Gains built on solid foundations

Colin Mackerras

Professor Colin Mackerras is a specialist on Chinese history, musical theater, and ethnic minorities, as well as Australia-China relations.

He has written or edited more than 40 books and authored nearly 200 scholarly papers about China and is regarded as one of Australia's leading experts on the country.

Born in Sydney in 1939, he has visited China more than 70 times.

He worked at Griffith University in Queensland state from 1974 to 2004 and has been professor emeritus since retiring.

In China, he taught at the Beijing Foreign Studies University from 1964 to 1966 and has done so many times since. He has also taught several times at Renmin University of China in Beijing.

He won a Friendship Award from the Chinese government in 2014 and, in 2016, a Special China Book Award, given to foreigners who have made outstanding contributions in spreading Chinese culture through their writings.

His most important books include The Rise of the Peking Opera, 1770-1870; Chinese Drama, A Historical Survey; China's Minorities: Integration and Modernization in the Twentieth Century; Western Images of China; China's Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation.

He was awarded a Master of Letters by the University of Cambridge, in the UK, in 1964. He was awarded a PhD, on Chinese opera, from the Australian National University in Canberra in 1970.