Bridging Transcultural Divides

Reviews

“The impressive and stimulating essays in Bridging Transcultural Divides deal with the cultural and educational issues in the Australian context.  (...) The book’s central message is that education for Asian students in Australia, and more broadly in the West, can no longer been seen as a one-way transfer of knowledge, but must be understood as a process of reciprocal learning in which both teachers and students are changed by the experience.”

Prof. Tim Wright 
University of Sheffield 
UK

“The contributors of this remarkable book explore a wide range of topics relating to the discipline of Asian Studies in Australian higher education. From perspectives ranging from that of senior academics to postgraduate students and area expertise from Indonesia to Japan, they give concrete and often personal accounts of their teaching and/or learning of Asian languages and cultures. However, they all have one aim in common: to bridge the divide at the many interfaces of this endeavour, whether they are cultural, pedagogical or political. All those who are interested in creating a more culturally diverse and sensitive world should read this book.”

Professor Kam Louie 
University of Hong Kong

"This volume presents the diverse approaches and achievements of scholars of Asian cultures and languages in today’s global academy. Recent vast increases in student numbers and ethnic diversity have created pressing challenges for a higher education which engages with contemporary concerns for Asian societies as well as for Asian students involved in Western education. This collection of scholarly analyses demonstrates the centrality and significance of Asian Studies and languages for these globalising academic communities. Significantly, it demands a rethinking of traditional ‘intercultural’ education. In so doing, it brings empirical knowledge as well as multicultural interpretation and multilingual expertise to throw new light on the challenges in higher education today, and to open up new understandings of the demands of the future."

Professor John Makeham 
Head, Department of Chinese Studies, The Australian National University