Summary
Alison Broinowski, in this first major critique of Australian impressions of Asia, argues that Australians have been backward in developing an appropriate image of themselves because of their ignorance of and ambivalence towards Asians. She traces the history of Australian ideas about Asia and the Pacific from pre-colonial times to the present, and concludes that some of these perceptions, no matter how irrational or archaic, continue to underlie the political and economic decisions Australians make about the Asia-Pacific region. Broinowski, a longtime diplomat and writer about Asian issues, identifies Australian images of Asia, where they come from, and how they have changed or remained the same over time. She persuasively argues that until Asia is accepted as part of the mainstream of Australian life Australians will remain uncertain about their status, and that if Australia's international image is to change it must begin by acknowledging the reality of Asia.
Summary
Named after a notorious Norman Lindsay impression of Asia, this work traces the history of Australians' perceptions of their Asian and Pacific hemisphere from pre-colonial time to 1991. The book adopts a roughly chronological approach, from Aboriginal contacts with Indonesia, through the colonial period when responses to both Asia and the Pacific depended on whether artists considered themselves attached to the European past or to the regional present, to a period when increasing numbers of Asians migrate to Australia and Asia's financial dominance becomes unavoidable.
