dragon Museum of Bendigo, Victoria.The launch is at 6pm on Monday 4th December 2006 at the Women's College of the University of Sydney.

The new works comprise:

• 3 further volumes in the Series on Chinese Cemeteries in Australia,
• 2 further volumes in the Series on Chinese Temples in Australia
• 1 volume on Chinese Lodges in Australia and a Commentary & Annotations on the Hung Men Handbook previously translated by Dr Kok

For further details please download the booklist Here.

The official invitation is available Here.

3) Conference Dinner

Date: Tuesday 5th December 2006, 19:30 for 20:00

Address: The Honourable Bob Debus MP - Attorney General of New South Wales.

4) Awa-odori Dance performance and Book Launch

Date: Wednesday 6 December 18:00pm Front Lawn, Womens College:

Awa-Odori Dance Performance by Visiting Troupe from Japan, led by Mr Seijuro Shinomiya and Mr and Mrs Fukuda, followed by Book Launch by Dr Alison Broinowski, former Australian diplomat, and specialist in Japan-Australia relations.

Awa Dance Festival at Wikipedia.

The Awa-Odori birthplace in Shikoku, Tokushima.

Date: Wednesday 6 December 18:30pm Menzies Courtyard, Womens College:

Book Launch: "Understanding Humor in Japan"

Ed. Jessica Milner Davis, Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2006. Three co-authors will be present.Thanks are due to Books Kinokuniya, The Galleries Victoria, Level 2, 500 George St, Sydney.

Please download more detailed information Here.

5) Photographic Exhibition: CHINA - A World So Changed

Time and Date: The FitzGerald photographic display will be introduced during the break for morning tea on Monday 4 December at 10:30-11:00AM.

In conjunction with the Fiftieth Anniversary Conference of the Oriental Society of Australia there will be a small exhibition of photographs from the collection taken by CP FitzGerald between 1923 and 1950 on his journeys throughout China.

Charles Patrick FitzGerald, who was born in England in 1902, and died in Sydney ninety years later, made a life-long study of China’s history and culture. His early commitment to this study he described as, “the turning point of my life, which gave it an unchanging direction.” He wrote social and cultural histories of China and made a distinguished academic contribution to Chinese studies in Australia over four decades.

A more representative exhibition of his photographs is in preparation to be shown in both Australia and China in the near future. A publication with photographs and essays to contextualise Fitzgerald’s scholarly work and the photographic archive, is to be published in 2007 funded by the Australia-China Council

The silver gelatin photographs were printed from FitzGerald’s original negatives by Deborah Kirby-Parsons.

The restoration, printing and documentation of the negatives, was supported by the University of Sydney through a Sesquicentenary Research and Development Grant awarded to Mirabel FitzGerald in 2001.

Mirabel FitzGerald
Associate Professor
Sydney College of the Arts
The University of Sydney

6) Numismatic display in the Nicholson Museum

Display on Coinage from China to the Mediterranean

Location: Nicholson Museum, Main Quadrangle, A14, University of Sydney.

In conjunction with the numismatic panel entitled ‘Numismatics of the Orient: Current Research Issues’, there will be a display of coins in the Nicholson Museum from the museum’s collection, which will reflect the themes of the panel and the conference. It will contain 22 coins including Greek, Roman, Jewish, Byzantine, Islamic, Persian, Parthian, Sassanian, Indo-Skythian, East India Company, South-East Asian and Chinese coins.

Non-Registrants of the conference are welcome to attend the numismatic panel and are requested to make a donation to the Oriental Society of Australia.

Those attending the panel will be introduced to a display of coins relevant to the themes of the panel and of the conference in the Nicholson Museum on Tuesday 5 December 2006 at 3.45 pm, prior to the commencement of the panel. The display of coins will be on view in the Nicholson Museum until Friday 22 December from 10.00 am to 16.30 pm.

Major Sponsors: Monetarium (Singapore) Pte Ltd
Noble Numismatics Pty Ltd

School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney

Sponsors: Bec Studio (www.becstudio.com.au) for the design of the pamphlet for the numismatic display.

A.Byrne Coins, PO Box 436, Kippax Fair, Holt, ACT 2615. Tel/Fax 6254 9395

Stephen Cole, Salamanca Rare Coins, GPO 652, Hobart, TAS 7001. Tel: 03-6224-8664.

Mr Selwyn Owen

Mr John Tsoutras

Thanks to: The Australasian Coin and Banknote Magazine

The assistance of the Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney, in providing original material highlighted in this display is gratefully acknowledged.

The date and location of the numismatic panel are:
Date: Tuesday 5 December 2006, 16.00-18.00 pm
Location: University Museums Education Program Room (H115), Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney.

The display was arranged by Dr Nicholas Hardwick, who is happy to be contacted to discuss it.

Dr Nicholas Hardwick,
Honorary Associate,
Department of Classics and Ancient History,
University of Sydney.
Tel: 02-9516 0357
Email: hardwick@mail.usyd.edu.au

7) Post Conference Tours

Tour1

Date and Time: 7th December , leaving at 2pm.
Departure: The Women's College at 2pm

Content: You will board your tour coach from outside The Women's College at 2pm and take an afternoon's drive around the inner city (CBD) including the eastern suburbs. The tour will include a visit to The Rocks, the oldest part of the city where the convicts of the First Fleet set up shelters on the slopes of a rocky outcrop on the western side of Sydney Cove. You will also drive along Macquarie Street seeing some of the significant early buildings of the colony including the Convict Barracks and St James Church, designed by a convict architect. Mrs Macquarie's Chair provides an opportunity for a photo of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Then you will be taken along the southern edge of the Harbour before turning off and cutting across the peninsula to visit famous Bondi Beach. After a chance to walk on the sand, we rejoin the coach and drive to South Head for a view of the entrance to Sydney Harbour. If there is sufficient time, we drive south to Botany Bay, and visit the site of Captain Cook's first landing at La Perouse. At the end of the tour you will be returned to The Women's College.
Cost and Booking: $25 per head and please pay at the registration.

Tour2

Date and Time: Friday 08 December. Join your coach outside The Women's College at 0830.

Content: Your journey today will start by heading over the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, as you head North West to the outer suburbs of Sydney and Koala Park. Here you will be able to meet some of Australia's unusual marsupials, including Koalas, Wombats, and Kangaroos. Cost of admission is included in the tour price.

Then you head west towards the Blue Mountains that form a barrier to westward expansion to the Sydney metropolitan area, and it was over 20 years before the colonial settlers found a way across them. Unlike most mountain ranges, these are very old sandstone mountains thrust up from a prehistoric seabed and then gradually wearing away by wind and rain. There are stops along the way to take in spectacular ranges and deep valleys, and for light morning tean and coffee supplied by Mark, the driver. Time will be allowed for lunch (not included in tour price), and then the coach will head back to the city arriving at The Women's College at about 1630.

Cost and Booking: Cost per person AUD60 (min. 20 passengers) Please register and pay at the Conference registration.