Theme

The 2009 conference adopts the theme of ‘jiu’, and thus takes up the challenge of both celebrating and commemorating the achievements and hardships of the past century 1909-2009 in the Chinese-speaking world. We encourage papers and panels that develop this theme by revisiting old paradigms in the spirit of new research ideas, and by bringing historical perspective to the issues of the present day.

Puns and wordplay, where they allow for complex ideas to be fluently transmitted to an expert audience, are very welcome and apposite.

We draw your attention to the many significant events that have occurred in the 'jiu' (nine) years, from the beginning of the southern Chinese film industry in 1909, to the phenomenal reach of political events, achievements and tragedies in 1919, 1949, 1959, 1979, 1989. At the time of writing, 2009 is an unknown quantity. Historians, political scientists, cultural analysts, anthropologists, literary scholars, art historians and geographers are especially invited to consider such key moments as a starting bloc for a panel or paper.

The conference is also a showcase for all Chinese research in Australia. The CSAA membership includes some of the finest China researchers in the world, and an acknowledgment of that excellence is important to this meeting.

Deadlines

The call for papers and panels will open in November 2008 and close in March 2009. If submitting with the peer review option however, full papers should be uploaded by 31 January 2009. All submissions will be through the CSAA Conference website. Detailed instructions on the submission process are available in the Guidelines for Authors section of the website.

Streams

In order to facilitate both coherence and variety we have designed sub-streams to which panels may be addressed. These will be co-ordinated by a postgraduate steering committee, drawn from around Australia, and advised by the conference committee here in Sydney. As is usual in CSAA conferences, panels addressing members' interests not covered in streams are welcomed. Please note that in all disciplines, panel applications will receive precedence in scheduling.

• Cities
• Rural China
• Cultural Industries and Media
• Politics and Economy
• History and the Future
• Literature and the arts

A full description of the streams can be found here